SONG OF MANY PEOPLES

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 200, 23 August 1919, Page 17

SONG OF MANY PEOPLES

OLDEST TUNE IN THE WORLD. A*ked to-name. t"b* oldest tune ;n.tii< *otM. few could give tbr correct ansvrer t is that to viii.-h w-e now s-ing the rord«. "For iicV a jolly zood frik>w." anc h* sir. winch i-aa be Traced in di~T.an-. \>Lfl and Africa, as well a* in mwi -hrropean countries, has r.r, interesting 11-;ory. Iv origin i* lost in ant.quity. but ;; * j-upposod to have bwn learned from he an.-iem Babylonian* V>y the Egypian*. who populJri-Pv! it in Afric-a and \ria Miner. 3; i* *tili s-uni: J\v t.hf \r.i':- isa>f 1-T'iid.in '. Tiif lri:.o>!c:~ cau.jhi tlie turn , fror.i he >ara.-i-n eiiemio- atid fun? it under hv wall* ol .lorusalem. Th> air was ilt.mai<-ly carried in*.'> Europe, v'M'ro i; urvived in \erious forms amonc the folk -one* of tiio different union-. In ITOf , . .".'teT their dcfoal at Mai■laf|U('t. the Krenoh. follow ins a f.ttr ■umour of the l")uko of MnrlKTOUflli - Irath in bat-Jle. wmpoffd a satir'K am«nt. "MaJbrook 1? Off to th<> War." ifteiling the supposed death and burial if the Enifeh jr<-ne-ral and iho ascension if hi> soul to heaven. The wm-ds were sxaip i-o .the old wpular air. -whose, lilt.ins rhytrnm 1-cnt tself to the snina of the twenty-two iTr.'i--. Like mo?- topical f-oru:.?. lhi? one was nf short-lived popularity; hut in 1 7S1 it ■iiddriilT rrh'(>ed from on,' civd of France :o the other. Tiir young Ma.rie Antoinette, zaxc birth to. sti hrir. and tJio tahr prince, in a-orordanre with Krenc!) i;-"om. \vs~ placed undor farr of ii rohu-i peasant fester mot.hrr. Th« nur~f u-rd to put her chars? to with the old sons: of her village '.lOinc. and tVup girl mother liC|rnn. almo-t unoortfcioui-ly. in roprat th» simple refrain. As if by mapic the sonjr became the cxaze of the day. It res-ounded throupli i.he st/atfly p.ill<"rir? of Versailles. t<o the kitchen* and stables, whence it i«f taken up by ccottrfs of Paris a.-nd .-peodily passed on from town to town and from country \o country. Napoleon himself- though a h-ater oi mu.-ic. nrver mounted his charper to so into action without finrinj: s-oftlv a few bar? of the ancient melody. The air if still popular in Franc-e. a? it i? in England and America.