The English Occupational Song

UNIVERSITY OF UMEÅ DISSERTATION ISSN 0345-0155-ISBN 91-7174-649-8 From the Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, University of Umeå, Sweden. THE ENGLISH OCCUPATIONAL SONG AN ACADEMIC DISSERTATION which will, on the proper authority of the Chancellor's Office of Umeå University for passing the doctoral examination, be publicly defended in Hörsal E, Humanisthuset, on Saturday, May 23, at 10 a.m. Gerald Porter University of Umeå Umeå 1992 ABSTRACT THE ENGLISH OCCUPATIONAL SONG. Gerald Porter, FL, Department of English, University of Umeå, S 901 87, Sweden. This is the first full-length study in English of occupational songs. They occupy the space between rhythmic work songs and labour songs in that the occupation signifies. Occupation is a key territorial site. If the métier of the protagonist is mentioned in a ballad, it cannot be regarded as merely a piece of illustrative detail. On the contrary, it initiates a powerful series of connotations that control the narrative, while the song's specific features are drawn directly from the milieu of the performer. At the same time, occupational songs have to exist in a dialectical relationship with their milieu. On the one hand, they aspire to express the developing concerns of working people in a way that is simultaneously representational and metaphoric, and in this respect they display relative autonomy. On the other, they are subject to the mediation of the dominant or hegemonic culture for their dissemination. The discussion is song-based, concentrating on the occupation group rather than, as in several studies of recent years, the repertoire of a singer or the dynamics of a particular performance. It is broadly based, including songs from over a hundred occupations. Despite widely disparate conditions of society and performance, the representation of work in vernacular song operates not in a naturalistic but a performative way, in the sense that the work process is transformed into a carrier of social and psychological meaning. Occupational songs clearly come into the category of "music of necessity" made to fulfil some specific social function which is achieved in the act of making. In representing work, they tend towards four positions, the figurative, the rebellious, the parodie and the reductive. Popular culture, in the sense of a vernacular form to which no single individual can lay claim, is subordinated to "high" and mass culture, and therefore in many cases these positions are attempts to take advantage of the oral mode to transgress stereotypes set up by both of these dominant discourses. In the case of songs performed by insiders, the representation may appear as metaphor and parody, subverting received ideas, while those by outsiders, for example in the music hall and on many of the broadsides, tend to reduce particular occupations to a number of simple significations. Keywords: work; metaphor; occupational song; industrial song; women's songs; weaving; mining; the miller; railways Acta Universitatis Umensis Umeå Studies in the Humanities THE ENGLISH OCCUPATIONAL SONG Gerald Porter University of Umeå 1992 © Gerald Porter Redaktion: Per Råberg Humanistiska Fakulteten Umeå Universitet Humanisthuset, S-901 87 Umeå Distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell International Box 638, S-101 28 Stockholm ISSN 0345-0155 ISBN 91-7174-649-8 Printed in Sweden by UmU Tryckeri Humanisthuset 901 87 Umeå For we are to bethink us that the Epic verily is not Arms and the Man, but Tools and the Man - an infinitely wider kind of Epic. Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present 4. 1 (1843) I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck-hand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing. Walt Whitman, "I hear America singing" 1-8. Gerald Porter. The English Occupational Song. 1992. Department of English, University of Umeå, S 901 87 Umeå, Sweden. Monograph 1992, 182 pp. Acta Universitatis Umensis. Umeå Studies in the Humanities. ISSN 0345-0155 ISBN 91-7174-649-8 Distributed by Almqvist & Wiksell International Box 638, S-101 28 Stockholm ABSTRACT This is the first full-length study in English of occupational songs. They occupy the space between rhythmic work songs and labour songs in that the occupation signifies. Occupation is a key territorial site. If the métier of the protagonist is mentioned in a ballad, it cannot be regarded as merely a piece of illustrative detail. On the contrary, it initiates a powerful series of connotations that control the narrative, while the song's specific features are drawn directly from the milieu of the performer. At the same time, occupational songs have to exist in a dialectical relationship with their milieu. On the one hand, they aspire to express the developing concerns of working people in a way that is simultaneously representational and metaphoric, and in this respect they display relative autonomy. On the other, they are subject to the mediation of the dominant or hegemonic culture for their dissemination. The discussion is song-based, concentrating on the occupation group rather than, as in several studies of recent years, the repertoire of a singer or the dynamics of a particular performance. It is broadly based, including songs from over a hundred occupations. Despite widely disparate conditions of society and performance, the representation of work in vernacular song operates not in a naturalistic but a performative way, in the sense that the work process is transformed into a carrier of social and psychological meaning. Occupational songs clearly come into the category of "music of necessity" made to fulfil some specific social function which is achieved in the act of making. In representing work, they tend towards four positions, the figurative, the rebellious, the parodie and the reductive. Popular culture, in the sense of a vernacular form to which no single individual can lay claim, is subordinated to "high" and mass culture, and therefore in many cases these positions are attempts to take advantage of the oral mode to transgress stereotypes set up by both of these dominant discourses. In the case of songs performed by insiders, the representation may appear as metaphor and parody, subverting received ideas, while those by outsiders, for example in the music hall and on many of the broadsides, tend to reduce particular occupations to a number of simple significations. Keywords: work; metaphor; occupational song; industrial song; women's songs; weaving; mining; the miller; railways Dust Jacket Illustration: Edgar Degas, Two Women Ironing {Les Repasseuses) (Musée d'Orsay, Paris. © Photo R.M.N.) to my mother Contents Acknowledgements 9 Introduction 11 1. The Fairing Hand: Mediation of the Occupational Song 31 The broadside trade 32 The activity of collectors 39 Across the lines: writers and occupational song 52 2. Representing work 63 3. Occupation as Metaphor 81 The accretion of occupational signifiers 81 The development of a metaphorical scheme 85 Erotic metaphor 91 4. Group Cohesion and Disintegration 101 A plurality of allegiances 101 The role of work in women's resistance 107 Identity through solidarity: the mining disaster ballad 116 5. Forces from Outside 125 Evolving a symbolic scheme for industrial song 128 a. The factory bell 130 b. The machine 132 c. The Worker as Hero 137 Rituals of Rebellion 141 a. Individual rebellion 141 b. Organisation 146 Conclusion 151 8 Appendix I: "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" 153 Appendix II: "Johnny Seddon" 154 Appendix III: "The Poor Cotton Weaver" 155 Appendix IV: "The Lofthouse Colliery Disaster" 159 Works Cited: Songs Cited 161 Primary Sources 170 1. Recordings 170 2. Printed 171 Secondary Sources 173 Name Index 179 Occupation Index 181 Figures in the Text 1. "Millerly" attributes in oral and literary sources 54 2. Positive and negative attributes of beggary in song 85 3. Relation between surviving sets of "The Weaver and the Factory Maid" 105 4. Narrative Voices in "Johnny Seddon" 118 5. Occupations in relation to the Establishment and the counterculture 142 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Like the songs which form its subject, the writing of this thesis has been a collaborative enterprise. Professor Christer Laurèn, of the University of Vasa, gave me the impetus to start my work, and provided the framework for its first tentative expression. In performances with Dr John Skinner of the University of Turku, Finland, I first gained an inward understanding of several of the songs that form the basis of my case. I should like to thank the Department of English at the University of Umeå for providing a milieu which has been stimulating and supportive. In the course of many discussions, I have received that combination of encour agement and disagreeable home truths which every researcher needs. In a series of gladiatorial exchanges over the years, my supervisor, Dr Raoul Granqvist, has greatly influenced the final shape and coherence of the thesis for the better. Professor Gunnar Persson has given help in many ways. Dr Gerald Doherty, of the University of Turku, has been an invariable stimulus over the years, especially in the field of literary theory. The Centre for Cultural Tradition and Language in Sheffield, under Professor John Widdowson, has given support at crucial stages, and Professor David Buchan (Memorial University, Newfoundland) has been a key figure in helping me to evolve a principled model of song analysis.

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