Music Of The Waters - online book
Sailors' Chanties, Songs Of The Sea, Boatmen's, Fishermen's,
Rowing Songs,
& Water Legends with lyrics & sheet music
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Music of the Waters. 189 |
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This is done in chorus, and very solemn it sounds, in the still, early morning, before the lazy stir, that is all Venice now knows of bustle, commences.
Perhaps of all strange water ceremonies the world has ever known, the strangest is (or rather was, for the year 1797 was the last in which it took place), that of the Doge of Venice marrying the Adriatic annually on Ascension Day, by dropping into it a ring from his bucentaur, or state barge, attended by all the nobility and ambassadors in gondolas.
The gondoliers improvise all kinds of songs on well-known arias and themes, to suit themselves. " One poor little creature," Mr. Chorley in his volume on " National Music" speaks of, "who was old enough to have seen something of better days in Venice, used to solace himself by piping out as he sculled along, or sat waiting on his steps for the passengers who so rarely |
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