THE SONGS OF ALL THE AGES

Radio Record, 15 July 1938, Page 9

THE SONGS OF ALL THE AGES

Special to the ‘"‘Record"

by

SELMA A.

NEWTON

RIGINS: of--"immortal" melodies make-.a-fascinating study: for anyone interested. in the real music of the people--the inusic that becomes as intrinsic’a part of national expressloll.as ay war or revolt in history. Here, for instance, are the strange, far-off beginnings of a few of our best- known, best- loved -Englisi ° songs :- ‘ "Home Sweet Llome" immortalises an old Sicilias: folk-song.. "Yankee Doodle" is: a "tue ‘that. ‘grew oul, of a 1000 year-old chant sung in the churches of Italy. "For He’s a Jolly Guod Fellow" was a new ditty for Europe when the Crusaders brought it from the Kast. "John Brown's Body" begun as a camp-mecting hyiuu in the southern States of America and only achieved fame through a practic al joke. What is it that las made. these songs live while ied}: lions that seem as haunting are forgotten and lost? ° Let us seek the clue ina ¢loser ex: unination of their histories. The plaintive lilt of "Tome Sweet" lone" is denpwn

almost the -world . over, although for years it went.unsung, and unrecognised. The words were written by, an obscure American named Johu Howard Payne. who appar: ently benefited litthe from their. creation. AMlauy.. -years . afterward, Charles . Kemble-actor and dabbler in the arts-bought a batch of manuscript at an auction sale and. in ‘it found Payne’s song. Quick fo realise its possibilities, he handed it’ on to Sir Henry Bishop, the -Inglish com-

poser, who gave it a settitig based on an old Sicilian folksong. . "Home Sweet ILome" leapt into fame.at ‘Covent Garden, London. In less than a month 100,000 copies. were sold. denny. Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale’ used it frequently us‘an encore, aud Albani, another fanjous siuger, took it into her repertoire. She told the story of how she once met Lord Kitchener at a dinner at Government House, Calcutta, and, how he asked her to sing. "What would you. like me to sing?" ee , ‘iHome Sweet Home,’.. please," answered Kitchener after a moment. ‘When she had finished, he thanked’. her quietly und then for a time fell silent. NOT. far. renidved in..appeal from "Iome Sweet Hoine" _ isthe sweet, and simple air of "Kathleen Mavourneen,"

favourite in Dame Clara Butt's repertoire. It was composed, by one I’, Nicholls Crouch, who wrote innumerable songs. during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. The words were written by Mrs. Julia Crawford, an Irishwoman. The publisher made syer £15,000 profit on "IKathleen Mavourneen," while . Crouch received £10 for his share-some say it was vuly £5. He died in abject poverty in a miserable garret, old and lonely, his inspiration a mockery. Yet he still had faith in his "Kathleen Mavourneen," and. sang it in publie at the age of 89,

ANY of the-‘imost famous negro plantation songs have a very different history, . although their composer, also, died poor and unrecognised. Stephen Foster probably wrote more songs destined for immortality thao. any other nan on earth, He took them from the negro slaves on the plantations of the southern American States, using the lyrics as foundation for 125 such fayvourites as "Old Black Jae" aud "Massa’s in de Cold, Mold CGronnd" Often he

used to. spend Jong, idle hours, ¥ watching the negroes. at: work, singing as they worked. : ‘Foster realised the negroes were natural musicians, so deeply susceptible ta the rhythm of sound that often their masters used to hire song-leaders to set the choruses going and so speed the work in the fields. One day, as Iroster lay watching the slaves, the inspiration of "Old Kentucky Home" came to him in a flash. Immediately his indolence dissolved in a burst of energy, and in less than 20 minutes he had composed both the words and music for this treasure of all time. '- "Swance- River" he also wrote under inspiration. Whew’ almost finished, he searched -his atlas for the pame of a river which would fit the notes of music, finally choosing an insignificant little stream in Florida. So, by mere chance, Swanee Rivet became a paradise, (Contd, on p. 40.3

‘GOME songs win popularity overnight © and are sung ‘to deat: within a few months by every dance band, gramo- | -phone, and radio in the world. Other melodies are born obscurely, yet linger in the hearts of men. for. hundreds or thousands of years after those who first knew them are dead. Why?

Songs: of All Ages. WHY DO THEY LIVE (Continued from page 9.)

a place of peace and content-not only for the negroes, but in the ‘ mind of everyone Who hears those old haunting strains. UCH songs as "Home Sweet Home" and "Swanee River" are songs of nostalgia. But there are other immortals that are martial and robust, born often in times of trouble when a shaken people sought relief in song and music. Inspired words found fame when they were set to some familiar tune. "Star-Spangled Banner," for instance, was written by Francis Scott Key during the war. of 1812, as he watched the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The lyric was set to the tune of an English drinking song."Anacreon in Heaven." "W7ANKEEH DOODLE," a song first sung to make fun of.the young American colonists, became the patriotic hymn of the Revolution. But where the tune originated is rather puzzling, for it bears a resemblance to a Dutch nursery song, a German street song, an old English country dance, a folk tune from the Pyrenees, and another from Hungary. Researches into song history seem to indicate it was taken, over 1000 years ago, from a chant in the old churches of Italy.: The song. meandered to the sunny vineyards of Southern Europe, where the peasants soon devised simple words for it, and thence to Spain, France, and Holland. ; By 1650 "Yankee Doodle" had entered the households of England as a popular ballad.’ In the days of the Commonwealth, it was.used to ridicule Oliver Cromwell when he came riding from Canterbury to London. stifily astride his Kentish pony.- On his-head he wore his tiny round cap, sporting a feather which had _ obviously known better days. The Cavalier wags made the most of it, and’soon London was singing its mockery aloud: "Yankee Doodle came to town. Upon a Kentish pony, Stuck a feather in his cap And called him Macaroni." Incidentally "Macaroni" was a contemptuous reference to a likeness in Cromwell’s dress to the slender and tightly-clothed bodies of the young dandies, It was not. for many years. when the melody arrived in America, that Dr. Richard . Shuckburg, an English army surgeon, wrote the words for "Yankee Doodle" as we know them to-day. J UST another camp-meeting hymn of the American South was "John, Brown’s Body" in its early days. John Brown, it is true, actually existed in the person of an irritable. Scotsman in a Massachusetts regiment, and an irrepressible humourist among the soldiers made a parody of the hymn, suggesting that the evil-tempered one be hanged to "a sour apple tree." = Then. quite suddenly, the words took a deeper meaning. The soul of another John Brown, a hanged abolitionist, was indeed "marching on." . The Union soldiers tramped away to the south with the song on their lips and-trium-phantly in their hearts. Later, this finest of all marching songs served with Kitchener’s troops in the Sudan; was eel

— shouted, on the. battleniélas "ot. South Africa; rose above the terror and ean-non-dire of the Great War, SONG of somewhat misty beginnings is ‘"Malbrouk s’en-va-t-en guerre." , Perhaps you haven‘t heard 0. -it.. But you do. know "For He’s a Jolly , Good. Fellow’-the tunes. are one and the same, Supposedly the ditty was brought into Kurope by one of the and: then- vanished for five centuries. In. 1781, it came to life again, when Marie. Antoinette.sang it to the little .- Dauphin as a‘lullaby: ‘Paris learnt the Melody,.and-it was soon on the air in x every: cafe. ‘ ven thé-great Napoleon, who. had absolutely: no ear for music, hiimmed the eatchy refrain. When. it crossed tle-English Channel, it passed into Ammortality. ° . AND so they: go on-these songs of all the ages, as strong and vital now .as they were 50 or a hundred years ago. How is it they do not die? What _ distinguishes the "Auld Lang Synes" from the "Maytimes"-or the "Yes, We Have No Bananas" of:music? All the song publishers in the world would give their right hands to know. For the "immortal" quality is as elusive as it is positive. To recognise it, you must understand not only music and rhythm, but the innermost heart of a nation.