Dear fellow Arachneans,
Yesterday evening I attended a lecture hosted by the University of Tartu's
Department of Scandinavian Studies.
David Hopkin, an Oxford professor, is a very interesting person & an
articulate speaker.
His lecture was based on the 6th chapter of his book titled
"Voices of the People in Nineteenth-Century France".
http://www.academia.edu/1529492/Voices_of_the_People_in_Nineteenth-Century_France
This chapter tells about the 18th Century songs that had been collected
& recorded, from the lacemakers of Vellave (Le Puy-en-Valey) while they
made lace in their homes.
At the end he told us of the popularity of the song about St. Alexis
which many of us hadn't heard about:
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=388
He states that when St. Alexis obeyed his parents by marrying the bride
chosen for him, he also broke the sacrament of marriage by running away
before sleeping with his wife.
His hypothesis is that lacemakers considered it acceptable in the eyes
of the church & the patriarchal society to remain single & work for the
benefit of the poor by teaching & making lace. He thought that the
songs were not sung to help the workers concentrate while working.
Personally, I think that maybe the songs were sung to help keep their
minds active while doing the monotonous repetition of the piecework or
yardage. Nowadays we use radios & play musical CDs, or even listen to
audio books, to make our time more productive while relieving the quiet
and boredom.
I'm hoping to borrow the book soon & read his book completely.
Penelope in Tartu, Estonia
where I found crocuses blooming yesterday.
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