Why Look at Historical Music?

In this blog post, I am going to analyze the music of several countries from history that I personally find interesting. I have been interested in history for a long time, and if you are also interested in history, then I think that music is uniquely positioned to gain an understanding of the past. Humans have been creating music for at least 3500 years, and probably longer, so there seems to be something intrisic to humans about creating music. Furthermore, since most songs are short (on the order of 5 minutes), we must distill our soul and essence into a simple and memorable phrase in order to be musical. This desire creates brevity, which can easily help us gain the gist of a historical society. This need is amplified by folk music, which is designed to be easily sung by large groups of people, so is often melodically and lyrically simple (simple does not necessarily mean bad). These are the historical societies I will analyze through the lens of music

Soviet Union / Russia

The first song we will look at is Swallowing Dust. Below I have posted the lyrics:

We can see that the Russians fight till the end with resourcefullness ("But you won't take me that easy"). I think this is in keeping with Russian character. Looking at Russian History, it is certainly brutal. This song portrays Russian stoicism and bravery in the face of hardships, but another song shows the other face of the coin. Don't Tell Mom I'm In Chechnya is a more depressing song about a soldier lamenting and cursing the horrors of the Chechnyan War.

The dark truth is that if the singer made a bet against Sanya that he will come back, that implies that Sanya bet he would die. In the hard history of Russia, I imagine that a bit of morbid humour would be necessary to survive and make sense of it.

Germany

The next culture we will look at the songs of is Germany. One especially moving song is Ich Hatt' Einen Kameraden.

Prussia has sometimes been described as not a country with an army, but an army with a country. This lead to many great military victories for Prussia, but also immense loss for the soldiers on the battlefield. The line that particularly stands out is "As if he were part of me", because it depicts the tight bond that forms between soldiers on the battlfield. The singer and his comrade are so close that theey feel physically attached.

On a more uplifiting note, the next song we will look at is Palästinalied, a song based on a poem from the 13th century.

You can almost hear the wonder coming from this song. I like to imagine a knight who has heard so much about Jerusalem finally arriving and praising what he sees. Even though, this song still remains a tone solumn and humble ("sinful eye sees"). It's almost like the author is humbled by being in such a special place.

France

Now onto a nation bording Germany, which is France. I have recently taken a liking to the song Vive Henri IV

Aside from having a really spritely melody, the lyrics also have a fun and playful nature. It has a message of celebration, not only of the honourable monarch Henry IV, but also of the festivites. I reccomend singing this song at your next party.

We will next study Seigneurs, Sachiez, which was amazingly composed by King Theobald I. Can you imagine any current monarchs writing such a good song?

I imagine that persuading people to go on the crusades must have been a hard task. As a king, Theobold I probably had to convince thousands of people to go to a far away and strange land. A song would be a very effective way to communicate his message. In the song, he presents possible objections to going crusading ("what will my wife do?"), and then explains why these concerns are not valid.

Britain

Britain is a country close to my heart, and it also has some very good songs. The first song is My England

My England

Born and raised in a laying land
The guardian of the islands
Where the rolling hills and the mountain streams
meet the sweet sweet peace of the highlands
Oh how I love my motherland, this blessed land of freedom
Where every heart that shares her peace, feels the glory of her Eden
And she lifts up my soul like a bright sunny day
and she stays in my life like a song

These expressive lyrics capture the beauty of the English countryside. I can almost imagine
the green pastures of Yorkshire when I listen to this song.

And I would be remissed not to mention the most famous British historical song: The British Grenadiers

The British Grenadiers

Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
But of all the world's brave heroes, there's none that can compare.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.

I do like the sophisticated swagger and bravado of this song. It's has the confident tone of dismissing these heros of antiquity. From the first bars, we can tell from this self-confidence that this is going to be a fun and uplifting song.

Yugoslavia

There is a very good video "My Obsession With Wartime Yugoslav Music" that also covers some of these same songs. I think the reason why Yugoslav music is good good is because of the harsh tensions of the Yugoslav war, where 5 societies that were essentially identical (their languages are all mutually intelligible) had to justify why they were actually distinct. They accomplished this through music. First, we will look at My Dad is a War Criminal! .

Apparantly this song is satire of the UN, who called Serbia war criminals. Honestly, it's a really funny song because it contains an unsual topic. I don't know any other songs where the singer just openly admits war crimes. The next song we will look at is Crni Bombarderi. It's by Roki Vulovic, who has many other great songs you should also check out.

This song refers to the 1999 F-117A shootdown incident. The US had the most advanced stealth technology in the world, and said their bomber was invisible. The Serbs had obselete Soviet missile technology, yet still managed to shoot down the plane. They said "Sorry we didn't know it was invisible". I think that's a pretty amazing story, and the story is reflected in the lyrics of the song.

Conclusion

I am trying to expand my collection of historical music. If you have any historical songs that you want me to add to this blog or that you want me to know about, please contact me.