SONGS FOR SOLDIERS.
Aweeks ago we published a notice of a pamphlet by Surgeon-General Evatt called " Our Songless Army," in which he insisted on the moral, social, and hygienic results of organised singing. Certainly the Army would be all the better for a good song-hook ; the songs would be a link of comradeship, they would be an excellent pastime, and they would inspirit the whole camp and ease and quicken the marches. Nearly all the most distinguished officers in the Army can be named as supporters in principle of schemes for more regular singing. Apart from the difficulty of organising and instructing choruses, however, the chief problem is to get a good song-hook. We can hardly expecte soldiers' anthology as irreproachable as " The Golden Treasury" to be produced all at once; we cannot even expect one which will give such qualified satisfaction as " Hymns Ancient and Modern." Still, the thing can be done. The Harrow school-songs hit off the spirit and temper of those for whom they were written with complete success in conditions which were at least as difficult as those a compiler of soldiers' songs would have to meet. The Navy was recently given a song-book which is inadequate. We await an Army song-book, but meanwhile we have to welcome a little collection called " Soldiers' Marching Songs," published at a penny by the Army and Navy Co-operative Society for sale to soldiers only. In criticising it we desire not to underrate the very great difficulties the anonymous compiler had to meet in his pioneering work.
Surgeon-General Evatt laid it down that "only the very best songs should be put before the soldier." The collection before us violates the principle, though we are far from condemning it on that account. It would hardly be unfair to Bay that it puts a few of the very worst songs before the soldier. But after all, there can be no compulsion about singing in the Army ; if the men are to burst forth like
nightingales in full-throated ease, they must enjoy the songs they sing, and they would certainly be "put off " by band- masters and enthusiastic Majors who imposed a classical severity upon their performances. One test, therefore, must be whether the songs will be popular. The intention of the compiler of the present collection, as his title tells us, is to provide marching-songs. Some of the songs, however, go to ' tunes to which it would be quite impossible to march. "Camp Songs" would have been a more accurate title, or just "Soldiers' Songs." The complete compiler of the future will have to keep the standard us high as he can without offending the simple susceptibility of the private soldier to music-hall sentiment. If we were asked to state two principles for the guidance of a compiler who wished to make, we will not say a good song-book, but a book that soldiers would like, we should submit these: (1) that sentiment, particularly mawkish sentiment, is infinitely preferred to humour; and (2) that soldiers do not want to sing about deeds which they will perform for their King and country, however willing they may be to perform them. One might suppose that a good rollicking song would be appreciated. A good rollicking tune, it is true, can carry very dull words to triumph, particularly during a march; but a whining, drawling tune is always the piece de resistance at a "sing-song" in camp, and if the words are as melancholy as the music the popularity of the song is assured. Probably the song which had the greatest vogue during the South African War was the lugubrious "Mother?' By an accident, or perhaps owing to some characteristic which distinguishes American from British soldiers, the most popular song in the American Army during the Spanish-American War was not by any means a melancholy ditty, but the rattling song which tells of "A Hot Time in the Old Town To-night." It was related of a soldier from the Far West that as he lay dying in hospital he said that he should like to hear once more the national song. Some one sang "My Country, 'tie of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty," but without avail. Next "The Star-Spangled Banner" was tried —in vain. Next " Dixie "—again in vain. Then " Yankee Doodle "—still in vain. At last some one struck up the exhilarating staccato of the "Hot Time in the Old Town," and the soldier (so runs the story) smiled and was content.
Let us consider some of the songs before us. In " God Savo the King" the lines written by the late Dean Hole have been substituted for the "frustrate his knavish trick " verse :—
" 0 Lord our God, arise, Scatter his enemies, Make wars to cease : Keep us from plague and dearth, Turn Thou our woes to mirth, And over all the earth
Let there be peace."
This, of course, is unexceptionable in sentiment; but it is not certain that it would not be misunderstood by the private soldier. A war might easily be made to cease by a rapid agreement on any terms with the enemy ; and the mention of the soldier's woes—which he is already too apt to brood upon in the familiar practice of " grousing "—is unfortunate in the circumstances. We are not saying that intense hatred of one's enemy is a necessary incentive to the prosecution of war, but at all events it is desirable that the soldier should be convinced of the justice of his cause, and should be made familiar with the idea of enduring every kind of woe and thinking it worth while in his country's cause. But for that Japan would never have defeated Russia. The next song is called "Private Tommy Atkins," and begins " Oh, we take him from the city or the plough." It was sung, we think, in the musical comedy entitled The Gaiety Girl. This is a flattering apostrophe addressed to the soldier, and is not, therefore, a song for the soldier himself to sing. Moreover, the title " Tommy Atkins," derived from the old Drill Book, is used considerably more by civilians than by Army officers, and is almost never used by the men of themselves. Probably no soldier will want to sing " Maisie " when it has ceased to be the fashion, and is judged not as a craze but as music and sense. " When Johnny Comes Marching Home" has tradi- tions, and so have " The Girl I Left Behind Me," and, in a greater degree, "The British Grenadiers," all of which are included in the collection. " Widdecombe Fair" answers to Surgeon-General Evatt's demand for county songs. It will be sung, of course, by the Devonshire Regiment. This, and "The Bells of Aberdovey," "Bonnie Dundee," "The Harp that Once through Tam's Halls," " Men of Harlech," " Scots Wha Hae wi' Wallace Bled," and " Will Ye No Come Back Again P " are the only songs in the collection which will be of any service to a local or territorial conception of the Army. We are glad to see some negro songs included " Dar's One More Ribber for to Cross," "I'se Gwine Back to Dixie," the " Cumptown Races," and "The Old Folks at Home," songs which have been sung in all circumstances in every corner of the globe. "Dixie" has been established ever since the Civil War in America as one of the national songs of the Southern States, and when it was being played by " Federal " bands during the campaign against Spain in 1898 it was said that the title of the "United States" had become again a reality, that the " Confederates " or " rebels" no longer existed. It is a slash- ing tune which makes the blood flow quicker, as so many American songs of the Civil War did, and we hope that the publication of this little book will do something to make it popular in the British Army. As for "The Old Folks at Home," which begins " Way down upon de Swanee Ribber," the present writer remembers hearing a very distinguished scholar of Cambridge say that he considered it one of the most moving songs in the world. If it appealed in that way to a cultivated mind, it would be superfluous to analyse its merits as a composition for camp uses. Other songs taken from that remarkable period of military-song making in America, the early "sixties," are" Marching through Georgia " and " Glory! Glory! Hallelujah." The latter is better known as " John Brown's Body." Besides these well-known words, we should like to see included the resonant and impressive verses put to the tune by the late Mrs. Julia Ward Howe under the title of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." They begin : "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord," and are already well known in England. But if American songs may be included, we would go further and put to music Australian and Canadian songs,—such, for instance, as the beautiful " Canadian Boat Song " :- " From the lone shieling of the misty island Mountains divide us and the waste of seas,
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is highland, And we in dreams behold the Hebrides."
In the song called " A Way We Have in the Army " we read :— "Though we are keen on sport and games, playing with heart and soul 0 !
Still we remember Life has aims nobler than Bridge or Polo."
We cannot imagine a private soldier making this renunciation with any sense of its reality. This, of course, is an officers' song. If songs distinctively written for or about officers are to be admitted, no collection ought to omit "The Long, Long Indian Day," which is known from the first word to the last in every camp in India, and goes to the tune of a famous and familiar German Volkelied. We quote a verse from memory. The song could not be included in a collection if taken an grand serieux, but it is a reasonable example of our assertion that the soldier does not care to sing of his glories :— "The long, long Indian day
We slowly pass away, Longing to see the day When we shall sail away To England, Home, and Beauty. There is no rest at night, The cursed mosquitoes bite Around me droning While I lie groaning."
"Annie Laurie" has many claims to admission, and is a first- rate marching-tune. We notice nothing by Mr. Kipling in the collection, and nothing by Mr. Newbolt. These omissions are serious. We do not suppose that either of these writers would refuse leave for their songs to be reproduced for the special use of the Army.
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