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Show CRADLE SONGS ARE ANCIENT Words Often Seem Meaningless Jumble; Jum-ble; Melody Always Within Compass Com-pass of Home Voices. Almost all popular cradle songs are very old, some of them so old that, were they not familiar, they might be considered the veriest curiosities ot literature. Through all the changes of language they have held their own upon the lips and in the hearts of the people. From mouth to mouth they have come down through the years with an irresistible swing of rhythm and patter and jingle of words till they seem to have been rather a natural nat-ural growth than a human invention. In all the melodies, observes a writer, wri-ter, there is a certain likeness of rhythm with a national, I might say a temperamental difference of movement and a meter from the slow assured major of the German to the wild plaintive plain-tive minor of the Scotch, characterized by the short" accented notes or the weirdness of the Hungarian with its sudden changes. That these old songs should have smbodied and retained the characteristics character-istics of the people among whom they originated gives them an importance which their crude words and the elementary ele-mentary character of their melodies scarcely seem to warrant. The words often seem a mere meaningless jumble, jum-ble, the melody is always within the easy compass of home voices. No doubt both express, in some supernally wise way, the one unalterable sentiment senti-ment of maternal love. |