The Penn's Grove record., 1889-01-26
SONGS OF woRKERs.
How Lapor's Burdens are Behtened
BIZ Music and singing.

SONGS OF WORKERS..
How Lapor's Burdens are Lehfened
by Music aud Singing.
-
There Is scarcely an occupation, cor
tainly none that demands unity Of pur-
pose and regularity Of attack, that has
not, or has not had, its own peculiar
kind Of song or accompanying chant.
The anvil, the loom, the dairy, the
field. the wharf. the plantation, ay.
and wen the GOLFERS dreary world, are
each In themselves an incentive to
some sort Of music. and their laborers
in all parts make for themselves, II not
. pleasing recreation, at any rate a
soothing monotony by grooming, or
humming, OF chanting, some Rhythmic
cal measure. Athen@us has preserved
the Greek names Of different songs as
sung by various trades, but unfortu-
Dately none Of the songs themselves.
There was one for the n grinders, an
other for wool workers, another for
weavers; the reapers had their carol,
the herdsmen o song composed by a
Sicilian OK driver; the kneaders, the
bathers, and the galley rowers were not
without their chant. 1t Is still the
custom In Egypt and in Greece to carry
on an immense labor by an accompanl-
ment OF music and singing; hence the
story Of Amphion building Thebes
with his Tyre. In Africa to this day
the laborers on the plantations at
Yaoorie work to the sound of a drum.
Almost all these old Grecian trade
songs have their counterpart at the
present time, in some land, II not uni
versally. The orr grinders song is
initiated on the Russian wharves, where
the women sing in chorus as they crush
the grain for expectation; the weavers
In Ayrshire. where ar. still to be found
the almost absolute hand looms, crocn
some weird Highland tune as they sit
at their work; the reapers in Russia
have their wheat chorus and rye chorus,
and the haymakers In many countries
have special songs Of their own. The
beautiful chansons de vendange, or
| vineyard songs, of the champagne dis
trict are world renowned for their har-
monious gayety; these. like the wheat
CATERERS chorus In Russia, are sung in
procession; the men and women, each
with q basket on their arm, assemble at
the foot Of q hill. and, stopping there,
arrange themselves In a circle; m OF
them then bursts Into q Joyous song.
the burthen of it Is ~chorused; then they
ascend and dispense In the vineyard
and work and sing. Now and again
new couplets will resound from some of
| the dressers.
The herdsmen's songs live to-day in
the cantons Of Switzerland and on the
wide Mexican plains. Texas provides
hog feeders with a ditty that if moi po-
etic is certainly realistic jn tone. The
kneaders must have suggested the chant
du boulanger Of the bread eating
France Of to-day, and the galley rowers
have numberless imitators in the Vene-
| tian gondoliers, the Nile boatmen, and
the Chinese crackers, whose songs have
become SO much q part of themselves
that one never thinks of DESIGNATING
them, DIR. johnson noted in the High
lands that the strokes Of the sickle we're
timed by the meditation of the harvest
song, in which all the laborers' voices
| were united. They accompany every
| action which can be done In equal time
| with an appropriate strain, which has
not much meaning, but its effects are
regularity and cheerfulness. Like the
Greek herdsmen and shepherds Of old,
the Scotch have their sheep farmers
songs and their herders' choruses, AMI
even the potato workers in Ayrshire
their W style Of singing while they
pursue their occupation. Any evening
in August you may see a picturesque
looking group Of women vending their
homeward way and singing as they 60
along; the bright red kerchlef they
adopt as headgear, and their striped
| p~etticoats and bare feet are quite a feat
ure in the most pastoral Of all Scot
lands countries.
From the cradle to the grave song is
the constant companion Of the Russians
life. It is the delight Of both sexes
and Of every age. The sports of child
hood, the pleasures Of youth. and all
the varied occupations Of mature years
have each their own appropriate accom-
paniment Of song. The "Khorovodo
Is the choral dance with which Russian
boys and girls greet the approach of
spring. The sZaplachki" or wailing
songs bring relief to the grief stricken.
| The "Bylinas," long metrical romances
sung or recited by village minstrels,
supply the epic . elnent by recording
famous historic exploits; and ever that
most prosaic Of employments-loading
with grain the ships lying in the wharf
add some beautiful melodies to the
repertoire Of Russian national song,
the women who carry on the work sing
ing In chorus the while. The vaude-
villes that are SO prominent a feature in
the repertoire Of French recreation
songs to-day originated as songs of
labor. There was once a fuller Of Vau
de Wire, or ths valley by the river VIre,
| who used to make his men sing as they
| spread their clothes on the bank Of the
river. Usually the theme would be
some incident or adventure Of the day,
set to q rhythmical measure; and thus
from the labor Of the apprentices OF a
fuller on the banks Of the Wire We get
the gay, rollicking songs that resound
from every music hall and cafe in
Paris.
Mil songs are especially common In
Normandy, and have a character of
their own. Their s,couplets" are won't
to consist OF two lines with a refrain,
and the refrain is the principal part Of
WIG Sou8s AuvSk8uo 70 AoluOuo ALL Abo
bourries, and Burgundy is rich in Noels
and drinking songs. The Italians have
no special labor songs; they seem to en-
liven their working hours with snatches
Of national music, and in Tuscany you
may hear the straw platters singing as
they ply their busy fingers some of the
lovely stornelli or rispetti Of the coun-
try. The stornello, known as 'sFlower
of the Pea" is o particular faYorite
with these straw workers. What Of
music's past vocation as o work in
spirerP Is there not ample proof Of it
In the many songs of many tongues
that stand out as beacons of light along
the dull road of laborp What Of the
sailors chanties, the fresh, breezy, roll
.as choruses that helped to tighten
Jacks manifold labors, and that the
present, with its eyer increasing power
of steam. has made things Of the pastp
What Of the weavers' songs, that form
ed 50 much part Of the daily life at the
loom that they seemed almost woven
into the fabric? The factory girls and
the ssmill hands, Of ty-day sing to the
whirring accompaniment of the latest