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Article SONGS OF THE CRAFT. Page 1 of 14 →
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Songs Of The Craft.
SONGS OF THE CEAFT .
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE . Am writers agree that song is the most ancient species of poetry , and its origin is , by many , thought to be coeval with mahkind ; to sing and dance seeming almost as natural to men as the use of speech and walking .
A painstaking , ardent and erudite admirer of our old ballad literature and music * remarks that " poetry and music are in every country so closely connected during the infancy of their cultivation , that it is scarcely possible to speak of the one without the other . '' A little farther on he tells us , " during the middle ages music was always ranked , as now , among the seven liberal arts , those forming the irwium and auadrwtum , and studied by all those iii Europe who
aspired to a reputation for learning . The trivium comprised grammar , rhetoric , and logic ; the q > uadrivium comprehended music , arithmetic , geometry , and astronomy . Sharon Turner remarks , that these comprised not only all that the Eomans knew , cultivated , or taught , but embodied "the whole encyclopaedia of ancient knowledge . " And well it might , for the Craftsman , in the 2 nd Degree , will here recognise the citrrieirfum of study pointed out to him as the summum honum of useful knowledge .
Passing over the fact that empires , nations , languages , and peoples have had , and still continue to have , each a distinctive and peculiar minstrelsy of its own ; so as we descend to more restricted communities we find that there have been songs for the courtiers , songs for
the peasants , songs of loyalty , songs of liberty , songs for the chase , songs of the heart , songs for the soldier , songs for the sailor—and indeed it may be fairly assumed that there is scarcely a society or association of men that have not , as it were , a muse of their own .
"Whilst the outward world has poured out its spirit in song , the Craft of Masonry , " the science of sciences , " has not been behind in producing , what Wordsworth designates , as , — " Old songs the happy music of the heart , —"
but although there can be no doubt that our early Brothers of the Order had a peculiar ballad literature of their own , it has not been recorded what those songs were , or if so recorded , the documentary existence of such pieces are known to so few that it amounts almost to there being none . Passing bv this question we come to later times
and to the certain knowledge that Masonic anthems , odes , songs , glee ^ g & c ., were freely used by the Order , but where are they to be * William Chappell , Esq ., F ' . S . A ., the editor of a collection of " English Popular Music of the Olden Tinio , " a work of such untiring research , valuable information , and great utility , that it ought to he in the possession of every one who values an old song , and lovea an old tune .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Songs Of The Craft.
SONGS OF THE CEAFT .
THE ENTERED APPRENTICE . Am writers agree that song is the most ancient species of poetry , and its origin is , by many , thought to be coeval with mahkind ; to sing and dance seeming almost as natural to men as the use of speech and walking .
A painstaking , ardent and erudite admirer of our old ballad literature and music * remarks that " poetry and music are in every country so closely connected during the infancy of their cultivation , that it is scarcely possible to speak of the one without the other . '' A little farther on he tells us , " during the middle ages music was always ranked , as now , among the seven liberal arts , those forming the irwium and auadrwtum , and studied by all those iii Europe who
aspired to a reputation for learning . The trivium comprised grammar , rhetoric , and logic ; the q > uadrivium comprehended music , arithmetic , geometry , and astronomy . Sharon Turner remarks , that these comprised not only all that the Eomans knew , cultivated , or taught , but embodied "the whole encyclopaedia of ancient knowledge . " And well it might , for the Craftsman , in the 2 nd Degree , will here recognise the citrrieirfum of study pointed out to him as the summum honum of useful knowledge .
Passing over the fact that empires , nations , languages , and peoples have had , and still continue to have , each a distinctive and peculiar minstrelsy of its own ; so as we descend to more restricted communities we find that there have been songs for the courtiers , songs for
the peasants , songs of loyalty , songs of liberty , songs for the chase , songs of the heart , songs for the soldier , songs for the sailor—and indeed it may be fairly assumed that there is scarcely a society or association of men that have not , as it were , a muse of their own .
"Whilst the outward world has poured out its spirit in song , the Craft of Masonry , " the science of sciences , " has not been behind in producing , what Wordsworth designates , as , — " Old songs the happy music of the heart , —"
but although there can be no doubt that our early Brothers of the Order had a peculiar ballad literature of their own , it has not been recorded what those songs were , or if so recorded , the documentary existence of such pieces are known to so few that it amounts almost to there being none . Passing bv this question we come to later times
and to the certain knowledge that Masonic anthems , odes , songs , glee ^ g & c ., were freely used by the Order , but where are they to be * William Chappell , Esq ., F ' . S . A ., the editor of a collection of " English Popular Music of the Olden Tinio , " a work of such untiring research , valuable information , and great utility , that it ought to he in the possession of every one who values an old song , and lovea an old tune .