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Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670)
Prose and verse by Molière
Music by Jean-Baptiste LullyJean-Baptist Lully (musician and dancer) wrote theatrical music for some of Molière’s best-known comedies that still hold the stage today.
Molière and Lully precede later composers Rameau, Bach and Handel by a whole lifetime, dying before any of the latter were born.
The Molière-Lully “comédie-ballet” Le Bourgeois gentilhomme is a satire on mid-17th century social climbing—a perennial goal in all class society. As such it is referenced by Marx and Engels.
The would-be gentleman, Monsieur Jourdain, is prime fodder for a scam. His social vanity leads him by the nose through a bogus course of “education” into the ranks of the nobility.
Here is a short trailer for a French production that seeks the original earthiness of team Molière-Lully.
In it we glimpse the progress of Monsieur Jourdain, his wife’s horror at it, and raw comedic episodes of his duping.
Here follows a suite of Lully’s music for Le Bourgeois gentilhomme.
The famous “ennobling” ceremony—a burlesque performed by pseudo-Turks chanting “pidgin” French—starts at timestamp 7:46.
From the movieTàr we learn that Jean-Baptiste Lully, when conducting, marked time by stamping the floor with his conductor’s stick, whose beat is “replicated” in this recording.
Two French Baroque Composers
1. Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau, a contemporary of Bach and Handel, enters the consciousness of socialists through Denis Diderot’s satire Rameau’s Nephew.
Marx, in sending a copy of Rameau’s Nephew to Engels, reminded him “This unique masterpiece will give you fresh pleasure again.”
Engels, in Socialism, Utopian and Scientific, famously wrote
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“Outside philosophy in the restricted sense, the French nevertheless produced masterpieces of dialectic. We need only call to mind Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew and Rousseau’s Discourse on Inequality.”
Diderot was the courageous editor (with d’Alembert) of the enlightenment Encyclopédie and he was Marx’s favourite prose writer.
Danse des Sauvages
Les Indes Galantes (1736)The Amazonian girl Zima chooses the hand of the defeated Indian Adario over those of the victorious European colonists—a jealous Spaniard and a French fop.
The Indians and the colonists then make ceremonial peace, extolling the simple joys of nature—a sentiment pointedly directed at the Europeans.
Rameau and his librettist are playing out a trope that has not yet flowered into the politically-charged rallying cry that it was to become for the revolutionary bourgeoisie, despite embryonic glimmerings of Rousseau’s noble savage and critique of feudal social relations.
Rondeau, ‘Forêts paisibles’ — Peaceful forests
- Chorus of the Savages
[In our] peaceful forests, we are no longer victims of vain desires.
Here we enjoy everything that Fortune can favour us with.Zima, Adario
[This forest] sanctuary, shuts out [European] “Greatness”.
Here we are impregnable to all such vain attractions!
Oh Heaven, you created [the forests] for innocence and peace…
How could we be happier—why hanker after anything else?
Peace-Pipe Ceremony
The concert performance (above) is played at a frenetic a pace for dancers to keep up with.
Here, from a comfortably paced stage performance, we see the South American “Indes” through French colonial eyes, as thoroughly North-American but with 18th century French military drumming.
* * *
2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a generation younger than Rameau, was a musician and writer on music. D’Alembert commissioned him to write the entries on music in the Encyclopédie after Rameau turned Diderot down.
Rousseau’s beef with Rameau came to a head in the 1750s Querelle des Bouffons (battle of the comedians)—a pamphlet war pitting the new Italian opera buffa, championed by Rousseau, among others, against traditional French lyric tragedy, associated with Rameau.
Rousseau’s practical argument was a short Italian-style pastoral opera Le Devin du village about a simple peasant love-breakup, reconciled by a mediating “soothsayer”, in which he put
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nothing with kings, crowns, gods or fate; nothing that’s Greek.
Its favour with the opera-going public eventually shifted aesthetic tastes.
Le Devin du Village — The Village Soothsayer
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1752)Even if subsequent trends eclipsed Rameau’s musical form, that baroque master (like his contemporary J. S. Bach) has stayed the course.
I received the following email from Danny in Chicago.
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Socialist song to raise your spirits
(well, okay, it’s a teeny bit depressing)Thanks for your hard work spreading the socialist case to fellow primates stuck in their ways.
I used to be an SPGBer and WSPUSer for many years once upon a time, and why I no longer am is a long and terribly boring story, so don’t ask.
But I never forgot the case nor thought it anything less than a worthwhile goal.
Anyway, when you want to put your feet up with a cup of tea, maybe you’d like to listen to my latest song which is itself socialist-ish?
All the very best to you comrade.
Danny, Chicago
You’ll find the song here:
https://puppeteer.bandcamp.com/track/trickle-down-crumbs
(Yes, it’s free.)
(It’s mixed for speakers indeed, but seems to me so much clearer and better on headphones, nudge nudge wink wink.)
Danny composes under the name puppeteer.
He is an accomplished musician and equally skilled video artist—a writer of searching “songs of love and earth”.
Andrea Chénier
Opera by Umberto Giordano (1896)French poet and revolutionary, Andrea Chénier, is condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal during the Reign of Terror. His prosecutor is a rival for the hand of his lover, Maddalena, who trades places with a condemned woman, to engineer her own guillotining alongside her only love Chénier.
All highly melodramatic (and similar to Puccini’s greater opera Tosca of 1900).
* * *
Here is Jonas Kaufmann in the title role — Vienna State Opera.At a palace ball, on the eve of the Revolution, the aristocratic Maddalena goads poet Andrea Chénier into improvising a verse, whereupon he slowly transforms the lyrics into an attack on the First Estate (the clergy) for its depredations against the poor.
Philadelphia — (1993)
In the movie Philadelphia, a lawyer Andy (Tom Hanks), diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, is represented by a black colleague Joe (Denzel Washington) in a legal battle over his discriminatory dismissal from work.
In hospital, the ailing Andy listens to Maria Callas singing Maddalena’s aria “La Mamma Morte” (They killed my Mother) from Andrea Chénier.
As he experiences the music Andy involuntarily relays to a skeptical Joe the hold that it has over him, and the emotional charge he gets from Maddalena’s affirmation-of-life midst tragedy.
In the opera, Maddalena is seeking a sympathetic hearing from Revolutionary Tribunal prosecutor Gérade, but she doesn’t stand a chance against dictatorial authority. (Even Puccini’s Tosca fails to out-manoeuvre the arch-manipulator Scarpia.)
Maddalena pleads…
The mob murdered my mother, burnt our family home, my maid voluntarily prostituted herself for my sake, I’m to blame, … but I know that love will conquer all.
All this is [beyond] music to Andy’s ears.
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Romance from the Gadfly
Dmitri Shostakovich (1955)Shostakovich’s Romance was written for a 1955 Russian film based on an 1897 English novel The Gadfly by Ethel Voynich (née Boole—daughter of mathematician George Boole, the creator of Boolean algebraic logic).
The Gadfly is a tragic romance about a cardinal’s bastard son who renounces Catholicism and devotes his life to radical journalism (pen name “gadfly”) and violent bourgeois revolution during the Italian unification known as the Risorgimento.
Ethel Voynich garnered material for her hero’s youth from her sexual liaison with British secret agent Sidney George Reilly (Ace of Spies).
Also, Fabian “socialist” George Bernard Shaw, obliged her by writing a theatrical adaptation of the Gadfly (1897) to pre-empt ‘hack’ stagings of it.
The novel, and its romantic hero, struck a vital bourgeois-revolutionary nerve in the Soviet Union and Communist China.
From the concert suite, arranged for, but not by, Shostakovich.
A pastiche of (not necessarily representative) scenes from the 1955 film, with Shostakovich’s original score.
Marriage of Figaro
The Shawshank opera scene has been taken down, presumably for copyright reasons, and so I am replacing it here with another version that has been up for eleven years, and so is presumably legit.
As you recall the voiceover goes as follows:
I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. … I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful it can’t be expressed in words, and it makes your heart ache because of it.
Readers may be astonished to learn that those “beautiful words”—far from being ethereally inexpressible—are downright duplicitously conniving.
They are the schemings of two [slighted] women to humiliate a philandering husband, the Count, to force his reconciliation with his wife, the Countess, and to wring out of him approval for the marriage of his hot maid, Susanna, to his servant, Figaro.
Mozart has deliberately written sexual entrapment music of such deceptively innocuous innocence that it might break the stoniest of hearts—proof, if any were needed, of Mozart’s subtle mastery of the musical theatre.
The excerpt in which the women set up the honeypot is headed Canzonetta — Sull’aria.
Act 3, Scene X
The Countess and Susanna
Countess
— Tell me! What did the Count say to you?Susanna
– …I felt his anger and frustration.Countess
– Great, that makes it so easy to trap him.
– Where did you two propose to meet?Susanna
– In the gardens.Countess
– Then let’s fix the spot.
– You’ll write to him.Susanna
– What me write to him? But, my lady!Countess
– Come on, you’ll write to him, and I’ll take the blame.
– [Susanna sits to write]Countess
– [dictating a coded rendezvous]
– Write to him “A little song upon the breeze…”Canzonetta — Sull’aria
– Susanna
– – [writing] “On the breeze…”
– Countess
– – “What a gentle zephyr…”
– Susanna
– – “Zephyr…”
– Countess
– – “Will whisper this evening…”
– Susanna
– – “Will whisper this evening…”
– Countess
– – “Beneath the pine trees in the copse.”
– Susanna
– – “Beneath the pine trees…?”
– Countess
– – “Beneath the pine trees in the copse.”
– Susanna
– – “Beneath the pines trees… in the copse…”* * *
Countess
– He’ll understand the rest.Susanna
– For sure he’ll understand the rest.Susanna
– [folds the letter] I’ve closed it; how shall I seal it?Countess
– [gives her a pin]
– Here… take this pin. That’ll be the seal.
– Now… write on the back, “Return this seal“.Susanna
– Ha, that’s far more unusual than a seal on a commission!Countess
– Quick, hide the letter–someone’s coming!
– [Susanna conceals the letter.]HairThe 1960s musical Hair, about a politically naive draft dodger during the Vietnam War, contains the memorable line
The draft is white people sending black people to make war on the yellow people to defend the land they stole from the red people!
This was snatched from boxer Muhammad Ali who refused the draft, not on pacifist hippie grounds à la Hair but on militantly religious grounds à la the Qur’an, that it was a Christian war and not a Holy War — the only one he would fight in (World Title bouts excepted).
The response you get depends on how you frame the request.
Here’s what I got when I asked about “modes of production”—responses are warts and all…
Request
Describe the capitalist mode of production
Response
The capitalist mode of production is an economic system in which the means of production (such as factories, land, and resources) are privately owned and operated by capitalists (or capitalists class) in order to generate profit. In this system, the capitalists own the means of production and hire workers (proletariat) to produce goods and services. The workers are paid wages for their labor, but the value of the goods and services they produce exceeds the value of the wages they receive. The difference between the value of the goods and services produced and the wages paid to workers is known as surplus value.
The capitalists aim to maximize their profits by increasing the amount of surplus value they extract from the workers. They do this by increasing the productivity of the workers (by introducing new technologies, for example), by reducing wages and by increasing the length of the working day.
The capitalist mode of production is characterized by the following features:- Private ownership of the means of production
- The exploitation of labor through the extraction of surplus value
- The pursuit of profit as the primary goal of economic activity
- The creation of a class system, in which the capitalists own the means of production and the workers sell their labor power
- The market as the main mechanism for the exchange of goods and services
- The cyclical nature of the economy, subject to booms and busts
It is important to note that the capitalist mode of production is just one of the different economic systems that have existed throughout history, each with its own unique characteristics and dynamics.
Request
Describe the feudal mode of production
Response
The feudal mode of production is an economic and social system that existed in medieval Europe and other parts of the world. It is characterized by the ownership of land by a small group of nobles or lords, who held power and controlled the means of production. The lords granted land to lesser nobles and vassals (or tenants) in exchange for their loyalty and military service. These vassals, in turn, granted land to peasants who worked the land and produced goods and services.
In the feudal mode of production, the lords, vassals, and peasants formed a hierarchy of social and economic classes. The lords and vassals held political and military power, while the peasants were primarily engaged in agricultural production. The lords and vassals extracted surplus labor from the peasants in the form of taxes, rent and labor services such as building and maintaining castles and fortifications, and other duties.
The feudal mode of production is characterized by the following features:
- The ownership of land and the means of production by a small group of nobles and lords
- The use of land as the primary means of production
- A hierarchical social structure based on the ownership of land
- The extraction of surplus labor from the peasantry through taxes, rent, and labor services
- The lack of a market economy, with most goods and services exchanged within local communities
- The dominance of agriculture and the role of the Church in social and economic life
It is important to note that feudalism was not a single, unified system, but varied in its specific forms, depending on the country and time period. The term feudalism is used as a descriptor of a set of social and economic relations, rather than a formal system of government or political ideology.
Request
Describe the slave mode of production
Response
The slave mode of production is an economic and social system in which a small group of individuals, known as slave-owners or masters, own and control the labor of a large group of enslaved individuals. The enslaved people are considered property and are forced to work without pay. The slave-owners use the labor of the enslaved people to produce goods and services that they can then sell for profit.
In the slave mode of production, the enslaved people have no rights and no control over their own labor. They are treated as a means to an end, and are forced to work in conditions that are often harsh and brutal. The slave-owners use their control over the enslaved people to extract as much labor as possible, and thus maximize their profits.
The slave mode of production is characterized by the following features:
- The ownership of human beings as property
- The use of unpaid forced labor as the primary means of production
- The extraction of surplus labor from the enslaved people for the benefit of the slave-owners
- The complete lack of rights and autonomy for the enslaved people
- The use of violence and the threat of violence to maintain control over the enslaved people
- The market economy that exist where goods and services produced by enslaved people are sold for profit
It is important to note that the slave mode of production has existed in many different parts of the world and throughout history. The slave trade and slavery were abolished in many countries during the 19th century but still exist in some form in some parts of the world.
Request
Describe the primitive communist mode of production
Response
The primitive communist mode of production is a hypothetical economic and social system that is believed to have existed in the distant past, before the emergence of class societies. It is characterized by a communal ownership of the means of production, shared labor, and the absence of a ruling class.
In this mode of production, resources such as land, tools, and animals were held in common and were used by the community as a whole. The members of the community would work together to produce the goods and services they needed to survive, and would share these goods and services among themselves.
The primitive communist mode of production is characterized by the following features:
- Collective ownership of the means of production
- Shared labor and cooperation among members of the community
- The absence of a ruling class or hierarchy of social classes
- The absence of private property and the exploitation of one class by another
- The absence of a market economy, with most goods and services being produced and consumed within the community
- The reliance on hunting, gathering, and small-scale agriculture as the primary means of production
It is important to note that the primitive communist mode of production is a theoretical concept that is based on the study of pre-class societies and the study of anthropological data. There is no consensus among scholars about the specifics of how these societies operated, and it is likely that different societies in different parts of the world would have had different variations of this mode of production.
Request
Describe the socialist mode of production
Response
The socialist mode of production is an economic and social system that is based on the collective ownership and control of the means of production. The goal of socialism is to eliminate the exploitation of one class by another and to create a society in which the wealth and resources are distributed more equitably. In a socialist system, the means of production are owned and controlled by the workers or by the state on behalf of the workers, rather than by private individuals or corporations.
In this mode of production, the government plans the economy, and the workers collectively own and control the means of production, with the goal of meeting the needs of all people, rather than maximizing profits for a small group of individuals.
The socialist mode of production is characterized by the following features:
- Collective ownership and control of the means of production
- The absence of private ownership of the means of production
- A planned economy, in which the government directs economic activity
- The abolition of the exploitation of one class by another
- The redistribution of wealth and resources to create a more equitable society
- The use of democratic decision-making to determine economic policies and priorities
- The provision of basic needs such as healthcare, education and housing as a right
It is important to note that the socialist mode of production has been implemented in different ways in different countries and at different times, and there are many variations of socialism. Some forms of socialism have been implemented through democratic means, while others have been implemented through authoritarian means. Some socialist systems have used a market economy, while others have used a centrally planned economy.
In principle, Yes.
In practice, probably No, because of:
- cost of computing resources—many parallel GPUs, high-speed storage, long compute times, etc.
- serious data curation—technically skilled management of the dataset.
Hopefully commercial chat-bot services for small [volunteer] operations like ours will become available soon.
But our greater predicament remains—we cannot ignore the world’s common platform, the internet, which is where ChatGPT is educated and conditioned in the intellectual milieu of capitalistic private-property relations, against socialist property relations of common ownership and democratic control.
From my tests I believe that ChatGPT is objectively “fair-minded” in its current form, even though it is statistically influenced against our position because ours is a minority position. So long as ChatGPT and its successors remain objective in that sense it provides an adequately powerful tool for critical comprehension of the world.
2. Preliminary Considerations
To forestall unfounded criticism it is important, first of all, to recognise that ChatGPT, while “recognising” its strengths, openly “acknowledges” its limitations. [Sorry, but it seems appropriate to consciously anthropomorphize ChatGPT when you are engaging with it one-on-one.]
Request…What are the limitations of ChatGPT.
Response…
ChatGPT, like all language models, has certain deficiencies or limitations. Some of these include:
- Lack of common sense.
- Limited understanding of context.
- Lack of creativity—it does not have the capacity to create something new or original.
- Bias in the data.
- Limited to generate coherent text.
- Requires large amount of computational resources.
- Ethical concerns.
Request…What are the strengths of ChatGPT
Response…
ChatGPT, like all language models, has certain strengths or capabilities. Some of these include:
- Generating human-like text: ChatGPT is trained on a large dataset of text from the internet and can generate text that is similar to human writing in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and style.
- Text completion and summarization.
- Language understanding: ChatGPT can understand and generate text in multiple languages.
- Question answering: ChatGPT can be fine-tuned to answer questions.
- Handling context: ChatGPT is able to keep track of context and maintain coherence across multiple turns in a conversation.
- Handling large amount of data.
- Versatility: ChatGPT can be fine-tuned for a variety of tasks and use cases.
- Large pre-trained models.
This is how ChatGPG “describes” itself (in semi-technical language)
Request…Explain ChatGPT.
Response…
ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI. It is based on the GPT (Generative Pre-training Transformer) architecture and is trained on a large dataset of text from the internet.
…The model uses a neural network with a transformer architecture and has been trained with a variant of the transformer called GPT-3.
…GPT-3 is considered as state-of-the-art model in language understanding.
Fortunately there are numerous, not so technical, explanations on YouTube, but beware of YouTubers who pontificate on ChatGPT incautious of its acknowledged deficiencies or limitations. Of course, the idiomatic ChatGPT way is to ask it to clarify the technical jargon.
It is ChatGBT’s strengths or capabilities that we’ll consider next time.“The materialist doctrine concerning the
changing of circumstances and upbringing…” (Marx)—
West Side Story (music: Leonard Bernstein; text: Stephen Sondheim)
From the 1961 movieSNOWBOY
—Cops believe everything they read in the papers.ACTION
—To them we ain’t human. We’re cruddy juvenile delinquents.
So that’s what we give ‘em.SNOWBOY (Imitating Seargent KRUPKE)
—Hey, you!ACTION
—Me, Officer Krupke?SNOWBOY
—Yeah, you! Gimme one good reason for not dragging ya down to the station house, ya punk?Gee, Officer Krupke!
ACTION
—Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke,
—You gotta understand:
—It’s just our bringin’ upke
—That gets us out of hand.
—Our mothers all are junkies,
—Our fathers all are drunks.ACTION AND JETS
—Golly Moses, natcherly we’re punks!
—Gee, Officer Krupke, we’re very upset;
—We never had the love that ev’ry child oughta get.
—We ain’t no delinquents,
—We’re misunderstood.
—Deep down inside us there is good!ACTION
—There is good!
ALL
—There is good, there is good,
—There is untapped good.
—Like inside, the worst of us is good.SNOWBOY (Spoken)
—That’s a touchin’ good story.ACTION (Spoken)
—Lemme tell it to the world!SNOWBOY
—Just tell it to the judge.ACTION
—Dear kindly Judge, your Honor,
—My parents treat me rough.
—With all their marijuana,
—They won’t give me a puff.
—They didn’t wanna have me,
—But somehow I was had.
—Leapin’ lizards, that’s why I’m so bad!DIESEL (As Judge)
—Right!
—Officer Krupke, you’re really a square.
—This boy don’t need a judge,
—he needs a’ analyst’s care!
—It’s just his neurosis that oughta be curbed.
—He’s psychologically disturbed!ACTION
—I’m disturbed!ALL
—We’re disturbed, we’re disturbed,
—We’re the most disturbed,
—Like we’re psychologically disturbed.DIESEL (Spoken, as Judge)
—In the opinion on this court, this child is depraved on account he ain’t had a normal home.ACTION (Spoken)
—Hey, I’m depraved on account I’m deprived.DIESEL
—So take him to a headshrinker.ACTION (Sings)
—My father is a bastard,
—My ma’s an S.O.B.
—My grandpa’s always plastered,
—My grandma pushes tea.
—My sister wears a mustache,
—My brother wears a dress.
—Goodness gracious, that’s why I’m a mess!A-RAB (As Psychiatrist)
—Yes!
—Officer Krupke, you’re really a slob.
—This boy don’t need a doctor, just a good honest job.
—Society’s played him a terrible trick,
—And sociologically he’s sick!ACTION
—I am sick!ALL
—We are sick, we are sick,
—We are sick, sick, sick,
—Like we’re sociologically sick!A-RAB
—In my opinion, this child don’t need to have his head shrunk at all. Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease.ACTION (Spoken)
—Hey, I got a social disease!A-RAB (Spoken)
—So take him to a social worker!ACTION
—Dear kindly social worker,
—They say go earn a buck.
—Like be a soda jerker,
—Which means like be a schmuck.
—It’s not I’m anti-social,
—I’m only anti-work.
—Gloryosky, that’s why I’m a jerk!BABY JOHN (As Social Worker)
—Eek!
—Officer Krupke, you’ve done it again.
—This boy don’t need a job, he needs a year in the pen.
—It ain’t just a question of misunderstood—
—Deep down inside him, he’s no good!ACTION
—I’m no good!ALL
—We’re no good, we’re no good!
—We’re no earthly good,
—Like the best of us is no damn good!DIESEL (As Judge)
—The trouble is he’s crazy.A-RAB (As Psychiatrist)
—The trouble is he drinks.BABY JOHN (As Social Worker)
—The trouble is he’s lazy.DIESEL
—The trouble is he stinks.A-RAB
—The trouble is he’s growing.BABY JOHN
—The trouble is he’s grown.ALL
—Krupke, we got troubles of our own!
—Gee, Officer Krupke,
—We’re down on our knees,
—‘Cause no one wants a fellow with a social disease.
—Gee, Officer Krupke,
—What are we to do?
—Gee, Officer Krupke,
—Krup you!Patriotic Songs of
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists—
Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel
Samuel Johnson (directed at William Pitt)—
* * *
Sons of the Sea — England Expects
British Naval Song (1805)
(First two verses modified for WWI, 1915)
—Have you heard this talk of foreign powers,
—Building ships increasingly?
—Do you know they watch the Isle of ours,
—Watch their chance unceasingly?
—Have you heard the millions they will spend,
—Strengthening their fleets, and why?
—They imagine they can break or bend
—The nation that has often made them fly;
—But one thing we possess, they forget, they forget,
—The lads in blue, they’ve met, often met, often met.
—Sons of the sea, all British born,
—Sailing every ocean, laughing foes to scorn.
—They may build their ships, my lads,
—And think they know the game,
—But they can’t breed boys of the bulldog breed,
—Who made old England’s name.
* * *
Goodbye, Dolly Gray — Spanish-American War Song.
Lyrics: Will D. Cobb; Music: Paul Barnes (1897)
Singer: Edward Woodward—I have come to say goodbye, Dolly Gray,
—It’s no use to ask me why, Dolly Gray,
—There’s a murmur in the air, you can hear it everywhere,
—It’s the time to do and dare, Dolly Gray.
—So if you hear the sound of feet, Dolly Gray,
—Sounding through the village street, Dolly Gray,
—It’s the tramp of soldiers’ true in their uniforms so blue,
—I must say goodbye to you, Dolly Gray.
—Goodbye Dolly I must leave you, though it breaks my heart to go,
—Something tells me I am needed at the front to fight the foe,
—See — the boys in blue are marching and I can no longer stay,
—Hark — I hear the bugle calling, goodbye Dolly Gray.
* * *
Robert Noonan was in Cape Town (1899-1901) when Goodbye, Dolly Gray was a Boer War anthem.
Edward Woodward played Breaker Morant, who was executed by firing squad for war-crime (a crime-within-a-crime) in the Boer War. Breaker Morant is remembered today for the movie metaphor that stands for all war-crime: Rule “303”.
More Songs of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists—
Words are given for recordings made during Robert Tressell’s lifetime. They preserve the musical soundscape of the Philanthropists’ world.The [hypocritical] religious songs are skipped over as being mainly unlistenable to.
* * *
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! — Civil War Song (George Root, 1864)
Acoustic recording: 1907; Singers: Harlan and StanleyA Union prisoner’s hope in a Confederate jail
—In the prison cell I sit, thinking Mother dear, of you,
—And our bright and happy home so far away.
—And the tears they fill my eyes ’spite of all that I can do.
—Tho’ I try to cheer my comrades and be gay.
—Chorus:
—Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The boys are marching.
—Cheer up comrades, they will come.
—And beneath the starry flag, we shall breathe the air again,
—Of the freeland in our own beloved home.
—In the battle front we stood, when their fiercest charge they made.
—And they swept us off a hundred men or more,
—But before we reached their lines, they were beaten back dismayed,
—And we heard the cry of vict’ry o’er and o’er.
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The boys are marching…
—So within the prison cell we are waiting for the day
—That shall come to open wide the iron door.
—And the hollow eye grows bright, and the poor heart almost gay,
—As we think of seeing home and friends once more.
Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The boys are marching…—
(The hymn “Jesus Loves [all] the Little Children” took the melody.)
—
* * *Has Anyone Seen a German Band? (A. J. Mills and Bennett Scott, 1907)
Acoustic recording: 1908; Singer: Fred Vernon—Once a little German girl lonely and sad,
—Came to merry England from her Fatherland.
—Looking for her sweetheart whose front name was Fritz,
—And he played the Trombone in some German Band:
—She searched round the City by night and by day.
—And asked ev’ry one on the way.
—Has any one seen a German Band?
—German Band, German Band.
—I’ve been looking about all upon my own.
—I’ve searched ev’ry street both near and far,
—Near and far, yah, yah, yah.
—I want my Fritz, vot plays twiddly bits
—On der big trombone.
—“Fritz was very fond of me,” Katrina said.
—“When he was in Germany over the seas;
—And he used to come round to mine Fader’s house,
—He’d make love and eat all our Limburcheese.
—He’d serenade me with ‘The watch on the Rhine’,
—And I thought his trombone divine.”
—“Perhaps you wonder why I am over here now.”
—Said the little Katrina. “I’ll tell you true.
—There’s another girl and she’s stolen my Fritz,
—She gives him sweet kisses, and sauerkraut too;
—But wait till I meet him, I’ll get back mine own,
—I’ll jump two times on his trombone.”
* * *
I Live in Trafalgar Square (C. W. Murphy, 1902)
Singer: Roy Hudd* * *
Down at the Old Bull and Bush (Sterling, von Tilzer, Hunting, Krone, 1903)
Singer: Stanley HollowayTwo Lovely Black Eyes
A Ragged Trousered Philanthropists follow up.
Here is the original song to Bert White’s World-famed Pandorama scene — “The bloke on the ground is a Socialist, and the reason why they’re kickin’ ‘is face in is because ‘e said that the only difference between Slumrent and Mandriver was that they was both alike.”
The children innocently sing the familiar chorus.
Two Lovely Black EyesCharles Coburn (1886; music, Neapolitan trad.)
Strolling so happily down Bethnal Green
—This gay youth you might have seen
Tompkins and I, with his girl between
—Oh what a surprise.
I praised the Conservatives frank and free
—Tompkins got angry so speedily
All in a moment he handed to me
—Two lovely black eyes.
Chorus:
—Two lovely black eyes
—Oh what a surprise
—Only for telling a man he was wrong
—Two lovely black eyes.
Next time, I argued, I though it best
—To give the Conservative side a rest
The merits of Gladstone I freely pressed
—When Oh what a surprise.
The chap I had met was a Tory true
—Nothing the Liberals right could do.
This was my share of that argument too
—Two lovely black eyes.
Two lovely black eyes, etc.
The moral you’ve caught I can hardly doubt
—Never on politics rave and shout
Leave it to others to fight it out
—If you would be wise.
Better by far, better it is to let
—Liberals and Tories alone you bet
Unless you are willing and anxious to get
—Two lovely black eyes.
Two lovely black eyes, etc.—
* * *—
Veni sul Mar — Come to the Sea
Enrico Caruso (recorded 1918, digitally remastered — traditional Neapolitan song)
This is the original tune to “Two Lovely Black Eyes”.
No, covvie99, you are not a realist.
A realist investigates social appearance.
You are a naive realist.
You are indistinguishable among the common herd of capitalists, workers, conservatives, radicals who — as you say — desire “security, food and shelter and the opportunity to thrive, concentrate on those similarities between people and we can grow support for real change”.
If social desire conquered, it would have delivered “security, food and shelter,” etc. But, social desire has failed.
A naive realist — like yourself — might swallow his pride and humbly investigate social appearance to discover what social processes thwart, have always thwarted, and necessarily must thwart, social desire.
Until then you remain smugly indistinguishable among your kindred capitalists, workers, conservatives, radicals into whose naive skulls it has never penetrated that:
society — as capitalistically constituted — is governed not by social desire but by social capital.—
For once, read our Object and Declaration of Principles and challenge your naive delusions about the reality of capitalist society.
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