14 replies to this topic

[Alan Day]

My latest postcard dated 25th August 1906
Sent by Arthur to Miss Gough Woodcroft Chepstow
Arrived at Paddington at 9
Have just seen her off to Duns.
I wonder what that was all about
Al

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[Mike Franch]

It's a nice discovery. Love the illustration, but not the "moral" on the bottom, which, it seems to me, converts a nice family scene into something poking fun at poor people.

[Dirge]

Never mind him, I think it's a great PC, Al. Just fun, pure and simple.

Not some ancestor of yours is it?

[michael sam wild]

Nice pic Al Pobably a dig at the concertina not the poor! As Dan Worralll shows it got perceived as a micky mouse instrument.

By the way i saw a concertina throwing contest once in teh 50s. , like a piano smashing contest

[Chris Timson]

Well I hope you reported them to the RSPCC!

Chris

[Alan Day]

I think it is more noise abatement than a poke at the poor Mike.
Those babies can make a hell of a din.Add the concertina other instruments and them all singing represents one hell of a racket.
Al

[Mike Franch]

Gents, I do love the illustration. It's a great image of a family making music together. Maybe the idea was to poke fun at the concertina, not the people, but it is significant, I think, which people the artist picked to poke fun at the concertina. Indeed, as suggested, the concertina was in disrepute because of its association with this class of people.

As a historian (or as some of you would put it, an historian), I've looked at a lot of 19th and early 20th century illustrations. These red-nosed, patched-pants figures appeared in anti-Irish, anti-worker cartoons (although given more thuggish appearance than here). One also finds similar depictions of African Americans, Jews, and poor rural folks (i.e.,"hillbillies") in the "harmless humor" of the period.

OK, end of rant. Back to concertina discussion. And I have saved the image. What a nice family! And so lucky to have a concertina!

[Irene S]

One point that nobody has raised is the fact that the card is actually a dig at Robert Burn's poem , "The Cottar's Saturday Night", which idealises the home life of a simple and poor family, representing it as idyllic and cheerful .(So Scottish, rather than Irish or American in theme). There are a number of portraits with the same title ,and all show the family gathered together around the table - some even have a dog! And there is even a relief of the subject on the pedestal of a statue to Robert Burns which someone has captured nicely on Flickr http://www.flickr.co...N00/3827887394/

And here you can see an early depiction of the contents of the poem, with a description of what it was about.
http://www.nationalg... /><br /><br />

Edited by Irene S, 10 May 2012 - 08:55 PM.

[Mike Franch]

Marvelous! Thank you, Irene. I didn't know this Burns poem--not that I know many. So this adds another layer, especially contrasted to the earlier renderings you refer us to. And reading the poem, I see that the true text of the post card is

They chant their artless notes in simple guise,
They tune their hearts, by far the noblest aim;
Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise;
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;
Or noble Elgin beets the heaven-ward flame;
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:
Compar'd with these, Italian trills are tame;
The tickl'd ears no heart-felt raptures raise;
Nae unison hae they with our Creator's praise.

Some might argue that the Cotter has improved his lot evening practice, picking up his concertina rather than the Bible! I hope he dealt with it as reverently as he did the Bible in the poem!

Mike

[michael sam wild]

So a dig at the pretensions of the working or peasant class who presume to sing and play their untrained music. The very features that drew not just Burns but us folkies to the music with it's apparent unprentiousness but also the classical composers from Vaughan Williams to Dvorak etc who were seeking national identity, in a period of imperialism and industrialisation, in the music and song of the peasantry.

Who'd have thought a postcard could be the basis of a whole term's university course.Discuss!

Edited by michael sam wild, 11 May 2012 - 03:40 AM.

[Irene S]

So a dig at the pretensions of the working or peasant class who presume to sing and play their untrained music. The very features that drew not just Burns but us folkies to the music with it's apparent unprentiousness but also the classical composers from Vaughan Williams to Dvorak etc who were seeking national identity, in a period of imperialism and industrialisation, in the music and song of the peasantry.

Who'd have thought a postcard could be the basis of a whole term's university course.Discuss!

Nope, I don't think it's a dig at working class pretensions Mike - it's more of a dig at Burns and his rather lyrical assumptions of the sweet nature of the working class home ... all a bit trite really.

And Mike (Franch) ... I didn't know about this particular piece of Burns' work either ... it just seemed to me that the postcard picture was making some sort of a point, and googled the title. There seem to be many pictorial representations of the content of the poem, some more idyllic and picturesque than others - have a google for images with the title ... there are lots of them to find

[Alan Day]

[q

Who'd have thought a postcard could be the basis of a whole term's university course.Discuss!
[/quote]
I wonder if I can get my money back !!
Thanks Irene for taking it a step further.
When I see the Haggis being piped in,I shall think of this postcard and the Cottar Family.
Al

[Anglo-Irishman]

Perhaps Dundee's wild-warbling measures rise;
Or plaintive Martyrs, worthy of the name;
Or noble Elgin beets the heaven-ward flame;
The sweetest far of Scotia's holy lays:

Mike,
It's worth noting that "Dundee", Martyrs" and "Elgin" are the names of Scottish psalm tunes, and Burns' brief characterisations of each of them show his sharp perception of musical expression. But of course, the man who could write verse with the classical poise that Burns had after only half an Elementary School education (he went to school day about with his brother - that was all their father could afford!) must have had a musical ear!

I'll be doing the music for a Burns Supper next January - it might be worth working up those tunes on the Crane Duet for the occasion.

To pick up the class-consciousness theme: what distinguished Burns from other great (and not-so-great) poets of the Romantic period was that he didn't write ABOUT the peasant class - he wrote AS a member of that class. His songs about meeting country lassies after work are not idealised or condescending, they are authentic. Just love songs, with no thought to local colour or genre scenery.
Burns was the poet of the Rights of Man and of human dignity - "The rank is but the guinea's stamp; the man's the gowd [gold] for a' that" - and his Cottar has nothing if not dignity.

But of course you can put the same title to a utopia or a dystopia - and the postcard is the matching dystopia!

Cheers,
John

[Mike Franch]

Yes, I knew these were hymn tunes. And, depending on the brand of Presbyterianism, they might have been sung unaccompanied, even in church. (Some American Presbyterians, well into the 19th century, would only sing unaccompanied metrical psalms. Ditto, except with a broader range of hymns, for the Methodists.)

This might have been a glorification of the landless rural laborer, or not. I liked the specificity in naming the tools. I found the mother's reaction to her daughter's suitor touching. And, despite my initial mutterings about the post card, I love the depiction of a family playing and singing together. They were having a good time!

[michael sam wild]

Thanks for the info on the tunes John and Mike. Irene , I tend to agree that Burns was of the people and a product of his times, as much as John Clare, another working man. I think the postcard designer was having a go at what he perceived as Burns' tweeness.

I have known many working class people, including my parenst, who loved Burns' , not for the imagery that has been appropriated by many for nationalistic reasons but for his internationalism.

It all makes you think doesn't it?


Oh , and he was a musician too, he had a stock and horn , a horn pipe ( sheeps leg bone with holes, a reed and a cow's horn at the end.. I saw it in the Natioanl Museum in Edinburgh. he was a bit before the concertina. He was also happy to take folk tuens for his word settings.

Edited by michael sam wild, 13 May 2012 - 04:04 AM.