BkhhP rais mMBit mm 1 THE GLEN COLLECTION OF SCOTTISH MUSIC Presented by Lady Dorothea RugglesBrise to the National
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THE GLEN COLLECTION OF SCOTTISH MUSIC Presented by Lady Dorothea RugglesBrise to the National Library of Scotland,
memory of her brother, Major Lord George Stewart Murray, Black Watch,
in
killed
in
action 28th
in
France
January
1927.
in
1914.
THROUGH ROMANY SONGLAND
Digitized by the Internet Archive in
2011 with funding from
National Library of Scotland
http://www.archive.org/details/throughromanysonOOsmit
THROUGH ROMANY SONGLAND BY
LAURA ALEXANDRINE SMITH Authoress 0/""The Music of
" Only in the
Land
of
the Waters."
Dreams
Only blooms the beautiful
is
Freedom,
in Song."
"In ancient Germany there was a town known by the name of Sing-one, and referred to by Ptolemy it is believed that in all probability our English word "sing," in Dutch "zingen," and its various forms in other languages, were derived from the habit of singing of the gypsies." Henry Kilgour. ;
—
DAVID STOTT,
OXFORD STREET,
370, 1!
W.
:
LONDON
HENDERSON & SPALDING, GENERAL PRINTERS 3
&
5,
MARYLEBONE LANE, W.
Deoicateb by special permission
MR WILSON BARRETT
CONTENTS. Gypsy Song
..
...
Introduction
PAGE x i
xi
Magyar or Hungarian Gypsy Songs
;
or,
Songs of
the Tzigani
I
Songs of the Gitanos or Spanish Gypsies
47
Russian Romany Songs
89
Anglo- Romany Songs
;
or,
...
Songs of the Tziggani
107
-
Scotch Gypsy or Tinkler Songs
...
157
Songs of the Bohemiens; or, French Gypsy Songs
1S1
The Zigeuner or
205
Gypsies of the Vaterland
...
Indian Gypsy Songs and Dance Tjnes
211
Finale
225
:
You
what
ask,
is
the gypsy
Hark, then, and
life ?
I will tell
GYPSY SONG.
gg^iSgg± Tra
la
la la.Tra
la
A
la la,
Tra
gj'p-sy gay and free,
liiliiiillll^ la
la
Tra
la,
la
la
A
la,
rov-inglife
for
me —
Tra
^^^^^^m.
-J£=ZJK=WZ la
la
la,
night
.
Tra
.
la
when
the
la
la,
star
Thro' out
.
Tra
.
the world
shines out
la
la
I
bright
.
.
roam,
.
.
Tra
I
in
la
the
la
;
GYPSY SONG.
Trala
.
Tra
.
" Hola, hola, hola, hola,
a
la
some day I'm
la.
sure to die,
Hola, hola, hola, hola, and not a soul
will sigh
Hola, hola, hola, hola, the only boon
I
That 'neath the waving greenwood You'll find for
me
Then
who can
at night
a grave
Through the glade home."
crave-
tree
;
say but
in the
my
spirit
shade where
—
Cecil
may roam I
once had a
Traheme.
INTRODUCTION. Persecuted and maligned has ever been,
have
it
has yet been able to invoke and
an amount of
retain
failed
to
race of Gypsies
as the
interest that
attract.
more favoured people
In the case of a few brave
champions of the Romany cause, be said to have developed into a
this interest
may
devotion,
and
life's
one can scarcely mention the name of Gypsy without our thoughts reverting to such
men
as
George
Borrow, C. G. Leland, George Smith of Coalville,
and at
others,
who have been
Gypsy redemption.
pioneers in the attempt
So much has been written on
the subject of the origin of these wandering people,
known
many
in almost every clime, so
been made to trace the source of customs, and characteristics, that for
me
made
to touch
into
in view,
upon
Romany
either.
it is
The
history have
attempts have
their
language,
quite unnecessary
researches
I
have
had but one object
namely, the collecting of any specimens of
INTR OD UCTION.
xii
Romany and
song that
their results I
may add one more
could find offer,
;
researches
these
in the
hope
link to the short chain of
that they
sympathy
of the land and the
between the lords
that exists
outcast
I
now
Bohemiansj who may be
truly
termed the
vagrants of every country, whose only resting-place the
and
whose roof
green earth,
and whose house
is
is
the broad
is
heaven,
the tent " they fold like the Arab,
as silently steal away."
Chorley, that eminent authority on national music, is
evidently not an enthusiast on that of the Gypsies.
He
says,
"
Gypsy music
of very limited value,
is
if
and
disconnected from the Gypsy performance of
it,
from the impression made by
for the
it
on those who,
sake of sensation, will endure and relish anything, no
matter
how
tunes,
save a Russian or Hungarian dance or two,
eccentric
it
be.
Comparatively few Gypsy
which possibly own some such parentage, have passed into the world's store of melody."
Schubert and Liszt perhaps alone of
the great
maestros have given us in their works true samples of
Romany harmony. of the latter ness
and
we
In the "Rhapsodies Hongroises"
are carried
impetuous
away by the Magyar
passion
that
have
wild-
become
;
INTRODUCTION.
xiii
synonymous with Hungarian music, and
if
Hungarian
then Romany, since the principal elements in Tran-
Gypsy
sylvanian melody are of
on Russian Gypsies,*
in his article
to the strangest, wildest,
The
ever heard.
First
witches.
Mr. Leland,
origin.
says, " I listened
and sweetest singing
singing of Lorelies, of syrens, of
one damsel with an
exquisite, clear,
firm voice began to sing a verse of a love ballad as
softly
in
approached
it
end, the
the
chorus
and unperceived, but with exquisite
a few seconds the
melody over a
have
I
summer
stole
murmuring
breeze,
midnight tempest roaring over a stormy
in
until
skill,
seemed changed
rippling lake,
and
;
sea, in
to a
which
the basso of the black captain pealed like thunder
and, as
it
died away, a second
very sweetly but with a
was
like
waters,
girl
little
took up the melody
more excitement,
a gleam of moonlight on the
—a
strange
contralto
still
and then
storm,
another solo yet sweeter, sadder, and stranger,
movement
continually increasing, until
and
wild,
and mad,
then
a
sudden *
silence
it
witch-gleam, and then
again the water's chorus and the
—a
—
agitated
all
—the
was
locomotive quick-step
—sunlight—the
Macmillan's Magazine,
vol. xli.
storm
fast
and had
INTRODUCTION.
xiv
blown away," and, he adds, "I could only think of those strange
of excitement which
fits
make him
Indian, and
The sequence of this
I
work
little
due
in the compilation
solely to the
and
Italian,
that of those to
Red
immeasurable
music of the Russian, Hungarian,
superiority of the
Transylvanian,
the
burst into song."
have adopted is
thrill
be found
Gypsies
Spanish
in
America and France.
The Bohemians
country,
unlike
Troubadours
Minstrels
who have gained such
the
over
England and Scotland, of this latter
and
Provencal
a reputation
for
song in the sunny land of France, have no special attainments of a musical the Romanies,
the Zigeiiner, or
sort, whilst
who wander over
the
German
land, scarcely take the rank in the world of
one would expect, even
that
the vagrants of the
in
cradle-land of Beethoven, Mozart, in
Gypseries
the
which
are
and Handel.
call
it,
" Mi-Krauliskey
True,
be found in the
to
neighbourhood of the English Metropolis, Gypsies
Vater-
harmony
or, as
gav," or,
the
" Royal
Town," one may occasionally hear snatches of Romany song
;
the
men
occupied in their
favourite
trade,
namely, "chinning the cost," sometimes enliven the
monotony of
it
by chanting
the
following
verse,
:
INTRODUCTION.
perhaps in terseness and
xv
equal
expressiveness
to
anything in the whole circle of Gentile poetry.
ROMANY VERSION OF
GYPSIES' "
Can you
WHITTLING SONG.
Can you
Romany ?
rokra
Can you
play the bosh
jal
Can you
?
adrey the staripan
chin the cost
?
?
"
ENGLISH TRANSLATION. "
Can you speak Can you Can you
for
the
Roman
tongue ? ?
eat the prison loaf?
Can you But
the
play the fiddle
cut and whittle?
beauties
so
music we must go to the
"
characteristic of Zingari,
Gypsy
Chingali,
and
Tzigani.
That there
is
a freemasonry existing amongst the
Gypsies scattered over the world, and a cosmopolitanism in the
Romany
tongue, whether heard
Wandsworth
Common,
on
Kingdom
the
or
of
Czar,
the in
Steppes
the
Valleys
of
on the
of the
INTR OD UC TION.
x vi
Transvaal,
very apparent, since
is
it
a Hungarian Gypsy soldier and an to
understand each other,
possible for
is
Italian Zingara
not perfectly, at least
if
intelligently.
As
musicians
professional
we meet
with
the
European countries, generally
Gypsies in most
in
small bands, roving from place to place, and entertaining the people with the national melodies of the
Thus we
country. in
Spain,
and even
Wallachia,
them everywhere,
find
Russia,
in
Hungary,
in
South
in
especially
Transylvania,
In the
America.
northern part of Russia they excel as vocal formers;
in
and
palities,
Danubian
the Ukraine, in the in
Hungary they
instrumentalists.
It
per-
Princi-
are almost exclusively
cannot exactly be said that they
have preserved anywhere a national music of their
They have adopted
own.
music of the people among there
is
much
appear to have
in
in
It
is
music
the Gypsies.
so
Some
strange
of
its
preserved
impossible to
words an accurate idea of the mental
they
performances
their
traditionally
Asiatic forefathers.
every
whom
country the live.
Still,
which they from
their
convey by
peculiarities of instru-
and
spirited
as
that
of
characteristics are a strongly
INTRODUCTION. marked and ment of
rhythm, the frequent employ-
effective
superfluous seconds,
and the introduction of
various kinds of embellishments. in
Hungary
becomes a
variation, or rather,
the Gypsies
so
appogiaturas, tasteful,
original,
it
a fantasia, founded
The introduced
tune.
shakes,
turns,
frequently
When
perform a favourite national melody,
upon the simple graces,
xvii
are,
and
passages,
however, that
effective
these peculiar performances have obtained a well-
The same mode
merited renown.
melody
in
home
Hindostan, the original
One "
There
of our is
best
known
treating
waggon creaks down the
hill,
upon
prevails
a in
of the Gypsies.
authoresses
always song somewhere.
to the corn that grows
of
performances
extempore
As
has
said,
the wine-
the waggoner will chant either side of him.
As
the miller's mules cross the bridge, the lad, as he cracks his whip, will
hum
ta the blowing alders.
In
the red clover, the labourers will whet their scythes to a trick
of melody.
In the quiet evenings, a Kyrie
Eleison will rise from the thick leaves that hide a village chapel.
On
the
hills
the goatherd, high in air
amongst the arbutus branches,
will
scatter
on the
lonely mountain side stanzas of purest rhythm.
By
INTRODUCTION.
xviii
the seashore where Shelley died, the fisherman, rough,
and
salt,
and weather-worn,
will string notes
measure under the tamarisk-tree on
But the poetry and music
on the
afloat
of sweetest
mandoline.
his
leaves of roses that blossom in a solitude,
away
upon the breeze
die
to
notice the fragrance, there
the
If
leaves."
labourer,
is
waggoner,
;
there
no one the
the
air, like
is
and
drift
no one
to
to gather the
the
mule-driver,
the goatherd, and the fisherman
all
find
an
impetus for their work in chants and occasional bursts
we may be
of melody,
sure
we
not find the
shall
Gitana tripping to her contraband profession, namely, of fortune-telling,
that
Hungarian Gypsy
at
with
smith, driving his heavy
some song
songless
lips,
nor the
his trade, principally that of a
hammer unaccompanied by
nor should we recognize the mirth-loving,
;
rich-coloured Zingara of the
Campagna without her
mandoline or tambourine.
Human quence at
;
in
now
midnight
day
;
in June,
its
;
twice
human
in
its
elo-
sighing as the Miserere from a cathedral
now
flooded with the glory of a perfect
— sometimes
now poured from maid
sadness,
grand, sometimes simple
the lark-like throat of
now wooed from
the
;
some Gypsy
tender strings of the
INTRODUCTION. violin,
safely
—often
wild, always passionate,
Gypsy music may
be classed amongst the most interesting and
diversified that
is
to
be heard.
harvesters for choruses, criticism, in
xix
whose
and whose beauty
every phrase
;
we may
is
We may
go to the
regularity admits of
no
apparent in every note,
listen to the strains
of the
peasants of Tuscany, or the bead-stringers of Venice,
and stand transfixed stradella
we want
some more than
usually lovely
wafted to us over the lagoons on a
is
starry night
and
as
;
but we must go to the
Romany
still,
tents
if
to hear the real, true, wild songs of the plain
forest,
and we must sup with Gypsy minstrels and
share the Gypsy shelter to learn the mystery and the
meaning of
that
science
more than genius of
all
which, more than poetry,
kinds,
is
a sublime instinct.
—
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS OR,
SONGS OF THE TZrGANI. "
Que
ce soit
une nation de parias qu'importe k
'
If the earth
Our country
l'art."
Liszt.
be God's crown, is its
fairest jewel."
—Alexander
Petolfi.
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY The
SONGS.
gypsies having no religion, no taste for politics,
and being averse guished
They
to a military
themselves
are,
in
however,
excellent
those in the east of Europe. singers are quite an institution; sylvania,
have not
life,
any of these
musicians,
especially
In Russia the gypsy
and
in
Hungary, Tran-
and Moldavia they are noted
as players
The names of Barna Mihaly, Panna, and Bihari are known all over Hungary. the violin.
Mihaly
distin-
departments.
lived, in 1737, in Illesfalva in the Zips
on
Czinka,
Barna
Country,
and
became Court violinist to Cardinal Count Emmerich Csaky. The Cardinal had a full-length portrait of
him
painted, with the pretty
compliment
contained in the words " Magyar Orpheus
on
it.
The names Sucecawa,
Anzheluzza, and Barba
are familiar as household words
and Wallachia.
all
over
and
that our
derived from
it.
Moldavia
Dr. Clarke was of opinion that the
national Russian dance, called "Barina," origin,
" inscribed
common
The
usually play by ear only,
hornpipe
gypsies of
is
of gypsy
may have been
Hungary do not
and are generally led by an e 2
;
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
4
Having no national music, they have
Austrian.
in
every country adopted the music of the inhabitants.
The most important Hungary
of the
is
thus called because
Magyar portion of the Hungarian
called
recognized,
the
it
proceeds from
"The
inhabitants.
style of music, as
it
has
come
so-
to
be
cannot by any means be regarded as
indigenous, but as
music
of the national
part
may most
properly be briefly denned
product of a commixture of several races.
More than one-fourth or perhaps half of the popuHungary proper (i.e., Transleithan Hungary, as it has come to be called since its union with the
lation of
Austrian
Empire,
Magyars, the
1869) consists of
descendants of the ancient Scythians of the Tartar-
Mongolian
stock,
Mountains
to the
established
century.
up of
Of
after
wandering from the Ural
Caspian Sea, and thence to Kiov,
themselves
Hungary
in
The remainder
Slavs,
this
who
ninth
the
in
of the population
is
made
Germans, Wallachians, Jews, and gypsies.
mixed population the Magyars,
ant lords of the
soil,
musicians of the
and the
as the
domin-
gypsies, as the privileged
country, are in
the
main
to
be
regarded as the joint originators of the national style."*
The union
of these two latter races resulted in the
combination of their musical charts. acteristic of the *
Magyar music
Monthly Musical Record,
fox
is
The
chief char-
the peculiarity of
February and March, 1887.
its
—
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
OR,
rhythm
and
;
that of the gypsy, the presence ot turns,
and embellishments, and "grace-notes built
5
"
added
and
to
upon the melody, and eventually becoming a
most important feature
in
This
it.
together with the scale, which garian music
—a
scale with
is
latter peculiarity,
characteristic of
Hun-
two superfluous seconds,
or the harmonic minor with a sharp fourth
Pi seem
an
indicate
to
European
slow movements.
first
unknown in genuine Magyar modern Hungarian composers in
a
;
Schubert, most of
in his divine compositions
of
fantastic
its
" Ungarische is
The turns and embellishments added
native
Tanze of
;
"
all,
has
Brahm
made
use
has worked
element into his celebrated like
Brahm,
Hungary, occasionally delights if
not genuinely
something very nearly akin to writer in
;
and Joachim, who,
audience with music that
A
origin.
used gypsy music (see his well-known
Gypsy Rondo)
much
ordinary
melody are of gypsy, and hence Oriental
Hadyn it
(the
Three-four time, and
six-eight, is
music, save amongst
of
origin
Asiatic
scales are also in use).
consequently
to the
m
£S=**:
his
Romany
is
it.
Temple Bar, October, 1885,
in a very
interesting article, entitled " Bivouacking with
Hun-
garian Gypsies," says, a propos of gypsy music, that "
No
festivity
ever
takes place without the Czigany
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS;
6
summoned
being
music;
to enliven
and
national dance,
with his soul-stirring
some
in
attend
a funeral
horror
of subjection
their
and of labour
One day Roman
matters
life
is
little
to
to
be found
A
gypsy
that heralds
its
pursuits in
many
of
them
They
approach.
same
countries,
all
many
his prayers
that the
"So many
the cultivation of the earth, or in
the service of a regular master ; they are nothing
is
his
own
A
a favourite saying
amply
verify
it.
In
if
not
gypsy has but one law,
inclination.
"What care we though we be so small? The tent shall stand when the palace shall is
Hun-
gypsies,
In no part of the world are gypsies
in
thoroughly independent. that
said,
generally follow the
are workers in iron
smiths."
found engaged
be
follow the grace
but in Hungary so
garians have a proverb which says,
and
will
Catholic, the next Protes-
him where
some savoury stew may
so long as
so
A
the gypsy's
is
his religion quite as often, if not oftener, than
his coat. it
is,
variety in every detail
wandering
strangely
amongst the Romanies of every land.
tant,
it
cemetery."
procession to the
and a love of
ruling passion,
change
Hungary
parts of
very recently, was, the custom for a band to
or, until
of
it
he invariably accompanies the Czardas or
among all
fall,"
the Romanies, and they
lands they are jockeys, thieves,
or cheats, toil
OR,
SONGS OF THE TZ1GANL
and
if
ever they devote themselves to any
it is
assuredly in every material point one
or trade,
that comprises
some of the necessary
We have
"/
characteristics
found them
of these callings.
"
of a wild mountain
hammering iron, and manufacturing
from
it
instruments either for their
in the heart
own use or that They may be
of the neighbouring towns and villages.
seen employed in a similar manner in the plains of Russia, or in the
bosom
whoever inspects the
site
of
its
and
eternal forests,
where a horde of gypsies
has encamped in the grassy lines beneath the hazel
bushes of merry England, relics
is
generally sure to find
of tin or other metal avouching that they there
have been exercising the smith.
arts
of the tinker or the
Perhaps nothing speaks more forcibly
antiquity of
this sect
for the
than the tenacity with which
they have uniformly preserved their peculiar customs since the period of their for unless
nature, strict
their habits
becoming generally known
had become a part of
;
their
which could only have been effected by a
devotion to them through a long succession of
generations,
it
is
not to be supposed that after their
Europe they could have retained and cherished them, precisely in the same manner in arrival in civilized
the
various
countries
where
they
have
asylum."* *
From
Gerard's "Gypsies."
found
an
;
8
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS; volume " Des Bohemiens
Liszt, in his
Musique en
"
Hongrie," says,
adopted the gypsies as
The
mucisians
national
their
de leur
et
Magyars have
they have identified themselves with the proud and warlike enthusiasm, with the distressing sadness of the
Hungarians, which they
know
They have not only
associated
and
pleasures
so well
how
them
at their banquets, they
to depict.
with
their
have wept with
their own The nomadic people, the although spread over many lands, and culti-
making themselves hearers of
their tears in
and
troubles
Tzigani,
trials.
vating elsewhere music, have in no other country been
able to give
it
a value equivalent to that which
acquired on Hungarian gypsies
met
necessary
the
particular class of
good
encouraging
and with its
its
else
Hungary can
song claim as
right,
Romany
its
own
under
its
to
its
of
corn
its
shadow, and with
sun, received with hearty applause,
and ennobled, thanks
art
this
music, nourished with
vines, ripened
of any
aggrandizement
national
has
it
have the
sympathy so
with, as there, the popular
to
then, with
nowhere
soil, for
protection
predilections so closely entwined with
its
embellished
and
to
habits
its
and
manners, that they are intimately interwoven amongst the dearest souvenirs of every true Hungarian heart."
The
Austrian gypsies have
fectly reflect their character.
many
songs which per-
Most of them
are only
—
OR,
SONGS OF THE TZIGANL
single verses of a few lines,
where
in
—
!
Spain
;
others,
such as are sung every-
which are longer, seem
have grown from the connection of these verses. following translation from the (Vassili Alexandri) gives spirit
their style
GYPSY SONG. "The wind whistles over the heath, The moonlight flits over the flood, And the gypsy lights up his fire In the darkness of the wood.
Hurrah In the darkness of the wood.
And
is
the bird in the
air,
the fish where the river flows;
Free
is
And
the gypsy wherever he goes.
And
the gypsy wherever he goes.
the deer in the forest,
Hurrah
A " Girl, wilt
And
!
Gorgio gentleman speaks thou
I will give
live in
my home ?
thee a sable gown,
golden coins for a necklace,
If thou wilt be
my
own."
to
The
Roumanian Romany
an idea of
:
"Free
9
:
and
;
io
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS GYPSY GIRL.
No
"
wild horse will leave the prairie
For a harness with
Nor an
silver stars,
eagle the crags of the mountain
For a cage with golden "
bars.
Nor the gypsy girl the forest, Or the meadow, though grey and For garments made of sable, Or necklaces of gold."
cold,
THE GORGIO. " Girl, wilt thou live in
my
dwelling * ?
For pearls and diamonds true I will give thee
And
a bed of
scarlet,
a royal palace too."
GYPSY GIRL. "
My white teeth are my pearlins, My diamonds my own black eyes, My bed is the soft green meadows, My palace the world as it lies."
" Free
And
is
the bird in the
air,
the fish where the river flows;
Free
is
And
the gypsy wherever he goes.
And
the gypsy wherever he goes."
the deer in the forest,
Hurrah *
" The true or real stone,"
is
!
the gypsy for a diamond.
——
;
u
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
OR,
The
;
miserable
following
song was one
little
dis-
covered by Mr. Leland amongst certain inedited songs of
the
dialect
Transylvanian
gypsies
the
in
Kolosvarer
:
"
Na
janav ko dad m'ro
Niko mallen mange
as,
as,
Miro gule dai merdyas Pirani
Uva
Tu
me
pregelyas
tu o hegedive
sal
mindik pash mauga."
Translation. " I've I
known no
father since
my
birth
;
have no friend alive on earth
My
mother's dead this many a day The girl I loved has gone her way. Thou violin, with music free,
Alone
The two songs
art ever true to
me."
following are well-known Hungarian gypsy
:
" Kis szekeres
Kis szekeres nagy szekeres,
Mind megiszsza a mit keres Mig a vasarra oda jar,
A
penzinek vegire
jar."
:
—
^
'
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
12
HUNGARIAN GYPSY TUNE.
j-^^gi^feS^SgSggp^ "JUHASZLEGENY SZEGENY." " Juhaszlegeny szegeny juhaszlegeny
Tele penzzel ez a kover erszeny
Megveszem a szegeny "
seget toled
De
radasul add a szeretodet
Ha
ez a penzlenne czak foglalo
!
S meg szaz annyi lenne borravalo S
id
adnad a
vilagot radasnak
Szeretomet ugysem
adnam masnak
!
HUNGARIAN GYPSY TUNE.
s
afe
~£-g-jL
X
tt~8
—
fcafc
gjiAj^m^^^-Nl
Vlf
Sfc
=M^
se^F^
E3E^S
_ ^
^~ -d- H*
s— ^ h^-hs-tHI —g-J^f— ^T^-J^
=*=--*--
lr-5
"
—
;
OR,
The words
am
SONGS OF THE TZIGANL set to the
13
well-known Racoczy March,
told, are of gypsy origin
;
they are as follows
I
:
WORDS SET TO THE RACOCZY. " Dyal o pafii repedishes,
M'ro pirano hegedishes. " Dyal o pafii tale vatra
M'ro pirano
klanetalia.
" Dyal o pafii pe kishai
M'ro pirano
tsino rai."
Translation. "
The stream runs on with rushing As I hear my true love's violin
din,
"
And
stone,
the river rolls o'er rock
As he
"Runs o'er Then my Leland,
the sand as
it
began,
true love lives a gentleman."
describing the
characteristic
and
plays the flute so sweet alone.
inimitable
effect
composition when he heard
of
this
it
per-
—
;
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
14
formed by a band of Hungarian gypsies says,
their
"As these men played for me, own music, feeling and enjoying it and
the audience,
to, I
was to them, and what skill,
aiming only
up the
at setting
forgetfulness
Ewe
tains
it
appreciated what a
should be
self-
but a
!
;
river,
tones
;
deep
is
he plays
it
;
in the
he
feels
— knows
that
is
it
it
it
expresses his deepest
words
in a song,
which
one of the most touching
Yes, music whirling the soul away as on
ever written.
flute
adown the moun-
This feeling
he knows the rush of the stream as
him who has the key
a rushing
and a joy
fire
the stream
and so he has given
;
;
—a
Bacchus
bounds onwards desire
that
which whirls the soul away as the soul of
in every air
to
life
not cold-blooded
and
artiste,
heart of the Hungarian gypsy it
more than
at excellence or pre-excellence
Moenad went with
the
far
because they had got a gypsy
all
gentleman to play
Paris,
in
inspired with
all
the violin notes falling like ripples, the aflow
among
the rocks
;
and when
it
sweeps adagio on the sandy bed, then the gypsy player
is
equal to a lord
at heart
gentleman.
The
earthly distinctions pass lives is
and
feels best,
away
;
joy.
The
There
is art.
there he
and makes others
cleverer than they, but that he can
and
then he feels a
;
only true republic
feel,
is
best
all
who
not that he
awaken sympathy
intense reality of musical art as a com-
forter to these gypsies of eastern
Europe
is
wonderful.'"'
SONGS OF THE TZIGANE
OR,
15
Mr. Leland's descriptions and quotations on Hun-
"The
garian gypsy music in his volume
so
manifold and perfect, that one
resort to
Gypsies
tempted to
feels
no other means of attempting
" are
to depict the
rapturous wildness and fervid sadness of the songs of
With him one hears the
the Zingari.
soul-stirring,
madly-exciting, and martial strains of the Rococzy, the
almost crazy impetuosity of their beloved Czardas the grandeur of the Radetsky Defile strains
;
feels the
played long ago, the horns of Elfland blowing,
and with
it
all
over a winter
words, "
and the memory of the Romany
Kamava
tute, miri chelladi."
manian Peasants and
in
their
which gypsy music
is
Roumania, and the want of feelings
for
occasions
its
still
article
Songs
"
on the " Rou-
The Nineteenth (
1882), relers several times to the
Century, October,
esteem
wind whistling
the mingled refrain of
city,
Mr. C. F. Keary, in an able
place
one
;
held by the people of in
regard
He
says,
it
performers.
to
their
"Greater
are the convivial meetings which take
during the winter months
;
for,
as
may be
supposed, the months of winter hang heavily on the
hands of a people so purely agricultural in
Such a convivial meeting
nounced
is
called a
shezetoare), or seance.
gypsies play a considerable part.
Russia, the
gypsy
their habits.
sedatore (pro-
In these seances the In Roumania, as in
(Tzigan) conducts most
of the
1
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
6
musical
of
part
They have a
set of instruments peculiar to
the guitar,* the violin,f
cimpoi
and a
sort of
themselves
:
bagpipe called
whereas the true Roumanian instruments are
;
Hence
the flute J and the horn.§ that
and dancing.
entertainment
the
;
God
arises the saying
invented the fluer and the bucium, but the
devil invented the cobza, the scripca,
Thus has
the music of
Pan
its
and the cimpoi.
revenge upon the music
of Apollo."
The Roumanian the gypsy.
and
;
of course looks with horror upon
invented a sort of diabolical being
who is supposed to be king of name Faraon, which must be
Faraon,
called
Tzigani
same
He
the
the
this
as Pharaoh, brings us
back to the same belief
respecting the native country of the people as
is
ex-
"
Who
taught you that song?" was asked of a village
girl.
pressed in
"
our word gypsy or Egyptian.
My parents"
" Faraon.
"And who
(ancestors).
Once they were
taught them
?'"'
driving their sheep across
a ford, and Faraon appeared and spoke to them."
Mr. Keary gives several specimens of the native village
songs,
and amongst others a "Gypsy
Lament," which
* Cobza.
f
I
Scripca.
Girl's
have taken the liberty of quoting.
J Fluer.
§
Bucium, buccina, or buccinum.
—
;
;
—
—
SONGS OF THE TZIGAN1.
OR,
17
"GYPSY GIRL'S LAMENT." " 'Swallows, swallows,' Sisters,
seek
little sisters
my mother
dear
Tell her from her daughter here
That she send her
kirtle red,
For a raven she has wed
And a large thick veil for shroud, When the watch-dogs bark aloud. Her brave
dresses, that she take them,
Into one rude bundle
Throw them
make them,
in the street
and burn them-
Utterly to ashes turn them."
There
is
a Montenegrin legend to the effect that a
gypsy forged the nails
for the Crucifixion,
that account his race has henceforth
The
of heaven. will
always
tell
and
that
on
been accursed
gypsies refute this statement and
you that no Romany can
tolerate a
Jew, because they were the people that murdered our blessed Lord.
The modern Roumanian certain classes
workers), etc.
gypsies are divided into
Calderari (kettle smiths),
So exclusively
is
A urari (gold
the smith's a gypsy
1
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS;
3
and therefore a degrading— craft
when
in
Montenegro, that
in
1872 the Government established an arsenal
Rieka no natives could be found to
at
The
posts.
gypsies
still
well-paid
fill its
have a monopoly of iron
working in Roumania; the Naalband, or shoeing-smith, being no smith in our sense at
hammers them
A in
an
before us
aspect; all
"A
and only
for January, 1888,
Magyar Musician," quotes
remarks from
Madame Janka Wohl.
"The Rhapsodies Hongroises
says,
supplied
is
on.
article entitled
the following
She
Tzigani,
The National Review
writer in
He
all.
with various-sized shoes by the
bring
Hungary
under her national, as well as her
her sufferings, her hopes, her mighty
lyric spirit,
temperament which
that goes to form the basis of a
being at the same time supine, heedless, and fantastic, eludes analysis. all
.
.
.
the world over.
.
The Rhapsodies find an echo But those who have not .
.
heard them played by Lizst himself can form no conception of their true value, or of the magical power
they possess.
.
.
.
The
Tokai wine are inherent in their bold
culled
and
fire
and the sweetness of languorous melopees,
in those
electric
rhythm.
.
.
.
The melodies
haphazard from the national lyre unroll the
whole scale of
its
love, sad joys of
sentiment, meditation, sorrows
of
community, of misfortune, yearnings
of the patriot, a despair which
is
but another
name
OR,
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
implanted in the heart of a
for the nostalgia of liberty
people
who
have bled for years in slavery.
Then, by degrees, the rhythm quickens sudden, rugged, and abrupt, but cating melody... fire thrills
19
.
.
.
becomes
it
ever of an intoxi-
is
Gaiety takes the lead, contagious
...
the dancers, they seek and
and elude each
;
delirium
other;
feverish souls that are
drawn
flee,
they grasp
seizes
upon the
into the whirlwind of the
A
mad, delicious music. ...
delirium which cul-
minates in the wild cry of fury and delight that breaks forth
now and
again from the
either prince or peasant.
.
ate vibration that like the
.
.
lips
A
of the dancer, be he
shrill
note of passion-
sound of a fanfare electrifies
the masses."
Roumanian gypsy women sleep with soft, sweet,
nearly always begin ting
sing their
and melodious
ones to
little
lullabies,
which
and end with the slumber-sugges-
word Nani-nani.
" Nani-nani copilas,
Dormi cu mama,
Ca mama
angeras,
te-a legana,
Si
mama
Si
mamuca
te-a saruta, ti
a canta
Nani-nani, nani-na,"
etc.
c
2
—
20
!
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
English Version. " Nani-nani,
treasure,
little
Sleep, dear angel, near thy mother,
For mother
rock thee,
will
And mother And mother
will clasp thee, will sing
thee
Nani-nani, nani-na," etc.
The
refrain of this recalls the Italian verse
women
by the peasant Christmas
Day
in
some
chanted
on
parts of Italy
:
" Dormi, dormi nel mio seno
Dormi, O, mio
mio cor
II
Fa Monsieur the ballads
Nazareno
nina-nana na."
la
Vassili Alexandri has collected
and
tales of
amongst the Tzigani. rhapsodes de l'autre
fior
sulla sara,
recitant
la
Roumania which
He
Roumanie,
ou chantant
says,
many
of
existed only
" Les Cigains, les
allaient d'un endroit
ces
poemes, dont
auteurs sont restes inconnus, qu'aucune main ne
a
les s'est
jamais occupee de transcrire et qui se sont transmis
de bouche en bouche d'une generation a travers les siecles."
l'autre
a
" Tandis que Nicolas Balesco
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
OR, visitait
me
monasteres des Carpathes, cherchant, pour
les
de
servir
de
traces
21
c
ses propres paroles,
sous leurs rimes
les
grandeur des ancetres, Alexandri par-
la
courut a pied
montagnes
les
Roumanie,
recueillant 5a et
legendes."
(M.A. Ubicini
de
plaines
et les
les traditions
la.
la
et les
Introduction, " Ballades
:
et Chants populaires de la Roumanie," recueilles et
traduits par V. Alexandri.)
me
Strange to say, the same day that acquainted with this most fascinating French
duced "
In
his
says,
my
to
Dome
most
"The
have
Introduction, the author
interesting
formed
to
a
who swarm
in Moldo-Wallachia,
us
as
gypsies,
wandering
same extraordinary and who seem
settlement
in
every country in Europe.
There was
one time a
distinct race
of the Zingari
Roumania.
They
wandered about the
They had
robbers.
called forests
little
to
stars,
settled in
Netoti,
better
their chiefs, however,
and
than petty
and paid a
They adored
the
believing in a faith which they are said
have brought from India.
stition in
to
almost
also, I learn, at
themselves
regular tribute to the Government.
sun and
intro-
E. C. Grenville Murray's
class apart, are the
known
also
National Songs of Roumania."
Zingari,
and form a people
notice Mr.
The
or,
;
book
[The popular super-
Moldavia believes that when any one dies
his star falls
from the heavens, as they believe
it first
22
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS;
appeared there
at his birth
and influenced
his destiny
In 183 1 they were forcibly baptized, and
through
life.]
became
slaves to the Boyards.
formerly lived a roving
life,
The
rest of the Zingari
and were spread over the
Un-
country, divided into Vatachii, or companies.
heard of horrors were told of them
for
;
it is
the
gift
of the vulgar to think in the wrong everything and
every person they cannot understand.
They paid
a
tax for freedom to their master, who, however, often
chose some of them
This race of
servants.
as
domestics multiplied rapidly, and becoming Wallach in
language and customs forgot the people from
The
they sprung.
Zingari are
as musicians, artizans,
and can be bought,
There are preserve village
some
;
still,
and
if
and miners.
sold,
whom
chiefly
employed
They
are slaves,
and punished with impunity.
however, a company of them ancient
their
now
traditions
in
almost
who every
the traveller chance to be benighted in
peasant's hut,
it
is
there that he will hear the
tender Doine sung, and see a pretty national dance called the figures
'
ora,'
which
on antique
They wear
full
will often
vases.
remind him of the
Their dress
is
notable.
white trousers, a white tunic, and
gay-coloured sash.
Their
long
hair
disarray beneath their slouched hats,
falls
in
and the
a
wild long,
sweeping moustache gives a marked and chivalrous expression to their splendid faces.
SONGS OF THE TZIGANT.
OR, "
The women wear
bunch
their long hair tied in a
behind, and falling in a single tress
They wear a long
fine white shift
gay-coloured
instead of a
silks,
23
down
the back.
embroidered with
gown
this is
;
secured
by a red woollen sash, beneath which descends the a kind of embroidered apron reaching to the
fota,'
*
Their
knees.
feet are bare
and where,
;
have you seen more picturesque figures ". I
.
.
think
I
.
may
I
Wanderer
Sir ?
venture to believe that
have not deceived myself as to the beauty of Poetry which has stirred the heart of one
the Doine.
nation has generally an echo in that of another all.
men
have very nearly the
sympathies, distance
much
less
and custom
'
;
partout,' said the witty
The
same
feelings
for
:
and
modified than we think by
Le monde
Frenchman
fate of Ossian, the
est partout ;
com me
and he was
right."
Songs of the North, the
Spanish Ballads, and Romancers would be enough to
encourage
work
)
I
me
to
hope
for the success of the present
need not say that such a hope
apart from that of
any success of
Doine seem, indeed,
to
is
my
altogether
own.
The
me, to have about them
something of the character of Ossian, only that instead of belonging to a slow, grave, misty nation like the Scotch, they are the songs of a people
who
lived
beneath a summer sky, and whose dreams were of sunshine and flowers, of silver seas.
moons and
stars,
all
and
24
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
ROUMANIAN GYPSY
.
AIR.
Moderato
l^^^p ^
"Oh!
surely
melody from heaven was
IK~
sent,
To cheer the soul when tired with human strife, To soothe the wayward heart by sorrow rent, And soften down the rugged road of life."
OR,
In an
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
article
25
on Transylvanian Superstitions by
Madame Emily de Laszowska
Gerard, in The Nine-
teenth
Century, July, 1885, there are several allusions
made
to those of the gypsies.
The
authoress says,
" Transylvania might well be termed the land of super-
nowhere
for
stition,
else
does
this
curious crooked
plant of delusion flourish as persistently
bewildering variety.
It
and
would almost seem
the whole species of demons, pixies, witches,
from the
goblins, driven
of science, had
rest of
in
as
such
though
and hob-
Europe by the wand
taken refuge within this mountain
rampart, well aware that here they would find secure lurking-places,
whence they might defy
tors yet awhile.
their persecu-
There are many reasons why these
fabulous beings should retain an abnormally firm hold
on the
Thirdly, there
of these parts
soil
wandering superstition of the gypsy
tribes,
is
the
themselves
a race of fortune-tellers and witches, whose ambulating caravans cover the country as with a network, and
whose
less
towns and
members fill up the suburbs of The gypsies take up a different superstition from either Roumanian
vagrant
villages.
position as regards
or Saxon, since they direct
may be
rather considered to be
causes and mainsprings
victims of credulity themselves. religion
is
of superstition, than
The
Tzigane, whose
of such an extremely superficial nature that
he rarely believes
in
anything as complicated as the
;
26
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
immortality of the soul, can hardly be supposed to lay
much
weight upon the supernatural
trees,
who as
etc.,
his
death or burial.
however,
That,
Roumanian neighbours
on
gypsy as an undoubted
power
thief, liar,
transactions of daily
him
blindly for
and are ready
who
do not
it
is
will,
fortune-teller with
it
is
in all the
hesitate to
charmed medicines and
to attribute to
him unerring
true, often drive
The
away the
blows and curses from his door, but
his wife, as often as not, will secretly
in again
a
regard the
and cheat
life,
people
Saxon and
in deciphering the mysteries of the future.
Saxon peasant
come
these
their
undoubted, and
is
paradoxical fact that the same people
confide in
in-
reminded of anything so unpleasant
exercise a considerable influence
love-potions,
he
if
rather those of a child
are
feelings
shirks being
common
and
;
such places as churchyards, gallow-
stinctively avoids
by the back door,
beckon
to her to
in order to
be con-
sulted as to the illness of the cows, or to beg from
her a remedy against the fever. " Wonderful potions and
which the
fat
of bears, dogs, snakes, and snails, along with the
oil
of
rain-worms,
rubbed into a
the
paste,
salves,
bodies of
in
spiders
and many other
and midges
similar ingredients,
are concocted by these cunning Bohemians,
who
will
sometimes thus make thrice as much money out of the carcass of a dead dog as another from the sale
SONGS OF THE TZIGANE
OR,
Roumanian and Saxon mothers
of three healthy pigs.
often believe their infants
from the
when
effects of the evil eye;
Roumania
nine days.
women
be suffering
sickly to
and
they will give the child to a gypsy
for the
undo
to
woman
many
performances, and
old
are to be found in the suburbs of the towns daily being fulfilled by
One
the credulity of their fellow-creatures. trades of
principal
and
tiles,
the
Tzigane
is
this
of the
the burning of
and they are often accused of occa-
own
sioning lengthy droughts to suit their
When
this spell
to nurse for
furnishes a remunerative theatre
fortune-teller's
whose dreams of avarice are
bricks
27
purposes.
has occurred, and the necessary rains have
not been produced
by soundly beating the
Roumanians sometimes
Tziganes, the
Papaluga, or Rain-Maiden. a young gypsy
quite
girl
with wreaths of
flowers
This
is
done by
in procession, to the
is
the
stripping
naked and dressing her up
and leaves which
cover her up, leaving only the head
adorned, the Papaluga
guilty
resort to
entirely
Thus
visible.
conducted round
sound of music and
the villages singing,
and
pretty
and
every one hastens to water her copiously."
The Wallachian
gypsies have
many
poetical ideas; for instance, they speak of death as "the
betrothed of the world," and jewels they of the sun." soul to
all
They have
flowers ;
and
call
"tears
a superstition which gives a
their idea
is
that only the sinless
MAG VAX OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY
28
flower
scentless
is
;
and so on, the sublime ever blended "
with the ridiculous.
many
through the
SONGS;
The
little
stone of truth rolling
ages of the world has gathered and
grown grey with the thick mosses of romance and But
superstition. little
who
rejects all
folk like myself
the
new
— Ouida.
its
likelier to
is
must always have that
tradition
stone of truth as
who
And
kernel.
perhaps he
be wrong than even foolish
love to believe
all,
and who tread
paths ever thinking of the ancient stories."
In his introduction to his most readable book, " Etudes
sur
les
Tchinghianes ou
Bohemiens de
l'Empire Ottoman," Monsieur Alexandre Paspati says of the
"
The wandering know a few songs and legends, intermixed the number of Turkish and Greek words songs
of
these gypsies,
musicians with a
;
aged amongst the Tchinghianes have assured in
me
that
olden times they sang at the agricultural fetes of the
Christians
and the Mussulmans many Romany songs,
but to-day, owing to the intermarrying of the gypsies with Greek
girls,
which leads
to
them speaking more
Greek and Turkish than Romany, these have been forgotten, or partly so, since they are not understood.
The
large
number of songs which
the Grecian press
publishes annually for the use of the people has led to the abolition of the vulgar race.
Some
and
insipid tunes of this
few of the songs, in which wine and
;
SONGS OF THE TZIGANf,
OR,
immorality play the
seemed taste
;
to
me
principal
frivolous
parts,
and wanting
29
have
in sense
always
and good
but in studying the history of a people one
ought to neglect nothing, for even after
bestowed on
poor and often very appears
much
labour
the materials for this work are very
it,
frivolous
and
insufficient,
that
which to us
might be to others very precious
information."
Mr. Paspati also gives a very graphic and poetic description of the Eastern gypsy in this
He
describes
them thus:
neither papers nor books
these parts
have
I
— "In I
;
the
same work.
tents
one sees
have never met a gypsy
who knew how
to read or write
seen tears on the face of a Tchinghiane.
courage during
beds to
die,
There
is
illness is
and
heroic
;
in
never
;
Their
they only seek their
bury their dead."
tearless they
no more obstinate
set of
wanderers than
the Tchinghiane.
Like the Indians of America, they
oppose themselves
fiercely to all efforts at civilization,
which according to them would "suffocate them."
They walk through the town sometimes selling baskets, or iron goods, sometimes leading monkeys and bears they see the dress of the townswomen, the cleanliness of the children, the fetes
but these things
them
it is
all like
and
make no a dream.
rejoicings of the people
;
impression upon them, for
At night they return
tent to enjoy the fruits of their
work (such
to their as they
V
a
;
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
30
without ever evincing a desire to mix in the gay
are),
One
of others.
life
keep, and
that
This
Chaudrons.
have
is
though, the Tchinghianes
ftte,
Bakkava, or the fite des
their
is
when they
held during the spring,
They
their winter quarters.
left
some verdant meadow near
meet on
all
the source of a stream.
For three days these strange creatures give themselves
up
to feasting, rejoicing, dancing,
gypsy
bound
is
dainty he
The
is
and
expected to invite
all
the tribe to partake.
table has to be covered with flowers
Tchinghianes
;
whatever
faith
"Nothing touches
which laughs
be
to
amongst the
exists
not even in their songs and legends, of
which some are of very ancient date, religion.
and
Monsieur Paspati says that
well provided with wine.
no evidence of any
Each
singing.
and cook a lamb, of which
to kill
at all things,
and
this lives
there any
is
heart
and
of marble,, dies like the
beasts." It
seems strange,
in the face of this, that a
custom
so strangely resembling one of the most sacred of
ceremonies them.
should
find
The Paschal
eating of the
annual devotees
lamb,
same animal
and
the
killing
at a like season
all
amongst
and
by the
Eastern gypsies, almost leads one to believe in a
remnant of In
original faith
being
still
order to keep up this custom
pilfering
has doubtless
first
to
a
among them. good deal of
be gone through—
;
OR,
Romany
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
31
never pays for what he can get for nothing
and we may
assured
rest
there
mourning and
is
lamentation in the Turkish farmsteads whilst joy and singing prevail at the
Ottoman farmer "
O
will
where,
Has my in those
feasting
The
Bakkava : the
cry of
many an
be
O
where
leetel
lamb gone
"
days set apart by these wanderers as days of
and making merry. following
is
a
little
Roumanian
times heard amongst tent-mothers with the peasant
women
in
some
;
lullaby some-
very popular
it is
:—
villages
LULLABY.—" NANLNANir Lullaby,
Thou
art
my
little
one,
mother's darling son
Loving mother
Mother she
will
will
;
defend thee,
rock and tend thee,
Like a flower of delight,
Or an
angel swathed in white.
Sleep with mother, mother well
Knows the charm for every Thou shalt be a hero as
spell.
;
32
;
•
;
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS Our good Brave
To
in
lord great Stephen was,
war and strong
in
hand,
protect thy fatherland.
"Sleep,
my
baby, in thy bed,
God upon
thee blessings shed
;
Be thou dark and be thine eyes Bright as stars that gem the skies Maiden's love be thine, and sweet
Blossoms spring beneath thy
The two songs which
follow
are
feet."
respectively
Transylvanian and East Roumelian origin
:
—
Vaktri doui kale iakkai
Miklyom mara
Kehaz gule
ta
Oda manghe
i
goulia dai kale
kampile.
Matchin puka mui parno Kalion dusta
la
javb
Kehaz parno
te
gulo
Oda manghe
kampilo.
Translation.
For your two black eyes I left
my
sweet mother
Because they were black and sweet I
loved none other.
of
SONGS OF THE TZIGANE
OR,
For your pale I
Vak-tri
it
-
-
ka
i
tai
le
Kamalav
;
was so pale and
have loved
dou
Ke-hazgou
face
have suffered deeply
Because I
little
-
it
le
fair
sweetly.
iakkai
O
ka-le
-
miklyomma-ra goul
-
da man-ghe kam
tut m'angaliate
Kasoav ani dakar.
Kamalav
te
peravav tut
Veschinde tu o sudre panende.
Translation.
take you in
I will
And
my
arms,
I will sleep like a king.
I will
take you for a walk
Through the
33
forest
by the stream.
-
-
ia
pi
-
)e.
dai
;
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
34
I believe both these songs are to be found in Adriano Colocci's book on the gypsies, " Gli Zingari/'
Dr.
Henry
Phillips, jun., of Philadelphia, has
been
kind enough to send
me
translated from the
"Acta Comparations Litterarum
a
little
volume of Volk-Songs
Universarum." I.
Kiss me, dearest darling mine,
And Let
And
buy a ribbon
I'll
me I'll
nestle
fine
;
on thy arm,
buy a mente* warm.
Shouldst thou play a faithless trick
Then *
The
fur
I'll
get a cudgel thick.
mantle worn
in the
Hungarian national costume.
;
;
:
;
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
OR,
XL Forge the
iron, strike with might,
Like a true-born gypsy smite
Yet
be ever poor,
for all
woe my
Full of
Yet should
Could
My
heart and sore
win a precious aim,
I
within this glowing frame
I
darling's heart
No man
was
till
tender smite,
e'er so rich a wight.
XII.
Beauteous
is
the maiden
Bright her silken robes
But a
gypsy-girl's for
Far a sweeter sight to In the grass Pet and kiss
fair
and
rare
me see.
she'll lie so still,
me
all I will.
XIII.
Maid, thy love hath proved Stripped
God
me
e'en of shirt
my
curse,
and purse
shall singe thy heart with pain,
Then my own
will burst in twain.
XIV. He's a
jolly
chap,
my
beau,
Sure none others like him grow In town grey or in
No
one
like
fields green,
him can be
seen.
;
35
!
—
;
;
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
36
When
bow
his
Great and
the strings doth sweep,
little, all
must weep
If throughout the world you go
There's none other like him, no
In the
the
journal of
!
Gypsy Lore Society
for
January, 1889, these three songs were given as being the
original
to
settings
some Transylvanian
tent-
melodies which had been published in the October (1888) number of the same paper. of the courteous editor,
By kind permission
Mr. David McRitchie,
enabled to quote these verses and the tunes.
add a
I
I
am may
that the specimens were supplied, together with
German
Society.
translation,
The
text
by Professor Herrmann to the
and melody of the
first
were
obtained by Alb. Geiger at Marosvasarhely, and were revised by Dr.
Herrmann.
A llegro.
Maru, Devla, kas kames,
Ke man
Maru, Devla, koka Kai *
jaj
!
destul* phabares, man, bar, jaj
nasti chut'ilom pordal."
Borrowed from
the
Roumanian.
j
OR, " Strike
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
whom
thou
Enough Thy Strike It
down,
O
O God
wilt,
fires
God,
!
Alas
37
!
have scorched me. this
hedge.
For ah
!
cannot else surmounted be."
From Anica
Curar,
a
Wallachian gypsy
girl
of
twenty, imprisoned at Brasso, Kronstadt, in 1886, the
music of No.
was noted down by the well-known
2
musician Zoltan Heltay
;
the words written
by Dr.
Herrmann.
i^^^
iS
^=p= :p=fcc
P^i
-fca
— g — —» — jg
fcg~
V
Si
De man mol la durul'asa, Ke me dan tut la brad'asa.'*
1
Sakade pend'e roma,
Ke
has lenge but
Kerel
Tai
les la
pijel la
ztilta
;
corimasa,
barimasa."
Borrowed from the Magyar.
-I
I
s
38
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS "
;
Come, bring a jar of wine to me, Or I'll the cudgel deal to thee.'
'
So ever have the gypsies said
When money
they in plenty had.
'Twas made by them in penury In
The
from a gypsy
third,
and
;
drunk away."
girl,
Maria Prikulic,
in the
Herr Herbst, Cseszora, able to read and
service of write,
lofty pride 'twas
sister to the first violin in
Belenyes, Bihar,
her native place.
A llegretto
'
Kel'e* caje romani
Sa has mange pirani
Ke
gend'ende,* ke len Ian,
Da* me ode na !
keran.
Ke vod'i man para" ran,* Kana ekha caf dikhan ;
Ke
e caje
romani
Sar o salot lulud'i." *
Borrowed from the Roumanian, t Borrowed from the Magyar.
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
OR, il
39
Oh, the many gypsy maids,
Who
have been
They
my
lovers true
believed that I'd
!
them wed
;
That's just what I did not do. "
For
my
If but
heart
one
I
it
pains
me
sore,
chance to see
;
Like a slim and slender flower Is
To same
each gentle
the following
melodies, also taken
source, there are
Lento
RomanL"
no words given.
:£—£-
from
the
;
.
"
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
40
Largo.
4o A *
v
u
^-*-^— *- -y
u
These quaint
W. are
little
am
verses I
E. Axon, of Manchester, to translations
(1880).
book.
from
I
i
permitted by Mr.
make
Wlislocki's
use
of.
They
" Haidebliiten
The numbers are those given in Wlislocki's Some few have already appeared in the
Manchester Quarterly. for the first time.
on gypsy
The
Mr. Axon
and
lore,
kindness during I
—==—*^-H&^
my
I
rest are is
here published
a well-known authority
have to thank him for
researches into
much Romany Songland.
have not been so fortunate with regard to the original
version of these songs or their music.
It is
not always
possible to obtain permission to quote from any foreign
work, especially from one of the magnitude of the " Haidebliiten." I.
My
dear father
Ere
my
left this
earth
eyes began to see
Long ago my mother
;
died,
And my loved one left me. Few my joys in life would be But for my fiddle's company.
;
OR,
;
;
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
41
IV.
A
ribbon bright
A
my
dearest
mantle warm
I'll
give
kiss
Within her arms to
But should she
A
give
I'll
from
For a
rod
I'll
buy
and
best,
rest
faithless prove,
for
my
love.
V.
The maiden she wishes for ribbon and rose The boy he wishes for bright-chequered hose The wife she wishes a baby fine, But the husband
—he wishes
for lots of
VIII.
who
Lord,
With
has
flowers
made
decked
this earth so fine, its
floor so
wide
Warmed it with the bright sun-rays, And ordained this Eastern tide ;
Lodge with me, now, Clean swept Clean
is
my
I
pray
hut to-day,
the cloth I
lay.
IX. Gaily sing the birds,
The
We
children gaily leap forget the winter's pain
When
Whitsuntide we keep.
;
swine
:
!
42
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
XIX. Lonely
the bird above,
sits
am sad, and pine. Come, my love, and kiss me And ease all pain of mine. And
I
now,
XXII.
When that I was bold and young, On my arms the fair girls hung Now that I am frail and old, Maidens leave me in the cold. ;
XXIII. I
a gypsy child was born,
Of
a mother
all
forlorn
In the long grass
None
baptized
I
me
was
;
lain,
but the rain.
XXIV. Oh, thou, 'Tis
thou
!
And when
My
my fiddle, art my life my food and my drink
art
I shall
life will
be
cease to love thee,
lost, I think.
;
;
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
OR,
XXV.
When my heart Feels sorrow's smart
When
My
no gold
purse doth hold,
On my
fiddle I play deep,
Until care
and hunger
sleep.
XXVI. In autumn the peasant rejoices,
The hunter keeps watch
with his gun,
But the gypsy laments and
is
That the sunshine of summer
woeful, is
done.
XXVI. Though Still
I
I
lived a century, then
should
I love
but young
would not marry one
Though
the
man
men
were made of gold.
XXXII.
My
dear young boy, so
fine,
The
flowers in thy hat are gay
But
in spite of pretty flowers,
Thy
;
that's old
wits are flown away.
;
43
—
;
MAGYAR OR HUNGARIAN GYPSY SONGS
44
The few
lines of
music
theme of a gypsy dance,
I
give next form the chief
as heard in Vienna.
Pfwr^
i
London society has of late become familiar with many of these wild dance tunes through the medium of the popular Blue Hungarian Band, without which
no reunion or
fete
has
been
deemed
Through the buzz and hum of many softly-whispered
flirtations
successful.
voices above the
maidens and
of Mayfair
Belgravian bachelors, athwart the grave discussions of thoughtful
statesmen,
have these
melodies stolen, sometimes so
soft,
that only Carlyle's simile expresses
wondrous weird
and
sweet,
" Little dewdrops of celestial melody at others, mild, throbbing,
and low
them
and thundering
" ;
like
angry billows flinging shells on a frightened
Always that
beautiful,
always bewitching,
we have welcomed these
the
shore.
what wonder
interpreters of a world
OR, of
SONGS OF THE TZIGANI.
harmony widely
ideas of music,
of the
different to our
and
own
set,
stereotyped
fallen worshippers at the shrine
Magyar magicians.
Amid the golden gifts which Heaven Has left like portions of its light on earth, None hath such influence as music hath." "
45
"
SONGS OF THE GITANOS OR SPANISH GYPSIES. ' '
The
Devil hath not in
An arrow
all his
quiver's choice
for the heart like a sweet voice."
— Byrox. Amor y Libertad. '
el mundo nie son caras y Libertad s61o guerria. Mi vida diera eel amor en aras Peso a Libertad mi amor daria."
Dos cosas en
Amor
Love and Liberty. '
I
sigh for Liberty
And
and Love,
these suffice for me,
My life I offer up to My love to Liberty.
— Heraclio
Love,
M. De La Guardia.
SPANISH GYPSY SONGS. In
Spain the
or
Gitanos,
Pharaoh's People, and there
known
are
gypsies, is
as
a strange legend which
accounts for their having gained this sobriquet current
both
in
Hungary
amongst
and
" Pharaoh, having conquered
known globe with to
Spaniards.
the
the countries of the
all
numerous armies, determined
his
God Almighty
send a challenge to the Lord
;
God
refused to accept the challenge, and, instead, opened a hole in the side of a mountain,
wind;
with this
armies into the hole
them." is
On
and raised a mighty
wind he drove Pharaoh and ;
his
and the mountain closed on
the night of the Feast of
John there
St.
said to be a sound of voices singing and yelling
Pharaoh and
heard inside the mountain. hosts being
all
shut up, the kings and
mighty
his
nations
left
on
the earth rose up in rebellion against the Egyptians,
and drove them out of wanderers over the
rest
their
of
own land the
world
to :
become
hence the
gypsies, or wanderers (Zigeuner), that are to
be found
in every country." I
puzzled
for
some time over
this
extraordinary
E
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
50
legend, wondering where I had read or heard some-
thing
similar
to
it,
but
was not
it
till
I
had the
poem of " The Pied Mr. Thomas Brandby rendered
pleasure of hearing Browning's
Piper of Hamelin
ram
"
in his forcible
manner, that
where the counterpart of
occurred to
it
me
gypsy fancy was to be
this
found. " In Transylvania there's a tribe
Of alien people, that ascribe The outlandish ways and dress
On
which
To
their fathers
their neighbours lay
such
stress
and mothers having
Out of some subterranean
risen
prison,
Into which they were trepanned
Long ago
The own
in a
mighty band."
gypsies of Italy and Spain have forgotten their
language, and have formed for themselves
a
facetious one, called " Gerizonza," or " Ziriguenza,"
composed of some words of and of some they have syllables
altered that
themselves.
proverbs and to
Italian
it
their
own
invention,
and Spanish words, of which
the
meaning and inverted the
might
The Spanish
be
intelligible
only
to
gypsies are rich in quaint
terse sayings,
the rest of the world,
many
of which are lost
owing to the strangely
—
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. untranslatable
Some
jargon
in
which
51
they are
clothed.
of the customs in vogue amongst them have
been noted by Mr.
whose
Borrow,
widely-known
works on the Spanish gypsies are doubtless familiar
who
to all
are interested
in
Romany
instance, a Gitano will never sell a
things
;
he may pawn them, but only
so as a last resource,
and he
For
history.
dead
relative's
driven to do
if
redeem them
will
soon as he can possibly manage to do so
as
and the
;
horse and donkey of the deceased become as sacred
animals to the rest of the
known
tribe.
believe
I
fact that the gypsies of this
bury their dead under water, a accounted
many
for
it is
country
fact
a well-
will
only
may be
that
by the cruel treatment they were
for
They
years subjected to by the Spaniards.
have a saying which shows in what contempt they are held by them.
" For that which
thou canst entertain no hope the gypsy white."
is
unclean by nature
no washing
:
will
turn
Ferdousi.
" All Andalusians, and indeed
all
made up their minds as nomads whom some English
Spaniards, have
long since
to the
moral worth
of the
writers
have found
to
be so picturesque and interesting; and modern
Spain does not
down by
differ materially
from the dictum
laid
Cervantes, that "gypsies are but a good-
for-nothing
people,
and
only
born
to
and
pick
steal."
e
2
—
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
52
I
quote these remarks from an admirable
which
appeared
on the subject of the for the
trial
of Dr. Middleton at Cordova
murder of the Spanish gypsy
the Mezquita, as the Cordovanese
which was
ful cathedral
article
Telegraph*
The Daily
in
lately
built as a
in the belfry of
still
call the beauti-
mosque during the This
domination of the Moors in Southern Spain. "
Romani Chal " was
a
man
of great bodily strength,
and of such a ferocious disposition that he was an nevertheless, the object of terror to the whole town ;
desperado had many sympathizers among the members of his
own
estranjero
To
and the
race,
dreds of Gitanos
who
who had
killed their
liars
was attended by hun-
on the face of the
earth.
it
"
might have
been the biggest
They
are not even to
in their statements as to the region
whence they came, and why they although
to see the
the Gitano character
Don Quixote
that the gypsies have always
be depended upon
town
comrade.
summary of
his agreeable
the illustrious author of "
added
trial
flocked into the
was doubtless
for
left their
that
country,
country's
good.
In Spain Zaragoza was formerly the headquarters of the Gitanos, and the residence of the so-called of the Gypsies at present as
in Arragon,
;
was
and
King
but they are not nearly so numerous at
in
one time the case
in the Castilles,
La Mancha. Andalusia * April ioth, 1888.
is
now
the
OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
53,
happiest hunting-ground of the Spanish gypsies, and
they gather in greatest numbers at Cordova, in the
suburb of
Seville,
and Valencia, and
known at
as
La Triana;
at
Grenada,
The
Puerta del Terra of Cadiz.
Andalusian Gitanos are admittedly picturesque, and their pictorial aspect has
the canvases of gess, it
and
in the
John
been admirably rendered
Phillip, of Ansdell,
drawings of Gustave Dore.
be denied that the young gypsy
at Seville,
dance with
gists, again,
Nor can
lassies of the Triana,
infinite grace
and
agility,
fortunes in the most seductive manner.
tell
in
and of Bur-
and
Ethnolo-
have always been puzzled to discover the
reason for the strong similarity in physiognomy, in
manners, and in attainments which gypsies
of the
environs of Moscow. cal
;
there
is
choregraphic
exists
Their dances are almost identi-
scarcely
any difference between the
figures indulged
gypsies and the " seguidillas
"
in by the Muscovite and " jotas " in which
the Gitanas of the Triana are such adepts distinguished
between the
suburb of Seville and those of the
critic,
M. Louis
Viardot,
;
while the
has drawn
attention to the close resemblance of the slow
and
tender melodies of the Russian to those of the Spanish gypsies.
In rough and wild countries there
is
but a
very thin line of demarcation between the gypsy and the brigand, who, on occasion, can be a murderer.
The gypsies are the chosen dancers of the Macarena,
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
54
the ragged quarter of Seville, whence Murillo drew his
dusty-footed,
melon-eating
beggar-boys.
The
Bolero, the Cadiz cachuca, the Malaga dance which
describes
the
bull-fight;
manchegas,
seguidillas,
Malagenas, rondenas, and the
famous Romalis, the
dance which Tiberius may have seen, and which no
one but a gipsy dances
in Spain.
It is
danced to the
ancient Oriental music of hand-clapping, and to an old
low and melancholy, diatonic,
religious Eastern tune,
not chromatic, and
and
strange
full
startling.
of sudden pauses which are
It is
sung
in unison,
chorus in which every one joins.
and has a
Ford, the great
authority in Spain, says these tunes are relics of the
old Greek and Phoenician music.
Even the
used by the gypsies of calabash shape it
is
worn and played
before
the Pharaohs.
and stimulating
to the Spanish
ear,—
a gun-fire to a sailor.
Romany
it
was 4,000 years ago,
Egypt and imported
All these songs are accompanied with
castanets, like the rattle of so
suggestive
guitar
Moorish;
to
just as
King Wilkinson came
is
much summer
is
hail.
Very
the sound of castanets
it is
as a trumpet to a soldier, or
All
round the room where these
dances are performed,
click-click of these instruments.
may be heard the dry The gypsies drone a
sort of sleepy chant, unceasingly clapping their hands,
and the the
guitar tinkles
and chimes
mazy pattern of the dance.
as
it
slowly threads
;
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. Truth to
the dancing
tell,
antelope eyes
;
girl is
no
no moonlight voice.
like a sailor's wife at
drawn back behind her
and by no means a lift its
down upon
She
No.
in
ears,
she
;
is
which
dangle
thick-
harebell could
her strong foot once
if
cauli-
feet are
and
stout
The
sylph.
head again
rather
is
large red
and her small neat
protected by strong high-lows
;
She has ropy black
She wears a
flowered-pattern gown,
never
;
Wapping.
heavy gold earrings.
set,
no
;
no serpentine waist
fringe of eyelash
hair
not romantic
no black torrents of overflowing hair
no sweeping fairy feet;
55
came
Gradually, as you get accustomed to
it.
thump
the dance, you learn to distinguish the dull
of
the heel from the lively quick one-two tap of the toe
of her shoes,
seems
to
and then the
girl
the palms of her
float
song,
brown hands together
and untiring
it
is
more
Every now
along the room.
lowers her arms and begins to beat
incantation tune that natural
young witch of Endor, she
like a
as,
swim and
stirs
ceaselessness.
fit
for Irish
As
own
other extraneous help heaven
perpetual hand-clapping
is
It
keeps the
super-
wake-singers or Arab
who dance
heart-music, and what
may send them.
The
exciting, just as the per-
petual low beat of the Sioux calabash-drum
mind
its
for the recitative
serpent-charmers than for festive dancers, to the pulsation of their
some low
to
you strangely by
is
exciting.
in a state of fevered tension, highly
!
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
56
stimulating
grows
the
to
fiercer
from side to
and
side,
and the double that
no
sailor
The
imagination.
the lady of
faster,
witch
Endor
backing and sidling like a shy horse, going on
shuffle
could equal
;
the time in a
all
finally the
up her pocket handkerchief and
gypsy
flings
it
small
is
way
girl twists
into the lap
This piece of
of the most eligible gentleman present.
coquetry
dance
wriggles
rewarded, or supposed to be rewarded, by a
douceur rolled up in
the
handkerchief
returned with a courteous and gallant
bow
to
and the
lady. illustration of the
Longfellow gives a very forcible national hatred
felt in
Spain for the
Romany
clan, in
the second scene of his " Spanish Student," where, in the public square of the village of Guadarrama, the
Ave Maria
still
toiling,
hats in their hands as in the foreground,
a crowd of villagers with their if
in prayer, a
group of gypsies
and the old Padre Cura standing
door of his cottage, enter Pancho and Pedro
at the
Crespo to read
an act of banishment against the
gypsies.
Pancho. gypsy thieves for
!
Make room, ye vagabonds and Make room for the Alcade and
me
Padre here
C.
Keep
silence
all
!
I
have an edict
;
!
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. From our most
gracious lord, the
57
King of Spain,
Jerusalem, and the Canary Islands,
Which
I shall
Open your
publish in the market-place.
ears,
and
listen
!
Padre Cura
Good
day,
Padre
and pray you hear
Good
C.
Pray what
Pedro
and God be with you.
is it ?
An
C.
day,
this edict read.
Act of Banishment against the
gypsies.
Pancho.
Silence
Pedro C. mand
(reads).
I
hereby order and com-
That the Egyptian and the Chaldean
Known
by the name of gypsies,
Be banished from
And
beggars
;
Any be found
strangers,
shall henceforth
the realm, as vagabonds
and
if,
after seventy days,
within our kingdom's bounds
They shall receive a hundred lashes each The second time shall have their ears cut off; The third, be slaves for life to him who takes them, or burnt as heretics.
Signed,
I,
the King.
Vile miscreants and creatures unbaptized,
You (
hear the law
!
Obey and disappear
!
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
58
And
Pancho.
if in
seventy days you are not
gone,
Dead
or alive I
make you
my
all
slaves.
\The gypsies go out in confusion, shoiving signs of
fear and
Of
gypsy
all
renowned "
discontent,
women
Pancho follows\
the
Spanish are the most
fortune-tellers, " baji," they call
By hedgerows green they
it.
strew the leafy bed,
Adroit the lines of palmistry to trace,
Or read
We
the damsel's wishes in her face."
have many proverbs in use
we do not know the source
in
our country that
Many
of.
of
them
originate with the quick-witted, black-eyed people of
the tents,
and of these most are
Spanish
Romany
;
for
" Where you think there are are not even hooks to
and for
also,
the
flitches
hang them on,"
homely one,
of bacon there is
a gypsy idea
God's sake,"
— " Hurtar Two
el
puerco, y dar los pies
heads are better than one,"
probably the Gitano's favourite maxim, "
quatro ojos que dos," two."
;
" Steal the pig, and give away the pettitoes
por Dios," and our, " is
translations from the
instance,
— " Four
Mas veen
eyes are better than
—
OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
through
it
Don
the
humour running
has a vein of
The same
it.
seriousness of
of
gravity
traditional
Notwithstanding the Spanish character,
59
race which produced the
mad
Quixote produced also the comic
wisdom of Sancho Panza, with his quaint proverbs There was a time when Spanish jests.
and shrewd
seemed
destined
to
become
language of the
the
and Spain the foremost country, but that time
world,
has passed away, and the most the language of the
country of olives and wine superiority
even
that
those
who
soft
offers
in the
masters
not
are
tongue can find pleasure to the
now
way of
structure so favourable to poetry,
its
is
reading
in
of
the
listening
or
musical syllables of Spanish verse and
song.
In Longfellow's, gypsy-like drama, " Student," there fifth
working
Gypsies
On
(at
The Spanish
gypsy song
a genuine
scene, where the gypsies are
forest,
"
is
encamped
in
at a forge.
the forge, sing).
the top of a mountain
With a crown of red gold
I stand,
in
my
hand,
Wild Moors come trooping over the
lea,
O how from their fury shall I flee, flee, O how from their fury shall I flee ? "
the
in the
flee ?
'
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
60
"
Loud sang
And God
the Spanish cavalier,
thus his ditty ran
send the gypsy
:
lassie here,
But not the gypsy man. "
At midnight, when the moon began
To show
her silver flame,
There came
The gypsy
to
him no gypsy man,
lassie
came."
[Original of Gypsy Song at the Forge.
"
En
los sastos
de vesque
plai
me
diquelo,
Doscusanas de sonacai terelo Corojai diquelo abillar
Y-ne
asislo chapescar, chapescar."
" El eray guillabela
El eray obusno Q'abillele
No "
Romanala.
abillele Caloro."
La chimutra
A
se ardela
pas-erachi
El Calo no abillela Abillela la romi."
Borrow, in his account of the Zincali, or Gitanos, of Spain, gives this song in the original
Romany,
as
—
—
;
OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
days of Ferdinand and Isabella, by
one used
in the
the gypsy
fortune-tellers.
one who has been fascinated by the
In Spain, gypsies
is
one of the "aficion," or "
called
or " fancy "
61
he
;
is
them, and the people know perfectly what for every
" in
He
Spaniard
feels
camping
skin
means,
is
wandering
in a
lonely places, under old chestnut
near towering rivulets
is
it
at heart a Bohemian.
what a charm there
in
affection,"
an " aficianado," or affected unto
cliffs,
among
'
al
pasar
del
He
the rocks."
muleteer's song
and
by the
thinks of the wine-
and wheaten cakes, when one
road, of the mules
aroyo,'
life,
trees,
tinkling
is
hungry on the
bells,
and of the
:
" If thou art sleeping, maiden,
Awake, and open thy door
;
Tis the break of day, and we must away O'er meadow and mount and moor." "
Wait not
to find thy slippers,
But come with thy naked
We
shall
And of the
he
fire
falls
feet
have to pass through the dewy grass
waters wide and
by
night,
asleep.
fleet."
and the "
cigarito "
"Then he remembers
smoked
till
the gypsies
—
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
62
who came
to the
camp, and the black-eyed
girl
who
told him his fortune, and all that followed in the rosy dawn, and ever onward into starry night." *
"Y "
la luz
And
with rapture,
is filled
light of those lights above."
following Spanish gypsy songs are taken from
Borrow's book, "
de esos luceros."
his heart
At the
The
alma llena
se alegre el
De
My
''
The
Zincali "
mule so bonny
:
I bestrode,
To Portugal I'd flee And as I o'er the water rode, A man came suddenly, And he his love and kindness showed ;
By
dog on me."
setting his
Original.
"
Me
costune la chori,
Para chalar a Laloro Al nacar de
;
la pani,
Abillo obusno,
Y
el
chuqual Leland,
a"
largo
"The
me
chibo."
Gypsies."
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. "
Come to the window, sweet love, And I will whisper there In Romany a word or two, And thee far off will bear."
63
do,
Original.
" Abillelate a la dicani
Que
Una
Y "
A
io
despues
Gypsy
Has
A
voy
te
penelar
buchi en Calo
feat
te liguerar."
stripling's sparkling
pierced
my
eye
bosom's core,
no eye beneath the sky
Could
e'er effect before."
Original. "
Unas
Me
acais callardias,
han vencido,
Como aromali no me vencen De cayque nacido." In Andalusia, where the left
otras,
Moorish influence has
the deepest traces, songs are often to be heard
which seem almost a blending of the graceful and yet
somewhat sententious and the
fierce
quality of the Spanish folk-song
and passionate melancholy of the gypsy
';
SONGS OF THE G1TAN0S
64
song.
Still,
though
this fusion
of two styles renders
discrimination difficult as to the sources of each, so
much that
of the wild mystery of the
All the original gypsy
origin.
Romany
obtains
impossible to believe them other than this in
it is
of Spanish
Romany,
rhymes are
unintelligible to
in a jargon
most Spaniards
but in spite of the hatred and contempt evinced for the down-trodden Gitano, their songs and dances have
always found
Alma
many
Strettell, in
Folk-Songs," devotes several pages to these
Italian
Gitano or " Flamenco
mens of them. with
proper,
its
"
songs,
She says
:
and gives "
plaintive
strange,
less
singers,
These fairs,
several speci-
The Flamenco song
elaborate # guitar accompaniment,
sung
Miss
admirers in the country.
a dainty volume of " Spanish and
is
air,
and
intended
by the people than by the
*
often to
be
professional
—either a gypsy or some one taught
by them.
singers collect large audiences at the country
or in the
towns.
Some
little
taverns in the gypsy quarter of the
of them have
made
name
a great
in
Spain by their improvisations and their expressive singing of these strange lyrics.
Many
of the Flamenco
songs, like the Spanish popular ones, are " bailable "
(danceable), national
—that
is,
their
music
dances are performed,
charm of the Flamenco song the
weird and graceful
is
is
that to
—and
which the
hence to the
added the charm of
Flamenco dance
;
for
the
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. dancing of the gypsy
famous
women
been
especially has ever
of these songs
Very few
Spain.
in
65
humorous or merry, and those
are
that are are the poorest
Those who knew these songs and perearlier days say that they are becoming
of their kind.
formances in
and peculiar
corrupted, losing their original
character,
and adopting too much of the more ordinary Spanish tone and express
it
.style,
(the
—becoming
" gachonales,"
word gacho being the
the Spaniards).
This
having attracted so
is
gypsies'
much
congregate to hear them.
attention,
and preserving them from
dilla
There
for collecting the
The most
distinctly
for
attributed to the fact of their
and having been
introduced into cafes where audiences of
more reason
they
as
name
is,
classes
all
therefore,
all
the
most genuine of them,
total oblivion.
Flamenco song
is
the " Segui-
Gitano, or Jitano," which, unlike
namesake, consists of four
lines only,
Spanish
its
the
two
first
a ad the last of which are short, while the third
A
long; the second and fourth lines rhyme.
is
pro-
longed guitar solo ushers in the song, which commences with a long '
fioriture."
"Ay"
wailed out
again, plays several bars;
sung,
—the
tragic, or
on a succession of
After this the voice pauses
and then the
second or third
line,
;
the guitar,
seguidilla
whichever
important to the verse, being taken
the song closing with the line
upon which
is
first, it
is
most and
began.
— SONGS OF THE GITANOS
66
Flamenco as
then
they are
but
ones,
called
Diminutives occur at every turn, in the
"Serranas."
most
have the same form
seguidillas occasionally
Spanish
the
tragic as well as the
most tender passages
very verbs are conjugated in the diminutive. impossibility of rendering this strange
freak of language into English
is
;
the
The
and charming
one of the many
drawbacks which make of a translation but a pale reflection of the original.
following are " Soleares," which I have been
The
quote from
courteously allowed to
volume
Miss
Strettell's
:
"
Passing thy door,
An Ave '
Even "
Thy
I said
Maria
'
for thee,
as wert thou dead."
love
is
And mine
like the is
winds that range,
like the
unshaken rock,
That knows no change." "
Gypsy maid, when thou Let them with
Mark
art dead,
my very
" I will die, that I
may
blood
see
Whether death can end This
heart's
the gravestone at thy head."
thirst for thee."
this frenzy,
—
!
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. " I
am
God
All that
I
may
" If I
The
thee never
have now forgiven."
not take revenge in
I will
Until
in heaven,
will forgive
my
In death shall
For
God
greater than
Since
Go
seek through
shine,
:
moon
the
tell
She need not
Or
the graves
all
out thee."
I find
now, and
life,
vengeance be,
following are " seguidillas " "
67
rise to night,
because
my
have
I
*comrade's (or
lover's) eyes,
To
The
give
revengeful
me
light."
little
song
I
give next
is
also a
" seguidilla." " Go to, then And Heaven grant thou
Slain
first
That thou dost mean *
and
as the case is
an
for
same
knife,
O
comrade,
me."
use of the word " companero," or " compahera,"
The
frequent,
be
thyself with that
may
is
taken to mean friend, lover, husband, or wife, be the English word companion, or comrade,
it is
;
insufficient rendering of
it,
but the only available one.
F 2
;
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
6S
" Petenera." " There's that in thee, thou gypsy wife
Was never seen among thy Of all thy sorrows, not a sign Has passed into thy face." "
No
sign has passed into
Yet sorrow leaves I
do not
To be
tell
my
my
griefs
my
race
;
face,
heart
no
rest
abroad,
the people's jest."
SEGUIDILLA GITANO.
^m
:
J
OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
69
SPANISH PETENERA. L&nguido.
^_=s=^ =1-=ts F=l pa-*—*—*- -*—S*— 2
—
f
ja
tris
-
te
-
me me-mo-na
no
me
tns
estas a
-
-
The Gitanos have many
—
L_J
I
te-
tor
-
men
-
varieties
tan
-
do.
of song,
peculiar to the gypsies of one place,
some
such as the
" Malaguefias" to Malaga, the " Sevillianas" to Seville
;
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
70
then Granada has
its
"Polos" and "Soledads," and the
" Fandango con Ritornello"
gypsy songsters. least
I
common
is
have thought
it
to
all
Spanish
best to give at
one specimen of each, and a word of general
apology for their appended translations.
It is
almost
impossible to render at
and
at
accurately,
all
the
same time rhythmically, these quaint gems of Spanish
Romany
poesy
;
the words are as out-of-place in our
matter-of-fact English language as the music
propriate
to
our pianos
we need
;
the
atmosphere of a Southern night, the rich
is
inap-
soft starry
foliage
and
glowing colours of the gardens in the city of the
Moors, and the dark-eyed gypsy maidens, with their well -used guitars to give the real essence to the
Gitano," or the "Soledad" of Granada verses
become
as enthralling
the simplest of chords
spheres
beyond
and
and we are content
;
is
rolling
course, so long as
gorgeous
on
to
the grandest epic, as the
know
music of the
that the world
in its turbulent, ever-changing
we may
Alhambra,
as
trills
"Polo
then senseless
;
rest
with
under the shade of the
only
the
pomegranate
branches between our languid eyes and the dark star-spangled
sky,
and a band of vivacious Gitanos
discoursing sweet music to our willing ears.
"
Music
lie."
Such sweet compulsion doth
in
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. The following
is
a specimen of the " Soledad " of the
gypsies of Granada.
These songs are of the same
" of the style as the " Complaintes
do
Second
na
de
za
-
French peasantry.
re
no.
verse.
"
Aunque en una
cruz te pongas
Vestido de nazareno
Y
pegues
En
7i
las tres caidas,
tu palabra
no creo."
|
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
7-'
"
The two
Fandangos
"
which
give next are both
I
They
favourites with the Gitanos.
are
Romany gallantry. The first
conceits of
is
quaint a
little
"Fandango
con Ritornello."
^-T-rflS5HSsEfe3 Ec
y
ha
-
las
me
-
-
lie
—
va
I—
&=*=
las
ni
:_U
en
-
garce
-
-
bo
ria
re
r
un
-
da
.
1-
-**-±*-j^J-*- -J
pla
Translation of the " Will
Grana
a.
-
te
-
ro
"Fandango"
you these pearly
words.
tears
Leave with me, sweet maiden.
That
And
I
may
carry
have them
them
to
Granada,
set in gold."
p— pH
^=h
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. The second
is
known
also
as a "
73
Fandango."
A llegretto.
3
Cuan-do
nolle
va
-
lu
no
do
que
dia
How
no
te
lie
-
va
Lu
sadly wanders the
So do
I grieve
When
thou,
;ueha."
I
my
away from me.
Romanies of Malaga it
:
heart
love, art
have heard
-
moon
clouds are veiling the stars
Peculiar to the
ce
ve
When
O
-
is
this "
Mala-
asserted that the gypsies in
.
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
74
this
district are
of a
sad temperament.
peculiarly
Certainly the tenour of the words of the following
not
is
lively.
A Regret to.
Si
ma
la
-1—
-.
p
I
--£--c=E
' ' 1
•
Si
Ma
la
dre
-
-
ci
-
mi
ta
a
-
^^^g
m—f^i= vier
la
-
a
ca
lo
-
que
estpy
fuer-a
lie
pa
re
-
-
san
-
do,
gan
-
do
Translation of the " Malaguena
When
'
'
the poor mother sees
Her son
forsaken and in pain,
In the bitterness of her
On
_d
~^»LJ
the street
fall
grief,
her tears like rain."
OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
75
SEGUIDILLAS MANCHEGAS. Allegro,
|JE!=Bg|g=rEj Aunque
—a
This
little
lu
Man
que
song
-
-
I
ga
-
•
ga
-
r
^-
no
res,
is
.
hay
in praise of the
Manzanares.
to this effect,
sung in English.
if
had the choice of two thousand
still
.
za
would be something If I
ten
g_i _g
mil
H^
-n i^
1
man-cha
la
» dos
;
spots,
should choose to be near the Manzanares
To me
it is
without a
Manzanares,
O
rival,
Manzanares
!
It
— SONGS OF THE GITANOS
76
"
The Manzanares,
love,
and thine eyes
Beloved maiden, beloved maiden
The Manzanares,
love,
and thine eyes
Beloved maiden, beloved maiden " Manzanares
!
Manzanares
!
let
Sweetest songs of thy wit and
Let
One that all
is
me
shining,
!
shining,
!
me
ever sing of thee
;
spirit,
ever sing of thee."
thing I cannot understand in this song, and
the seeming adoration of the
gypsies
had an
instinctive
river.
I
thought
hatred of water, and
Spanish gypsies in particular.
The words specimen of
of the " Polo
Romany
"
which follow are a true
gallantry.
Words of "Polo? "
When you doubt, oh, my beloved When you doubt, oh, my beloved If I am true to thee. If I am true to thee, Devoted, Ah See what I offer thee, Ah !
!
See what
My
life,
thee
I offer
With my whole
my
heart,
love
" !
!
!
!
OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
17
POLO GITANO 6 FLEMENCO. Allesro. tremata.
Ay
j
i
!
j
ay
S
a= Pan
SONGS OF THE GITANOS
7«
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w
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OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
79
i^EE^Jaypg^i
N rq:
I
^==g=
LA MALAGUENA TIRANA. Tirana. Moderato.
i
^=ff^=(?: ^ :
Can
-
ta
—
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ta
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THE GITANOS
SOJVGS OF
8o
da
que
-
re
-
dor
-
»
mi
a tempo.
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^=£Eg
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tar
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ti
-
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ra,
^
wo*
mi
na
-
J
I
gui
-
.
^ig
5ggp~
a
le,
la
ti
Malaguena. Allegretto, -=l
=5^
;:q:
—
fe A
-
fe
dios,
^~ — Ma - la
* -
ga
b»— la
^ OR SPANISH GYPSIES.
ciu
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-
Ts ]ue
ta,
Ahi
dad
don
Si
-
yo
de
vi
^ z— — E
te
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te
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te
-
da
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alma
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ti
"
SONGS OF THE G I TAN OS.
8z
LA MALAGUENA TIRANA. There
is
song that
such a charming German version of
this
a translation of "
The
I give
here as
it
Malaguena."
" Sing Liebchen weg mir den
Kummer
Singe mir, du susses Leben, bis mich
Der Ton deines Liedes wieget In sorglosen Senium mer.
"
Denn beiden Klang
der Guitarre,
Holder schatz mein, holder schatz mein, Entfliehen die Schmerzen bei Liedes siissen Zauber,
Gequaltem Herzen,
ja
gequaltem Herzen
enfelt,
Gequaltem Herzen,
ja
gequaltem Herzen
enfelt.
" Malaga, leb' wohl
Malaga,
leb'
du Schone,
wohl du Schone,
Gliicklick in dir floss
mein Leben
;
Miiss ich denn, ach, von dir scheiden
Wird doch mein
geist dich
Schweben, wird doch mein Lieb
Tode
!
halt ein niir
!
von
Frieden,
dir
um, geist dich iim.
geshieden find ich im,
Tode nur Frieden
;
Ach
!
;
!
OR SPANISH GYPSIES. Another "Polo" goes somehow thus " Pretty maiden, deep in
There
lies
my
:—
heart
a world of painful love for thee
Awake from
thy slumbers,
Come and soothe my pain. All my songs of joy have vanished, Thy presence only gives me rest Deprived of the
Ah Ah I
light of thine eyes
a gloomy melancholy oppresses me.
What !
what sorrow
!
Ah
die!
!
Ah
Ah!
!
I
Oh
!
Ah
!
what pain
!
die!"
POLO. Larghetto.
Cuerpo
si
es-tasdor
-
bue-no
mi
-
da,
alma
di
ya-liv- ia
vi
-
na,
de
qu
*-w
mSt
^m
German
Russian national music, says, "
Erato, speaking of the It
seems
in general to
bear some resemblance to the ancient airs of
Italy, as
they existed in their simplest form, long before the
refinement of succeeding ages had carried them to their present state of perfection.
had no masters calculated their airs
music
;
The to
Russians, however,
improve and mature
and the composers of
their
more ancient
were the untaught children of nature, who accom-
panied them with such words as flowed spontaneously
;
RUSSIAN ROMANY SONGS
98
from
this
and
their feelings,
to the
rhyme or
practice
without
that, too,
much
regard
regular structure of the stanza prevails
still
many
in
parts
;
and
of the
empire.
"These melodies were noted by the
musical
art,
and who,
certain proficients in
naturally supposed,
is
it
must have been foreigners already
More
country.
regular
stanzas
settled
applied by such as had a turn for poetry
we may judge from
bards,
if
verses,
seem
to
in
the
were successively ;
but these
the texture of their
have been no other than mere rustics
or mechanics, whose talents, nature,, and passion, not art,
"
had thus
called forth.
The Ukraine has
ever been the Provence of the
Russian Empire, and, together with the White and the Lesser Russia, national
The
airs.
still
continues to be the nursery of
inhabitants of those districts may,
indeed, be considered as the genuine Troubadours of the nation.
The Russian songs in their native dress may have little more to recommend them than their extreme naivete, which, how interesting so ever it may be to "
the
common
people, would
ill
undergo a transfusion
into another language.
The
particular superstitions to
which the songs so frequently
allude
would,
version
still
local
customs and the
besides, contribute to render a literal
more awkward and
unintelligible to such
OR,
SONGS OF THE TZIGGANI.
foreign ears as are
accustomed
effusions of the Lyric I
to the
more
have, therefore, thought
set to
fastidious
Muse." it
better just to give the
music of the Russian gypsy songs which
which are not
99
Romany
verse,
follow,
and
merely Russian.
RUSSIAN GYPSY SONG.
gg^^^^^^B >
fc-
*=$
^^^^feffig^g I only
wish some dozen gypsy voices could be
bound amongst the
leaves of this
the necessary touches of
life
little
volume, to add
and enthusiastic wildness
to these songs of the Tziggani.
H
2
,
RUSSIAN ROMANY SONGS
RUSSIAN GYPSY SONG.
The
following translation was
of
Vesseloffsky,
He
London. Certainly that
is
it
is
the
made
for
me by
Mr.
Russian Consulate-General
apologized for the want of sense in
in it.
an extraordinary composition, and one
difficult to
understand.
"THE VILLAGE PEASANTS." (VIENSHKI). I.
"
The village peasants They are merely fools, Good-for-nothing
bush
!
White
hazel-tree, oh, raspberry-
!
Vyeryeviewshki vyeryeview, viewshki, viewsky vyeryeviewshki.
Young lady has
little
morocco
shoes.
;
OR,
SONGS OF THE TZIGGAN1.
"They chop Not
their ringers, they pull out their
oft"
to enter military service,
They do not wish berry-bush
to
White
!
[teeth hazel-tree, oh, rasp-
!
Vyeryeviewshki,
etc.
3-
"
John the Horse-radish
is
accepted as a recruit
The whole village began to grieve, They weep White hazel-tree, oh, !
Vyeryeviewshki,
raspberry-bush
!
etc.
4-
" That's
Thou
enough weeping and grieving
wilt serve
With other people bush
:
not alone !
White
hazel-tree, oh, raspberry-
!
Vyeryeviewshki, etc.
5-
"
On
a steep mountlet
There
is
a wretched inn
Unthatched
!
White
hazel-tree, oh, raspberry
Vyeryeviewshki,
etc.
bush
!
;
RUSSIAN ROMANY SONGS
i2
6.
"The Horse-radish
is
lying
on
his side
And smoking
a pipe of tobacco.
Makhorka
White
!
hazel-tree, oh, raspberry-bush
Vyeryeviewshki,
!
etc.
7-
"
And
the old
woman, a termagant,
Took a dislike to the smell White hazel-tree, Of tobacco !
Vyeryeviewshki,
oh, raspberry-bush
!
etc.
8.
" She wept, she sobbed,
She ran
to the Lieutenant
With a request bush
!
White
hazel-tree, oh,
raspberry-
!
Vyeryeviewshki, etc.
9-
"
Thou
Lieutenant,
Be judge
in
my
dear,
our case
Unimportant
!
White
hazel-tree,
bush! Vyeryeviewshki,
etc.
oh,
raspberry-
—
OR,
"
He
SONGS OF THE TZIGGAN1.
gave his decision in the case
103
:
Five hundred cudgels
Hot
White
!
hazel-tree, oh, raspberry-bush
Vyeryeviewshki,
!
etc.
11.
"Thou old woman don't be cross, Make your peace with the lodger, The Horse-radish White-hazel-tree, !
bush
oh, raspberry-
!
Vyeryeviewshki,
etc.
=--4— ^= m -
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—
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-1
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S
1*
~tt g y
-v
a
J^^^^
:
S
tetnfio.
^
RUSSIAN ROMANY SONGS
ie>4
A at
song which a female gypsy sang to Mr. Borrow,
Moscow, commenced
"Her head As and ended "
if
is
in this way,
aching with
grief,
she had tasted wine,"
thus,
That she may depart
Of the
And
in quest
lord of her bosom,
share his joys and pleasures."
RUSSIAN GYPSY DANCE. -
ne-ver did
I'll
make yer
following pretty
from the Land
ry
old
ket
slang
Burns,
Coalville,
be the gypsy's best friend
my
ket
old
little
o'
Mr. George Smith, of to
With
vow.
I
make yer
sound
The
-
life
^m yet,
sup more drink,
also
mer
a
friend we'll
>
Shela gang
a'
a'
:
Ricki, dicki,
Shela gang
;
a',
Lagghi dagghi.
Sweet malori
Sweet Jamie's the lad
That
I'll
gang
wi'.
*-&
ties
cry
ties
cry
69
I
=s=^ And
a tink, tink,
a
sound, Sound,
sound
!
Romany song
who may
rue,
Shela gaggie o
-
Which
and was sent
" Shela, Shela,
Shela gang
-
rink
spend,
t
hails
me
by
safely claim
;
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
170
"
I'll
due
I'll
dye
my it
petticoatie,
red,
my bonnie my bread And wi' my bonnie I'll beg my bread. And I'll
wi'
laddie
beg
laddie
Sweet Jamie's the lad
That I'm gaen
To
wi'."
thoroughly understand the Scottish gypsies or
tinklers, there
Simson's
can be no better
" History
curious customs, manners,
and
medium
etc.,
are
As
Speaking of
far as I
from the few and short specimens which
had reported
heard, and
to
chiefly
I
can judge,
have myself
me, the subjects of the
songs of the Scottish gypsies (I
by themselves) are
many
most exhaustively
interestingly treated in this work.
their singing, the author says, "
than Walter
Their
Gypsies."
of the
mean
their
those composed
plunderings,
their
deadly conflicts which they
The numerous and had among themselves,
them themes
for the exercise of their
robberies,
and
also, afforded
muse.
My
their sufferings.
father,
in his
youth, often heard
singing songs wholly in their
own
language.
them
They
appear to have been very fond of our ancient Border
marauding songs which celebrate the daring exploits
;
!
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
171
of the lawless freebooters on the frontiers of Scotland
They were constantly singing these among themselves. The song composed
and England. compositions
on Hughie Graeme, the
horse-stealer, published in the
second volume of Sir Walter Scott's" Border Minstrelsy," was a great favourite with the
tinklers.
completely to the taste of a gypsy,
I will
as
the
in
mind of
description
they
take
For
Scroope's to the hunting gane,
has grippit Hughie the Graeme,
stealing o' the bishop's mare.
if
that thou canst
The matter '
great
show the peculiar
Now, good Lord Scroope, this may not be Here hangs a broadsword by my side
And
"
serve to
has ridden o'er moss and muir,
And he
'
that
of which
singing
HUGHIE THE GRAEME."
Gude Lord
He
"
is it,
the gypsies.
" "
this
good specimen of
It will also
delight.
of
a
affording
of song
As
here insert
it
conquer me,
may soon be
tried.'
ne'er was afraid of a traitor-thief;
I
Although thy name be Hughie the Graeme, I'll
make
If
God
thee repent thee of thy deeds,
but grant
me
life
and
time.'
cast
—
;
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
172
"
'
Then do your worst now, good Lord
And It shall
be
Which
"
tried,
of us two
is
the better man.'
both so bloody
their
blows so
All for to take brave
Then
tall,
Hughie the Graeme.
they hae grippit Hughie the Graeme,
And The
free,
at the time,
Over the moss came ten yeoman so
"
;
within an hour,
But as they were dealing
And
Scroope,
deal your blows as hard as you can
brought him up through Carlisle town
lassies
Crying,
'
and lads stood on the
walls,
Hughie the Graeme, thou'se
ne'er
[gae down.'
"
Then hae they chosen a The best that were in
And '
"
"
jury of Carlisle
men, town
•
twelve of them cried out at once,
Hughie the Graeme, thou must gae down.'
Then up bespak him gude Lord Hume, As he sat by the judge's knee '
Twenty white owsen, my gude lord, If you'll grant Hughie the Graeme
to me.'
— ;
'
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS. "
'
O
O
no,
no,
my
Lord
glide
For sooth and sae
Hume
173
!
manna be
it
For were there but three Graeme's of the name
They
" 'Twas
suld be hanged
A
by the judge's knee
sat
peck of white pennies,
If you'll grant
"
O
'
no,
O
"
If I
'
*
gude lord judge,
my gude Lady Hume
no,
Were he but
my
Hughie the Graeme
For sooth and so
He
me.'
up and spake the gude Lady Hume,
As she '
a' for
must na be
it
the one
Graeme
to me.'
!
;
of the name,
suld be hanged high for me.'
be
guilty,' said
Of me my
And he
Hughie the Graeme,
friends shall have small talk
Though
his
hands they were
tied
behind
back.
"
He looked over his left shoulder, And for to see what he might see There was he aware of
Came
;
has louped fifteen feet and three,
his
tearing his hair
;
auld father,
most
piteouslie.
his
;
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
74 "
*
O
!
hald your tongue,
And
my
see that ye dinna
For they may ravish
me
Fare ye well,
my
wife
The time we came ower the Twas thou bereft me of my life, last
;
And
'
wi' the
is
hie.
!
muir,
Bishop thou play'd the whore.
Here, Johnie Armstrang, take thou
That
says, !
my life, me fro' Heavin
Maggie,
fair
me
for
o'
But they canna banish
'
he
father,'
weep
made
o'
my
sword,
the metal sae fine
And when thou comest Remember the death
to the English side,
of
Hughie the Graeme.
Referring to the gyysies' disinclination to enter the services,
them
Mr. Simson narrates several instances of
become a
soldier or a sailor, a gypsy
one or two
fingers,
or
digits
service.
A
tinkler's
the Caudron,"
their little
ensure their freedom
to
is
would
sacrifice
even an arm or leg
mothers were known to deprive their
Rather than
voluntarily mutilating themselves.
song, to
;
and
ones of
from military
the tune
of " Clout
descriptive of this horror of enlisting
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
My
bonnie
A
lass, T
tinkler
I've travelled
In
this
my
is
my
work
in brass,
station
round
all
175
;
Christian ground
occupation.
I've ta'en the gold, an' been enroll'd
In
many
a noble squadron
But vain they searched when
To
;
off I
marched
go and clout the caudron."
Gypsies sometimes voluntarily join the
Here
musicians.
spicuous display; for a good man-o'-war, in accompanying
music,
is
work with
equal to the services of ten men. fleet at
an oral
countries.
It
The
in
brethren in other
would be strange indeed
the
world.
—not very
Scottish gypsies have, doubt-
literature, like their
rank as high in that respect as tribes
his
There
Sebastopol.
But, generally speaking, gypsies are like cats
fond of the water.
as
for con-
on board of a
fifer
certain
were some gypsy musicians in the
less,
Navy
their vanity has a field
many
if
they did not
of the barbarous
People so situated, with no
written language, are wonderfully apt at picking
up and
retaining any composition that contains poetry
and
chiefly confined.
In
music to which
oral literature
is
that respect their faculties, like those of the blind, are
—
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
176
sharpened by the wants which others do not experience in indulging a feeling
common
to all
Whilst in the north of England plated a for I
visit to
Yetholm
mankind. lately,
contem-
I
purpose of seeking
for the
any tinkler songs which might be found there; but
was dissuaded from the idea on being told by a very
good authority on gypsy matters
that there are
genuine tinklers to be found in the place. gypsies of
now no All the
Yetholm have become respectable farm-
labourers, small shopkeepers, etc.,
and
if
any pursue
their old calling, namely, that of tinkering, they
under widely
different circumstances.
cottages, proper appliances, for
making out of
and
all
that
is
requisite
The bonny
a comfortable living.
it
do so
They have neat
children playing, where in days gone by their parents in true tinkler
hours of their
disorder had rioted away the sunny life's
morning, bear the traces of their
gypsy origin in their tawny clean,
and
set off
had been only rags and fully
faces,
now
bright
and
by tidy frocks and coats where there tatters
;
the old people care-
tended, and dozing away their declining years
either in their chairs
by the chimney corner, or
in the
sunshine out in the porch watching their grandchildren at their
their
own rough tent-life in may be even looking back with on what has gone before, it may be quietly
games, thinking of their
young days,
pleasure
it
resigned to the end which cannot be far
off,
for
— —
;
;
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS. "
Each day
brings less
Crimps* more our
And something Our
summer
177
cheer,
ineffectual spring
earlier every year,
singing birds take wing."
cannot close a chapter on Scotch gypsy songs
I
without quoting some from Sir Walter Scott's novel, "
Meg
Guy Mannering."
no
particularly
Her
music we know to be suited to them. Walter describes as being too
low
for a
"
woman.
One
need
Merrilies' wild verses
keen imagination to wed them
shrill for
voice Sir
a man, and too
of the songs runs thus
Canny moment, lucky
to the
:
fit,
Is the lady lighter yet ?
Be
it
lad or be
it
lass,
Sign wi' cross, and sain
And
wi'
mass."
another, a charm, set to a wild tune
" Trefoil, vervain, John's-wort
Hinders
Weel
is
dill,
witches of their will
them, that weel
Fast upon *
:
St.
may
Andrew's day.
North Country term
for
"shortens."
N
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
178
" Saint Bride
and her
Colme and
Saint
Saint Michael
Keep
And
then there
brat,
his cat,
and
his spear,
the house frae reif and wear." the strange gypsy spinning song
is
" Twist ye, twine ye
even so
!
Mingle shades of joy and woe,
Hope, and
and peace, and
fear,
In the thread of
human
" While the mystic twist
And
the infant's
life
Dimly seen through
strife
life.
is
spinning,
beginning, twilight bending,
Lo, what varied shapes attending " Passions wild, and
!
follies vain,
Pleasures soon exchanged for pain
;
Doubt, and jealousy, and fear In the magic dance appear. "
Now
they wax, and
now
they dwindle,
Whirling with the whirling spindle. Twist
ye,
twine ye
Mingle human
And spells,
lastly,
which
!
bliss
even so
and woe."
one of those strange prayers, or rather in
some
parts
of
Scotland and the
;
SCOTCH GYPSY OR TINKLER SONGS.
179
North of England are used by the vulgar and ignorant to speed the passage of a parting spirit, like the tolling
This dismal song
of the bell in Catholic days.
is
accompanied with a slow rocking motion of the body to
and
fro, as if to
The words run
keep time with the rhythm.
nearly thus
:
—
" Wasted, weary, wherefore stay, Wrestling thus with earth and clay
?
—
From the body pass away Hark the mass is singing. ;
!
"
From thee doff thy mortal weed, Mary Mother be thy speed, Saints to help thee at thy
Hark
!
thy knell
is
need
;—
ringing.
" Fear not snow-drift driving
fast,
Sleet, or hail, or levin blast
Soon the shroud
And
That "
shall lap thee fast,
the sleep on thee be cast shall ne'er
know waking.
Haste thee, haste thee, to be gone, Earth
flits fast,
and time draws on,
Gasp thy gasp, and groan thy groan.
Day
is
near the breaking."
N
2
—
SONGS OF THE BOHEMIENS; OR,
FRENCH GYPSY SONGS. He In
renders
all his lore
numbers wild as dreams."
A monarchy
tempered by song."
— Emerson. Champford.
—
;
SONGS OF THE BOHEMIENS. The
Bohemiens
or
gypsies,
as they are
France, do not open up that wide
would expect
Gypsy legend Brittany,
and
in
the
mountainous
amongst the
country, or,
district of
leave
it
light-hearted
made
a
Auvergne,
home
for
peasantry of
has found that home,
if it
troubadour.
Normandy and
finds a cradle-land in in the
but gypsy music has either never itself
the
country of
called in
of song one
field
or to permit strangers to seek
is
it
the
unwilling to
there.
A
few
specimens of the tambourine songs in vogue many years ago amongst the Bohemiens
all
over France I have
been able to meet with, and also some of the songs of the
Romanies of Auvergne,
The
following
is
styled Perigourdines.
a sample of the former
:
FRENCH GYPSY TAMBOURINE SONG. "
Tambourica, raon passe-temps Archet,
ma douce
joie
;
;
1
;
;
SONGS OF THE BOHEMIENS ;
84
Assez longtemps tu as nourri Desaltere
Tu Tu
ma
as attire les
as allume
'Fambourica,
filles
mon
ma douce
Helas
j'ai
A
a.
faim,
la fenetre,
d'amour leurs
Archet, !
ma
soif,
perdu
visages.
passe-temps joie les jours et l'annee,
chanter sous les fenetres de Meira
Meira ne veut
meme
pas
me
regarder.'
:
Translation.
"
Tambourine,
my
Thou bow, my
joy in leisure
;
sweetest, sweetest treasure
;
How oft hast thou my hunger fed, My burning thirst to water led, And to the windows drawn the maids, And crowned with love their silken braids. Tambourine, my joy in leisure Thou bow, my sweetest, sweetest treasure ;
;
Alas
!
what days and years
I've spent
In singing under Meira's windows,
And Meira
has never a look on
me
sent."
Most of us have heard of the gypsy bird an account of which appeared
legend,
in the Paris Figaro,
—
OR,
FRENCH GYPSY
belonging to a tribe encamped in the
Duhesme,
relating
after
formed outside the that
all
tent, the
A
Rue
ceremonies
per-
author goes on to explain
man, who appeared
chief of the tribe, then
the
various
the gypsies present formed a circle round the
dying woman.
circle
185
Speaking of the death of a gypsy
October, 1872.
woman
SONGS.
came
to
be the
into the middle of the
holding a bird in his hand, which he placed near
mouth of the young woman.
In about a quarter of
an hour the gypsy uttered a cry and expired,
Her
companions carried back the body
and
let loose the bird.
into the tent,
This curious ceremony was per-
formed with the view of introducing the soul of the
young woman into the bird thus carrying out the Chinese idea of the transmigration of souls.
The
following
is
a specimen of the Perigourdines
:
PERIGOURDINE (GYPSIES OF AUVERGNE). A llegro
'
SONGS OF THE BOHEMIENS
[86
The sentiments of
the song which I give next are
totally at variance with those generally expressed
the
Romany
SONG (AUVERGNE).
GYPSIES'
'ou
^ *h
vrage
vail
et
gai
y%m
-
*=*=£ ~f~ ¥
—
Jr -*
Pro
te"
vite
tir
-K
p-
$*£=* -
Par
faut
il
J^ —£2-^
Tra
Ion
-
-
gent
et
p-»*-
la
et
"gai
Don
te
-
" Let us go quickly
We
must get
For work
nent
san
la
and soon,
to the
it is
-
meadows,
necessary that
we
and soon.
Should be
off quickly
Work and Work and
gaiety bring us health."
gaiety prolong our
—*—zsq *
vi
-
i?-—=§5: vail
by
class.
life
;
e
J ;
Tra
-
FRENCH GYPSY
OR,
We
are
SONGS.
187
probably familiar with Ouida's most
all
poetical descriptions of music;
and amongst the many
characters she has sketched for us there
is
through the intricate mazes of their eventful
wandering Tricotrin, a gypsy
that of the
A
name.
not one
music find more interesting to follow
that lovers of
life
free as
as
that
than
lives
in all but the
of the birds, with a
heart as generous as his purse was niggardly, a soul as full
of music as his fingers of dexterity, Tricotrin was
the
and
life
shores of
bound
of
light
the
tideless
of
coast
from the
every village fete
Mediterranean to the storm-
Normandy; and Ouida
best
de-
scribes his wonderful genius when she says of "
That music which had
vintage feast of the
back
the
brink
in
steps
the
of
the
hymn
it,
the
for
and which had brought
Loire,
suicide
darkness of
from
Paris
the
the
night,
river
which
command, and which held The French gypsy entranced by its spell." could
sovereigns
peasants
given
its
not
vagrant, with his favourite
monkey, "Bebe," on
his
back, his beloved violin in his hand, bringing sunshine
where the shadows deepest
fell
amongst the poor
labourers of the richest province of France,
one reverts
to with a feeling of
is
a picture
something that
is
as
near akin to the admiration one feels for some hero as
may
be.
A
verse from Leland's poem,
mian," comes to
my memory
as I write,
"The Bohewhich better
—
1
SONGS OF THE B OHJS MIENS ;
88
pleads the of
—
gypsy cause than anything
I
can say
it.
" E'en outcasts
The
And
may have
heart
and
feeling,
blackest wild Tzigan be true,
love, like light in
Though
dungeons
bars be there, will
stealing,
still
break through."
In France, before the Revolution, there were but few gypsies, for the obvious reason that every gypsy
who could be apprehended '
a sacrifice to the police.
fell
would suppose that these severe
I
'
of the
edicts
French would drive the gypsies to adopt the costume
and
manners
of
the
other inhabitants.
way they would disappear from the public officers
is,
would be understood
tented gypsies, or those
ways, such as fortune-telling,
French gypsy
who I
to
at-
be gypsies
professed their
have met with a
New York engaged
as a
Grehmann.
must be
reluctantly granted that in two countries Europe the costumes and manners of the gypsies
It
are
to
a
certain
Bohemiens looked to
etc.
in the streets of
dealer in candy."
in
this
The
of justice would, of course, direct their
tention to what that
In
eye.
are
after
extent
merely
if
The French
tramps, so
sharply
by the gendarmerie that they are powerless
do much mischief.
fession,
romantic.
ragged
one may so
Yet, in spite of this, the procall
it,
of fortune-telling
is
— SONGS.
189
pursued by the Bohemiens; and amidst the
rich verdant country of
sunny and sun-loved France,
encampment of
picture of the
Crabbe's
teller is often realized
..." A And
;
FRENCH GYPSY
OR, largely
—
the fortune
:
hollow on the
left
appeared,
there a gypsy tribe their tent
had reared.
'Twas open spread to catch the morning sun,
And they had now their early meal begun, When two brown boys just left their grassy The
Within, the father,
Had
who from
fences nigh
brought the fuel for the
Watch'd now the feeble
fire's
blaze,
supply,
and stood dejected
On rugged rug, just borrow'd from the And by the hand of coarse indulgence In
seat
early traveller with their prayers to greet.
dirty
by.
bed, fed,
patchwork negligently dressed,
Reclined the wife, an infant
at
her breast
In her wild face some touch of grace remained,
Of vigour palsied, and of beauty stain'd, Her blood-shot eyes on her unheeding mate Were wrathful turn'd, and seem'd her wants to Cursing his tardy aid
With gypsy Solemn and
And
;
state,
her mother there
state engross'd the only chair
dull her look
;
with such she stands
reads the milkmaid's fortune in her hands,
Tracing the lines of
Each
feature
now
life
)
assumed through
years,
the steady falsehood wears."
SQNGS OF THE BO HE MlENS
190
The a
following rather naughty
great
it is
song used to be
little
amongst the French gypsies.
favourite
do not think
known by any
particular
pi
-
un
ter
-
en
jour
fu
1*=l=i: l'Amour sur
ni
ter
-
a
reur,
1
-
-K-,
:
ban
vait
23g~E=S*
=*=*:
=t=
-
I
title.
S
gs^ri Ju
;
Gour-mand et
re,
ne
sa-chant que
Ss^g fai
mit
se
-
fre
-
que
re
-
I
teur
;
D'un per -son
*mmm£E^^3 na-ge
res-pec
mour en
ca
-
-
ta
-
ble
pu-chon, Frere
?S quetre
ai
-
a-vecl'ha-bit
A
-
mour en
*=£ ma
ble,
-
" Voici le petit
Courant
le
Le dieu
qui sou met la nature
la porte
II
arriva tout fatigue,
d'un monastere,
la charite \pis]
Je suis dans
ai
a l'aventure,
A
Faites-moi
ton, Frere
A
^^iiiiSl
Cupidon
monde
le
ca- pu-chon ne pou-vait
ne pou-vait quetre
Est reduit a l'abandon.
4
prit
il
la misere.'
[bis]
ma
-
ble.
FRENCH GYPSY
OR, "
seducteur
Aux cris du jeune Une nonne vint a
la
Voyant Cupidon de
La '
gagna son
pitie
porte
;
la sorte,
coeur.
Pour
vous delasser de la route,
Mon
Frere, entrez dans la maison,
Prenez-moi par '
SONGS.
Ma
mon
cordon,' [bis]
Soeur, je n'y voit goutte.' [his]
" Sans le savoir'la pauvre
Mit
loup dans
le
Agnes
la bergerie,
Et son innocence cherie
Va
s'envoler pour jamais,
Frere
Amour
eut tant d'eloquence
Qu'il par vint a la convertir,
Lui
En
fit
aimer
le plaisir [bis]
prechant penitence,
[bis]
" Bientot le petit Cupidon,
Passa de celulle en
celulle,
A
Soeur Brigide, a Soeur Ursule
II
va presentant son tronc,
Partout
il
Et pour
le
recoit
mainte Aumone,
dimanche suivant
Chaque nonne du Couvent Le recommande au Prone,
[his] [bis]
191
;
'
SONGS OF THE BOHAMIENS
192
" L' Amour en Frocque etait charmant,
Mais
n'etait
il
pas moins volage,
mon
Je vais achever
'
Leur
dit-il
Ah
quel tourment,
!
Vous nous
voyage
d'un ton dolent.
Ah
quel supplice
!
quittez, petit fripon,
Laissez-nous votre cordon,
Mes
"
'
Soeurs,
Juste
[bis]
Dieu vous benisse.
ciel, le voila parti
[bis]
!
Dit l'Abesse fondant en larmes,
Ah
grand Dieu,
!
Que de
Du
plaisir
cordon
il
le St.
qu'il avait
nous
exercise
Rechauffait la devotion 1
Vite a son intention
Reckons notre
There chanson.
are,
I
de charme,
fit.
;
[bis]
office.' " [pis]
believe, several versions of this naive
This one was taken
down from
the lips of
an old French gypsy man, who chuckled very de. lightedly over the repeating of to risk
I
it.
an English version, such
" Sans le savoir la pauvre
Mit
le
loup dans
am
lines as,
Agnes
la bergerie,"
half afraid
OR,
would
FRENCH GYPSY
lose decidedly
SONGS.
by translation
;
as
193
would
also,
" L'amour en Frocque etait charmant."
A
very slight knowledge of French will suffice for
a comprehension of the verses, so I will not attempt
what would only detract from
their interest.
FRENCH GYPSY DANCE. (sixteenth century.)
FRENCH GYPSY SONG (AUVERGNE).
The
following,
essentially
a
known
as the " Air
ballad of Bohemia,
acquainted with French songs
will
as
Prix,"
is
many who
vouch
often to be heard trolled out by the insouciant vagabonds as they
du
lips
for,
but
not are it
is
of the lazy
roam the country
lanes
o
—
—
—
SONGS OF THE BO HE MIENS
194
and gay towns of
la belle France,
impudence about
it
that
welcome addition
to a
would be
DU
has just the
It
make
likely to
Bohemian's
"AIR
;
it
a
dez
-
repertoire.
PRIX."
(Sung by the French Gypsies.)
re
sieur,
-
-
JLk—.&.
nv
gar
-
-
moi,
mon-sieur, mon-sieur,
—m — *
m-
(
*J
dez
-
m.
p
je
le
i
:
1
J
re
-
p
gar
-
-P-
ff
1
' '
Vous
du
bar-ras-se'
re
—
gar-dant
-
ne
choix
Jus
-
-
tes,
oh!
!
-
ti
sieur,
;
vous res - tez
et
mon
-
yt
t/
-
sieur,
mon-trez-vous,
ne,
vous pen
re
£—*-— r£—g-n W=*—=£— *
de
je
veur
-
mon
trez - vous,
vois,
oui,
le
-
1
-
-
-
vi
-
mon -
;
con
vous
trez
con
-
nois
-
"
1
1
mon-
sieur,
1
vous
en
Pau
a
sez
[*>
mon-trez
tie;
JZ iEEbt==z=z£zE
J 1-^
* z=ifc±=?— wt=A
rJ li
•
-
e
-
seur»
nois -
-=-—
fl
195
FRENCH GYPSY SONG. (Known
E
tez
de
chos
-
dans ce
as " Air Tendre.")
ces
bois,
fo
qui
rets
-
ap-pre- nez
ma
mor
vez
m'j
tel
-
le
-
de
tant
pei
-
ne.
'*&=** L'in
-
gra
-
te
fait
cou
-
mes
ler
pleurs
d'un autre
;
rU-4-
chos,
tez
re
mes
-
pe
-
tez
dou-leurs,
mes
dou-leurs,
et qu'el-les
et
qu'el-les
tou-chent
la
vo
tou-chent la
-
la
O
-
2
vo-
ge
;
i
SONGS OF THE BOHEMIENS ;
96
English version of " Air du Prix." " Thus to turn one's head
And
talk apart
Is not gallant,
Look Sir,
at
me,
sir.
sir
;
look at me.
see you feel embarrassed
I
How
to
make a
In looking
choice
at Justine.
You think of Pauline, And you pause and dream. Oh sir, show yourself a connoisseur ; Sir,
show yourself a connoisseur"
English version of " Air Tendre" " Echoes of these forests,
who have
Repeated the vows made
And you Learn
The
birds
who sang
my mortal
to
me
so often
by Celimene,
in these
woods,
trouble.
ungrateful creature has
made me weep
She receives the homage of another Echoes, echoes, repeat
To
the faithless one
Echoes, repeat
The next,
my
drinking-song, or
it
to
lover.
sorrows
to the faithless one,
sorrows."
"Air
somewhat coarse
is
believe
;
my
be a genuine
in
a Boire," which I give sentiment, but,
Romany
as
chorus, I insert
I it.
—
OR,
—
^
FRENCH GYPSY
SONGS.
197
"AIR A BOIRE." (Gipsy Drinking Chorus.)
—
>
p Trous
-
—
N
j
sez, trous -sez
w^^-—P —P
bag- ga
-
ge,
—M-^-m> fr
Z
Me'
-de
-
MS. book,
words of
by the
of
h
^
cin,
si
m
p-r-
" I
found
=
in an,
the date of which, together with the
this particular song,
hand
-
—&—*=+=T-~~*
This so-called " Chanson Nouvelle old
—
-
U-
Time,
were entirely obliterated
—
,
SONGS OF THE BONE MIENS
ig$
"CHANSON NOUVELLE" (BOHEMIENNE).
This
strange
Bohemiens
attributed
is
=sm
C est
Pour
-
-
the
to
3=4
ESS
Pour
ballet
little
:
An
quoy
quoy
ne
-
-
le
qu'on van
vient-elle? vrai
-
-
ment
ment
" Son Louys sou spire
Apres
Que
De
ses appas,
veut-elle dire
ne venir pas.
-£^4
3=£
q£z=at bel
vient-elle? vrai
ne
ne
si
-
te
fort.
si
a
elle
elle
a
tort!
tort'
—
OR,
FRENCH GYPSY "
S'il
ne
II s'en
la
SONGS.
199
possede
va mourir
;
Donnons-y remede, Allons
le guerir.
"Assemblons, Marie,
Les yeux a vos yeux Nostre bergerie
N'en vaudra que mieux. " Hastons le voyage,
Le
siecle
En
ce
Nous
Dore
manage est assure."
" J'ay beau boire sans cesse" ("
without stopping
as follows
I
may
as well drink
another of these favourite thirst
Bohemiens of the
songs of the is
") is
last century,
the tune
:
J'AY
BEAU BOIRE SANS
CESSE."
SONGS OF THE BOHEMIENS
200
" J'ay beau boire sans cesse,
La
soif toujours suis
Je
Que Ton
verse
" Dans votre
Vous me
Ah
vous
Si
"
I
may
presse
;
j'aperc,ois
du vin pour moy.
humeur coquette
contez fleurette.
que vous
!
me
charme quand
me
seriez obligeant
comptiez de l'argent/'
as well drink without stopping,
my thirst never leaves me; am charmed when I perceive
Since I
That any one pours out wine
for
me.
" In your mischievous coquetry
You
Ah If
I
I
!
ask the flower-petals of
how
my
love,
obliging you would be
you would count
me
out some money."
read in a French novel (whose
name and author
have entirely forgotten) a charming description of
some gypsies encamped near the chateau where the scene of the book was as
laid,
and
this
song was given
one that the writer heard sung by them.
a legend told in Auvergne which
There
resembles
is
very
— FRENCH GYPSY
OR, the
closely
SONGS.
201
Scotch story of Earl Cassilis and the
gypsy laddie, which has been handed down to posterity in I
prose and verse, and which in the latter form
have alluded to
in
another part of this
The French romance was lady, a notary's daughter,
have
it,
fell
—
work.
young
who, so the harsh historians
and ran away with a gypsy whose
in love
beauty was undeniable,
were
little
that of a beautiful
but whose moral qualities
well, we'll say in process of
formation.
The
notary of course objected, and to prevent any esdandre in the
shape of a return to the parental shelter, he sold
his practice
and
his
patrimony and
left
the country.
This song which follows was the one sung beneath his
beloved's
casement by the bold Romany, the
night she fled with
Quand
je
him
:
vous dis que
la nuit et le jour
Je meurs pour vous d'amour,
Vous ne me croyez
pas,
Mademoiselle D'Angla,
Vous ne me croyez
pas,
Mademoiselle D'Angla. Votre esprit
est
Et cependant
quinteux comrae une mule,
je suis si ridicule
Que
votre corps
Fait
mes
transports."
h
——
;
I
;
1
SONGS OF THE BOHEMIENS
When
I tell
you that night and day
I die for love
You
of you,
won't believe me,
Mademoiselle D'Angla
You
won't believe me,
Mademoiselle D'Angla.
Your
soul
is
as stubborn as a mule,
And all the same To let your form Be my delight."
QUAND
"
JE
I
am
VOUS DIS QUE LA NUIT ET LE JOUR."
m
=F=* 1
—
:
Er
I
—— —
fcr^~ "7 rn d~ -g— f» rfrd~ &=*=!. J i
enough
ridiculous
I
*
r—ft: JT"
*=t * * r»=k
i — •- }%*~ —m * —~ —
—
i
-^-4—
i
'
:
_tz_
—P— —p_iii l*~L_|
^-
^-trfr-cr ^
I
as
§
-
J
have no words to the next, which was sent to a
well-known
" Air des
Bohemiens
"
--1-
»fr*
me
by a very
—
OR,
FRENCH GYPSY
SONGS.
203
eminent musical author in France, and with a few
words
to tell
me
that
it
had been taken down by
himself from some of the wanderers
:
AIR DES BOHEMIENS."
4^E^^3=*=~d js2=Mi
zm
m-
|S=fX=^V==j5I
:*33za£:;te
m m
^E^^E^g=^il^gE5^^^^g^=^fl
THE ZIGEUNER OR GYPSIES OF THE VATERLAND. '
Come,
To
lead
then, a
me
song
;
to sleep."
a winding, gentle song,
— Beddoes.
THE ZIGEUNER. Hermann Mendel,
in his invaluable " Musikalisches
Conversations-Lexikon,"
He
Zigeuner.
devotes
a few pages to the
cymbals amongst the gypsies
At the present day
in
former times.
hackbut
the
instrument with the Romanies in hackbut, or cobza,
is
given the
Cschaky.
of the "
Mendel
German
gypsies
sylvania,
that I
authority
favourite
This
and produces
Barna Mihaly, a gypsy,
proficient a performer
name
a
is
Hungary.
struck with bells,
a most penetrating sound.
became so
hackbut and
refers to the use of the
on
that he
it
Magyar Orpheus
"
intersperses all his remarks
with
am
so
many on
was
by Count
on the
those of Tran-
tempted to agree with a great
on Romany
lore,
discipline of the Vaterland
is
who
told
me
that the
too severe to admit of
these lawless people finding tolerance, or even shelter, in
the country.
Certainly,
books written on the Zigeuner be learnt as to their music.
there have been ;
but there
"Die Zigeuner und
ihre
many
little
to
Peter Cornelius' work
only treats of the Hungarian gypsy *
is
Musik
in
music* Ungam."
Graf-
—
!!
THE ZIGEUNER
208
funder has collected some few
The
;
following
a specimen of
is
German gypsy them
ROMANY (GERMAN)
songs,
:
SONG.
" Gader wela
Gader
Stela
Ab, Miro tschabo
I puri
ste
!
romni dschalu, Mangel
I tarni
romni balo pop Priesterwela.
" I tarni romni har I puri I tarni
romni har
i
i
rosa,
dschamba,
romni weli tarno rom,
puri romni weli puro rom."
I
"
Woher kommt er, Woher springt er, Auf mein Sohn und
spring
Die junge Frau geht, betteln (geht Die
alte
Frau hinterm Ofen
!
bettelt),
riestert.
" Die junge Frau gleich einer Rose,
Die
alte
Frau gleich einer Krote,
Die junge Frau
Die
One music,
alte
thing
and
Frau
krigt einen jiingen
krigt einen alten
Mendel admits with regard that
is
the
perfection
Mann,
Mann." to all
the rare
gypsy gift
of
OR GYPSIES OF THE VATERLAND. improvisation attains amongst them.
funder
is
I believe Graf-
who alludes Romany tongue to
the only writer on the gypsies
to the strange adaptibility of the
He
musical setting. lingend,
209
says,
und dem Gesange
"
Die Sprache
sehr giinstig."
ist
wohlk-
Graffunder
several times mentions the Scandinavian gypsies
then his
book on the Zigeuner was published
but
;
in 1835,
when there were probably to be found tribes To-day they Romanies in these northern lands. almost unknown,
and,
with
the
so-called Swedish gypsy tunes,
of two
exception
which
I
of are
found
in a
very old volume of Norske melodies, I have never come across any mention of music pertaining to the
wanderers in Scandinavia.
SWEDISH GYPSY SONG.
SWEDISH GYPSY SONG. A llegro.
S3
iiS
L_
*E*^Ej
-^-w-
I
fc=*E£:
SOUTH AMERICAN, AND ARABIAN GYPSY SONGS AND DANCE TUNES.
INDIAN,
Where should
this
music
be,
In the air or the earth ?"
—Shakespeare.
INDIA. It would appear that music
Hindostan
and
;
is
generally cultivated in
according to Sir
in Central India,
John Malcolm, most of the
have attached to
villages
them men and women of the Nutt or Bamallee
who appear
to
have attached
tribes,
be a kind of wandering gypsies, and
them rude musicians and
to
minstrels,
whose music and songs form the chief entertainment
These musicians
of the peasantry.
two
Charims and
classes,
Celestial origin,*
are divided into
Bhats; they boast of a
and exercise an influence of a very
powerful description over the people.
The
very charming
Hindu
air
which follows
sung by an English gypsy-woman almost note as I
found
it
in a valuable
*
Can
these be the
"
A
" Heavenly
poem
of
Zincali " spoken of
"The Changling?"
troup of wandering angels
Stole
my
little
heard
book on " Hindu Music
from various Authors, compiled by Sourindro
Russell Lowell in his
I
for note
daughter away
;
Or, perhaps, those heavenly Zincali
But loosed the hampering
strings," etc.
Mohun by James
SOUTH AMERICAN, AND ARABIAN
INDIAN,
2i 4
Tagore
;
for private circulation only.
This song
is
wish some of our gifted
makers would harmony.
re-set
I give
it
in a
nineteenth-century song-
more worthy
the original
are to be found in the "
Calcutta, 1875."
so plaintive and so pretty that I could
Kurna na paee
shrine of
Hindu words
work before referred
as they
to.
bat
Ab myn. Oodowjee! tahreean, myn bulaeen leongi ho! Peea soo jeea ke bat
Mohe
le'chulo
HINDU
AIR,
oonhen ke "
pas."
KURNA NA PAEE
BAT."
—
;
;
;
GYPSY SONGS AND DANCES.
215
English Words. " I could not
My
speak with him, those fondest words
had treasured up to tell streaming eyes were dim with weary
Which
Which
I
then, alas
!
unheeded
tears,
fell.
Rude blows the bitter wind, cold is the driving Nor place I find to dwell Ah me from them, unkind, no pitying word ;
!
No "
rain,
sheltering love I find.
Ah now !
I
vainly cry,
Dear Lord, dear heart so fondly loved,
Thou wouldst
not see
So desolate, nor Rest, rest
!
fail
!
Kind
The
lie
that love so truly proved.
[mov'd.
oh breaking heart
Peace cometh now
Ah why
me
to thee,
delay thy dart
death, take
me
that nought had ever [part.
?
to him, that never
more we
following are dance tunes used by the Nutts or
Indian gypsies
:
DANCE TUNE OF THE INDIAN
GYPSIES.
—
216
INDIAN,
SOUTH AMERICAN, AND ARABIAN
tr
^m
§@i^^l
DANCE TUNE OF THE NUTTS.
This Bengalee song Indian gypsies "
is
a great favourite amongst
:
Nock
erbesor Jeelee mille
Poteer gulla doorea Koonja
Choola danntee hassia Naaloo
Rangonee gwalia
The songs developing
monies
;
naalo."
of a nation go a great way towards
its
domestic practices,
as also
insignificance of
its
habits of
the female
life.
sex
rites,
and cere-
Thus
the allowed
in
the idea of a
Hindoo, the contempt in which they are generally held,
GYPSY SONGS AND DANCES. on
leave very considerable effects
Hindostan the
man
after
sex are the
fair
much
217
In
their poetry.
first
to woo, and the
We
courting yields.
must make
all
allowance for this Oriental prejudice which assigns the active part of
makes the mistress.
amorous intercourse
to the female,
and
mistress seek the lover, not the lover his
In compositions of
this country, therefore,
love and desire,
hope and
first felt
in the
female bosom,
and evinced by her pathetic
excla-
passion, are
mations.
BENGALEE SONG.
gSJ^g^aaaEEggE
g^ggggga^gag^ SONGS OF THE CHINGANEROS. In South America there dering Creole minstrels,
is
a peculiar race of wan.
whose habits and even whose
appellations strikingly resemble those of the Zinganees, or Eastern gypsies.
They claim
for
themselves pure
—
2i 8
SOUTH AMERICAN, AND ARABIAN
INDIAN,
Indian descent; but
They all,
are
fortune-tellers,
tori.
this is
denied by the aborigines.
good dancers and musicians, and, above
all
supposed sorcerers, and improvisa-
These people are held
abhorrence by
meanest
tribes
among them
and not even the
;
hold any intercourse
will
whom
with the Chinganeros,
contempt and
in utter
true Indians
all
they consider degraded
by their buffoonery to the level of monkeys. agility
and humour,
sional
visits
Creoles
;
always
welcome
and even the
at times to
relax
to
the
examples
light-hearted
supercilious Spaniards deigned
from their haughty
minstrels
gravity,
We may
smile at their unpolished gambols.
of their power as
Montonera soy
sefioras,
Yo no niego mi nacion, Mas vale ser Montonera Que no Porteno pintor ;
Montonera, en Buenos Ayres,
Por
las
pampas he pasado
Montonera por
De
las
and
to
judge
by the two following
:
"LA MONTONERA." "
Their
nevertheless, render their occa-
las nieves,
Andes he baxado.
;
—
;
'GYPSY 'SONGS AND- DANCES. u
En
su curso por
Quien
Mas
el cielo,
Lucero?
atajara al
atreve quien pretiendo
Atajar al Montone'ra.
Libres vuelan los Condores
Por
Y
la
cana Cordillera
no menos por
Libre va
la
los valles,
Montonera."
Translation. "
A
Montonera's
I'll
lead
life I
name,
ne'er disown the
Though
May
village
lightly
maids and
city
dames
hold our fame.
From Buenos Ayres' boundless plains The Montonera comes. And o'er the mighty Andes' heights In liberty she roams. "
What hand
To
e'er tried in
arrest the
morning
The Montonera's
To
enslave
is
empty space
star ?
freeborn
harder
mind
far.
Free o'er the Cordillera's peaks
The As
lordly condor stalks
freely
;
through her native wilds
The Montonera
walks."
!
220
INDIAN,
!
SOUTH AMERICAN, AND ARABIAN
LA ZAMBULLIDORA." "
Nino
!
tomad
Y llevadlo Y dill a la
este anillo,
a la muralla
;
centinela,
Este nino va de guardia.
Vamdnos, Chinas
Vamdnos a
del alma
!
zambullir.
El que zambulli se muere,
Yo tambien "
Huid
la
quiero morir
pompa
Nino, huid a
la
del poblado,
savanna
;
Ali gozareis quieto
En salud hasta mafiana. Vamdnos Chinas del alma Vamdnos, a
!
la caleta,
Para ver los guacamallos
Con
fusil
y bayoneta.
" Piensan luego en dispertarse
Los temblores ya dormidos Volvad nino a
la muralla*
Salgad, d serais perdido,
Vamdnos, Chinas
Vamdnos a
del
la laguna,
alma
;
:
GYPSY SONGS AND DANCES.
A
ver
en
si
zambullida
la
Encontremos una pluma,
Con que
escriba la chata mia,
Las cartas de Montezuma." Translation. "
Youth
!
The
this
magic ring
receive,
Chinganera's fairy spells
;
Swift the city ramparts leave
Nor heed
the wakeful sentinel.
Come beloved of my soul, To the depths of ocean fly !
Where
the dark-blue billows
;
roll,
Fearless plunge, nor fear to die. "
To
the wild savannah
Empty pomps
fly
!
of cities scorning
There, beneath the vault of sky,
Rest in safety
till
the morning.
Come beloved of my soul, To the sands of ocean come !
There no sounds
shall
Save curlew's pipe or "
Hark
!
bittern's
ear,
drum.
the wakening earthquake's cry,
Echoes on the
To
;
meet thine
startled ear
the city ramparts
Youth
!
for
fly,
death awaits thee here.
SOUTH AMERICAN, AND ARABIAN
INDIAN,
222
Come
!
beloved of
my
soul,
Fly we to the desert waste
;
There, where the blue waters
A
fairy pen,
roll,
by wizards placed,
Lies for thee to write a scroll,
Such
as
Montezuma
traced."
A FEW NOTES ON THE ARABIANS. I
have heard very
myth
that has
frequently that Arabian song
never suffered
to " a white prison
barred with black," as I once saw
a sheet of music paper described.
and memory with the Arab
nomad
is
is
unwritten
means of
the only
Harmony
serving song or story. this
All Arabian tra-
whether musical or otherwise,
dition,
a
is
to be chained
itself
exists not
;
pre-
amongst
people, save in the different thickness of
the tambourines, which always form the accompani-
ment
to
which
I
exists
their singing
think
;
and there
may account
another cause
is
for the
diffidence
amongst Europeans with regard
hensive study of Arabian music
—the
to a
that
compre-
Arabs possess
fourteen scales, and according to our ideas have no
recognized law of rhythm or time.
The
following are
both specimens of Arab songs, which were sent
Arabian gypsy songs.
me
as
GYPSY SONGS AND DANCES.
223
ARABIAN GYPSY SONG. Allegro.
m
tt-=^*r-
ARABIAN GYPSY SONG. Allegro.
-m—m-
m
FINALE.
We of
have wandered long enough
Romany Songland
already
;
in
the wild paths
the tents are being
silently folded,
the camp-fires extinguished.
passed the
of the patrines, heard the
last
the gypsy's fiddle,
and the highway of
We
final
lies
life
have
notes of before
Do we regret our short divergence from the us. tenor of our everyday existence? have we found pleasure or ennui in listening for a while to the strange
music of the world's Arabs ? We may not have learnt much from it, nothing we can add to our crotchet-andquaver store of musical gathered a
little
love-making
;
but
we have
we have heard a few quaint tunes
accompaniment of the violin to
knowledge;
honey from the sweetness of Romany
haunt us
in
guitar, the
our leisure moments
we have gleaned a little now from some lawless
to the
mandoline, or the ;
perchance
of the gypsy wit that flashes out solo,
now from some danger-
and together with these perhaps a more tolerance for the Romany vagabond, and
ously-wild chorus, little
through the levelling
medium
of the divine art to look
Q
FINALE.
226
more kindly upon a people who, though they may have " the vellum of the pedigree they claim," are not often as black as they are painted.
"
To
prove again that music, by the plea
Of all men's
love, has linked
from sea to sea
All shores of earth in one serene
and grand sym-
phonic land.
Eric Mackay.*
Pablo de Sarasate.
EPILOGUE.
r
see
_F55
the
sun- shine, nor
-*
.
hear
hear
"
Come
gsgjgjil the wild storm rage.
.
.
then thro' the greenwoods,
If gypsy life you'd I'll
the wild storm rage,,
*- -n t
r
know
;
lead you to the camp-fire,
Where mirth and
laughter flow.
We'll dance and sing you love-songs,
And show you wonders deep And if you care to stay the night, ;
On
scented thyme you'll sleep." Cecil Traherne.
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