The music
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the Press said
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Most of the traditional songs were gleaned
from the Vaughan Williams collection of the English Folk Song and Dance Society. The Hard Times of Old England was recorded by Whippersnapper. Farmer’s Glory
was recorded by The Prince of Wales Rattlers. Present Times & Van Dieman’s Land were quoted
in the TUC's The Book of the Martyrs of Tolpuddle (1934). The tunes
for them and the words and music of The Rigs of the
Time were found in Roy Palmer’s excellent collection The Painful
Plough, which intersperses songs with extracts from the autobiography of
Joseph Arch. God Is Our Guide is Hymn 1 - Union Hymn - in The Labour
Church Hymn & Tune Book, 1893. No
author or composer is given, but this note is added:
“The following verses were sung to this
tune by 150,000 people at a Mass Meeting of Political Unions, at Birmingham, in
connection with the agitation which preceded the passing of the First Reform
Bill, 1832. See Miss Martineau’s History of the Peace.” As he left the court at the end of the
trial, George Loveless tossed a note to the crowd on which he had written verses
two and three of this hymn. Verse
one is given here. Christ From Whom All Blessings Flow (Charles Wesley, 1707-1788) is Hymn 764 in
the Methodist Hymns and Psalms. Praise to the Lord (Stralsund Gesangbuch 1665, words J Neander, 1650-80) is Hymn 536 in the English Hymnal. (All the tunes are included in the script - order a copy .)
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