SONGS OF NATION?

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 13, 16 July 1934, Page 2

SONGS OF NATION?

REVEAL CHARACTER

ENGLAND AND NONSENSE

ITHE PRACTICAL FRENCH

The more I move about the world tliq more I am convinced that if yon wantj to. understand the great aeart of i< people you.study its folk-songs, wfitea Louis Gbiaing in the "Manchesteij Guardian." The literary travellers] aro all very well in their way. Tha Keyserlings and the Washington Irv-i ings and the Stevensons make veryj good reading, but they only skim tha surfaces of the: countries they ' visit] however ponderously, however eleganti ly. But the folk-songs go/straight tv the heart of tho.matter. In France you might oven say they go straight to.or, come straight from the.stomach.of thq matter. . •-.•■;-. ■;■'■ ._. .;. ~■'..

You would be surprisea-i.to:.find: hoii, many-French .songs' reflect ;their preoccupation with food*: at once; intellectual and rpassiqnate. They-still sing 3 ■ certain gastronomic song- all the way. / from Brest to Mentone,. from the llt"4 bar to. the apache dancing-places ncarj fhe Bastille, a sbngSvhich at one-time threatened to oust the "Marseillaises^ as the French National Anthem. And; what the song is about? It discusses with fastidious curiosity the question whether artichokes are better eaten hot or cold. Crudely translated, it runs: ' . ' ...

Is it that artichokes Are eaten better hot or cold? I who eat them cold Will warm them up next time. ' Regarding leg of lamb, snails and veal i know what's what.'.-.-■ But tell me, tell me-r- : Is it that artichokes " " Are eaten better hot or cold? •■ ' "

: How perfectly thatiditty reflects tho scientific interest of the Fi-ench in food, for there is hardly'a dinner party where you will not hear them discussing with great erudition, and violent -arguings for and against, whether the art of French cooking is in a stato of decadence. "Has the Sole 3fiu--guery become decrepit??? men.ansiously ask-each .other.' Women • :w ; ring their ,h!ihds and ask what.has happened to the traditions of cog ,au viii and wiat "of the formula of beufs a la bechamel.

NONSENSE LAND,

As for ourselves, we are : the epic creators and singers of nonsense. No other people has -.ever; produced a Lewis Garroll. or a ,Lear; I bid: yoa read the mournful German or Italian translations of- their- immortal masterpieces>.to-. realise---how - complete an. English -monopoly is the .divine art of nonsense.' It goes straight.back-to the ■ beginnings _bf English song,: to the Hey, nonnyrnohnies and'the ,Jug-jugs ofpre-' .Elizabethan troubadours.■ Little .does Lupino Lano suspect" .howr-.august an! aneestry.^he claims ?when he lifts up his finger and says "Tweet-tweet. "■ i : When.you study^the folk-songs of tha Chinese you are; suddenly - transported, into a world of such exquisite manners as would make the grandees of old. Spain sound like bargees. -,-■ I found the following brief ditty translated in-a volume by Dr. Neville Whymant:^-

Eight times bow towards: your friend; • Hail, brother! Come, brother! ■ Eight, times kneeling swear your friendship, Come, brother! Ho, brother! . " As liver and gall in mutual relation, t The eight bows seal our brotherhood,■.-—■. Thus, brother, friend brother. _ How princely, I said, to "myself." .What ineffable courtesy - ; these' mandarins have' And -then.-'-I--examined ■'the volume a little more closely. I blinked incredulously. The song was a song oi: Chinese 'coolies, not "of •■ mandarins! I wondered what- song' a"• couple of Covent Garden, porters would sing to each other if they happened to get'in each other's way with a sack of potatoes on their back! • -' '■ ' JAPAN'S LACK; : Now to me it isvery significant that the Japanese, have no. folk-sing at; all. You may find a pair of .intellectuals humming a highbrow chorus from a No drama, but the milkman^ -the errand-boy, the ■'tram-driver 'are -silent, or, at most they' go about : whistling, always a semitone flat, ".Toreador" or '•Daisy Bell." It ii a.fact wh.ieh.Tielps me to understand why-the Japanese .have been content; to borrow "their spirit from China and.their mechanics from America.- .But.that is a;difficult matter of racial biology, and it would be unwise in this 'place to" tread such dangerous ground,1 * * 'V; : '"•■ i -i Then there is; America. ,A great percentage of-the :A'-meriean~; folk-songs that have come tbus'aerosV the Atlantic for a long time have "'insisted on, the American's love.for his mother..' pile , day in. the ; American ': ' is officially put ■ aside - for ■ her, but all' the other days in the American year' seem to be saturated in the'lady. With'her ringlets and her knitting-needles, she presides over the- films, the magazines, the novels of America, more; pervasively ;than Astarte over Syria'or Demeter over Sicily.' All ■• this teatfbpfiily: (yoa cai call it philomatry,- if ""you like) seemed to me td;.achieve its."Wachtt am Khein," its ftTipperaiy," its ultimate anthem,.in the song' abont the roses round the door making' -me lovo mother more. ■ ■ - -

NOT THERR

'. I could not quite see. the .causative relation between the two phenomena, but. the song imposed the absolute-con-viction upon me that when I -went to America there •■would- not be a mortician '_s or realtor's.office .all the way between; . Massachusetts and. > Texas where roses were not either growing or being hastily planted round the door. 'And then IJanded in New' York' some little .time ago, and some nice people met.me, and there was a' little excitement. ; That is why p cannot remember which building- they first pointed out to me, and whether it was an. insurance building or a newspaper building, or. what it was. But .1 remember the pang of- disappointment that pierced me when the car ;• was held : up; at the front door of that noble edifice and there were not any rose* round it. . : ;.- ■ -!

" Where, where,'' I cried in dismay, "are the ; roses round that door?" And there were no roses round, the door of the "Tribune" building in Chicago or Mr. Ford's factory in-Detroit., Always from city to city I looked with eager and. melancholyl eyes for motherlove and the roses symbolic of it. :I found no roses anywhere. .'. .■ It was -very disheartening. It seemed probable that anewer American, passion ; was beginning .;tb~.oflst -ihe :«M one. I" mean the passion ot the "mile parent to say it, with-songs; to: tell the world how much he loves his male offspring, his-sonny boy. I am. hoping to meet a. certain:.Mr.. Al: Jolson.this year, the original golden papa of the sonny boys. I. will consult him. on tho matter and issue a. report-duly. .-.='