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were but simple folk-songs, yet William of Malmesbury, Roger de Hoveden. and a host of old chroniclers built many a chapter upon the information derived from them; nor did all follow the example of the first named writer, and inform their readers when they were stating ascertained facts and when detailing folk-song traditions. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle contains two complete old ballads and parts of about a dozen others. Even in this remote epoch, we find the folk-song growing from the ranks of the common people into a higher plane and being altered and adapted to more classic uses, and we also find men of culture trying to achieve the difficult simplicity of the songs of the people.
The folk-songs of ancient Palestine were chiefly of three kinds� the joyous bridal song, the cheerful harvest or vintage song, and die wailing funeral song�and one may find many examples of each of these in the Scriptures. As they were not written out, there being no definite notation among the ancient Hebrews, we can not hope ever to discover the actual tunes that were sung. It is, how�ever, not impossible that the melodies have filtered down through the ages; certain it is that the three schools of singing as described above, exist to-day in Arabia and Syria. Entire villages sometimes unite in a seven-day festival of rejoicing similar to the one described in the fourteenth chapter of Judges�the wedding of Samson. The Song of Solomon presents an entire book of bridal songs in the popular vein. The lamentation of David over the death of Saul and Jonathan, in the second book of Samuel i: 17-27, is an example of the mourning song.
In Amos, Habakkuk, and other books of the Old Testament, one finds further indication of the employment of folk-song, but the most artistic use of such songs is indicated in Isaiah v:1, where the prophet begins the cheerful vintage song, and then suddenly changes into the song of lamentation, the funeral lay, a contrast that must have been highly effective.
Much of dramatic action must have been united with the vocal work in the folk-songs as used by the Hebrews; in fact, when the word "dancing" occurs in the Scriptures it generally means only gesture and pantomime. If, in the light of this statement, we read the song of Moses, in Exodus xv, we can imagine Miriam using a folk-song which the Israelites, had become familiar with, can fancy her improvising the words, can see the sucessive gestures of pride, contempt, sarcasm and triumph, and can hear the multitude joining in the chorus at every opportunity.
This combination of action and singing becomes still more evi- |
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