Old Tunes

“Music is what feelings sound like.”

Music has been around for thousands of years and some of the tunes we sing are much older than we realize.

While listening to a lecture series on Beethoven, the instructor played the opening of Wellington's Victory, an orchestral work to commemorate the Duke of Wellington's victory over Joseph Bonaparte's forces at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. And just like the famous 1812 Overture, the work features live cannon blasts.

The Battle Symphony begins with theme songs for each army as they approach for battle. To my surprise the theme for the French Army was a song we sing in Cub Scouts, “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.” Back then the song was known as Marlbrough s'en va-t-en guerre (Marlborough Has Left for the War), one of the most popular folk songs in the French language. This tune would inspire two songs in English, “The Bear Went Over the Mountain” and “For He’s a Jolly Old Fellow”. Here’s highlights of the translated lyrics about a battle in 1709:

Marlborough the Prince of Commanders
Is gone to war in Flanders,
His fame is like Alexander's,
But when will he ever come home?
Mironton, mironton, mirontaine.
…
Milady in her watch-tower
Spends many a pensive hour,
Not knowing why or how her
Dear lord from England stays.
Mironton, etc
…
While sitting quite forlorn in
That tower, she spies returning
A page clad in deep mourning,
With fainting steps and slow.
...
He's dead! He's dead as a herring!
For I beheld his bearing,
And four officers transferring
His corpse away from the field.

According to Wikipedia, in 1785 a peasant nicknamed Madame Poitrine sang this song to an infant Louis XVII of France as she nursed him. The Queen was captivated by the tune and soon everyone in Versailles was singing it. It spread to Paris and became the rage of the town with the name of the song applied to fashions, carriages and soups. The battle scene was painted on fans, fire-screens, toys, and porcelains; woven into tapestries.

Bottom Line

Many popular songs have a forgotten history.

“The Star Spangled Banner” uses the tune of a popular British drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven".

“America the Beautiful” uses the tune of “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem” from 1882.

"My Country, 'Tis of Thee" is sung to the tune “God Save the Queen/King”. This tune has been used in the national anthems of Norway, Sweden, and Liechtenstein and is the official fanfare for British Royalty.

The Christmas song, “What Child Is This?” (1865), was reset to the tune of Greensleeves from 1580.

What is The Oldest Song in the World? From the lost city of Ugarit in Syria, linguists have discovered a song and tune 3200 years old on old clay tablets. (Picture at top)

The oldest recording of songs? Arias by tenor Enrico Caruso recorded in 1902 and available on iTunes 107 years later.