Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

I
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SONG 589
woe-ste Zee, Ala door het boach de Leeuw.
and English soldiers fought side by side with
Swedish song O Wermeland,') ' See Duyse, i. 124.
the Dutch against the Spaniards. And it is
clear that Dutch musicians were well acquainted
with English ballads, for certain songs, such as
' Fortune, ' '
What if a day ' (identical with
'
Wilhelmus van Nassouwe
' '), Barafostus'
Dream,' and the Cobbler's '
Jig,' ' were evidently
favourites, as they occur so frequently. The
last-named tune is used in the 'Gedenck-Clanck' Valerius has also included nineteen purely Dutch
for the song Wie dat ' sich self's verheft, ' and folk -tunes in the 'Gedenck-Clanck,' and one
Valerius calls the stem ' Engelslapperken.' On cannot fail to be struck by the bold sweeping
comparing this Dutch song of satire on Alva's melodic lines, massive structure, and stately
standard with the English version, it will be dignity of these songs. The Dutch and North
seen that not a note has been altered.
Flemish folk-songs have, in fact, much in
Ex. 2.
Wie dat.
common with the German Volkslied, which is
explicable when we consider the consanguinity
of the races, the resemblance of temperament,
and the similarity of language and poetical
Wfe dat slch Belfs Ter-heft te-met, wert wel een ar-me
due d'AU n lieeld, tot Bpijt ge-set, waer forms.*
al-ge-bro-ken
Many of the tunes are modal, and yet
have a feeling for harmony which is unusual
in such tunes. The melodies most frequently
^[jjjZ begin on the up-beat, and as the musical rhythm
Ble-ter, u booBedaed.dieghiJ1»gaetbiJ al-lentochon*
be-ter.
follows the words very closely ^ frequent changes
of time are necessitated, although the actual
rhythmical figures present litjle variety :
U] - djg is en otrlj-dlg is met on-ser I^anden staet.
Ex. 4. Het daghet.'^
One of the most beautiful songs in this collection,
Waer datmen ' sioh al keerd of wend ' (a
fine patriotic poem by Valerius), set to the stem
Het daghet in den Oosten, bet Uch-tet o - ver-
' Pots hondert duijsent ^ slapperment ' (named
also by Valerius Allemande ' Pekelharing'), bears
a strong resemblance to Walking '
in a country
town.' 2
Ex. 3. Waer daim£.n.*'
Waer dat-men slchalkeerd of wend.Eud' waer-men
Waerdat-meareijatofrotst,ofrend,End'vaer.mea
The songa are by no means always in regular
periods ; constantly the first part consists of
eight and the second part of five or six bars, or
of five and seven bars each as in the '
Spotlied.'
(Seep. 590, Ex. 5.) Sometimes only one bar is
Daer vint-men, 'tsij oock op wat ree d'Hol- added, as if to give emphasis to the last words.
Melodic Tnelismas are of frequent occurrence,
even in strophical songs, and are probably due
to the influence of the Church. And yet,
paradoxical as it may seem, the songs never
V aE3=^E^feE;
5 It may be safely asserted tliat two-tblrds of the songs given in
Duyse's famous collection occur also in F. Btihme's ' Altdeutsches
Liederbuch' and other German collections, with only slight differences
in the words and melodies. As one example, take Daer
*
staet een clooster in Oostenrije (Duyae, 1. 472) and £s ' liegt ein
end de Zeeuw: SiJ loopen door de
'
Schloss im Oesterreich' (Bohme, 154). BQhme drew attention to
lan-der
this point in his preface,
'
saying : The Geiman and old Netherland
folk-songs are IndistinguiHhable, for from the last half of the 15th
to the end of the 16th century they had a fund of folk-poetry in
common. And amongst the aongs contained in the Netherland
collections (see especially those in the Antwerp Song-book of 1544)
many were written both in High and Irow German; and in the
German collections (see for instajice, Rhaw's 'Biclnla') songs occnr
with Netherland text and sometimes with the mark Braharaica
annexed. This Interchange need cause no surprise when the (dose
intercourse promoted by the Hanseatic L^gue is taken into
account.'
6 Following the verse-metre closely Is peculiarly characteristic of
Dutch folk-songs.
I See Chappeirs Old English Pop, ifugtc (new edition), i. 75, 100,
146, eis.
7 ThiB 15th-centnry song is set to Psalm iv. in the 'Souterliedekens
^ Tauaeni in some versions. See Starter's, from wliom Valerius
' (1540), and was used by Clemens non Papa in a chanson
possibly took the tune.
for three voices, and published in Antwerp in 1556. It occurs also
in a different form in the Gueux song-book (1675), set to 'Och God
3 Ohappeil, i. II?.
* Tiius arranged by Loman. (The opening phrase recalls the will doch vertroosten,' aJso In Camphuysen's and many other collections.