Posts Tagged ‘Language’
During the long history of mankind, a song was always a kind of technique, which helped people to transmit knowledge, wisdom and information from one generation to another. For the peoples, who had no written language, their songs constituted a valuable part of the oral tradition. The messages of the oral tradition may take different forms. For example, it may be folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants. Even nowadays, a song helps to preserve the national identity of numerically small peoples, who have no national writing systems. Often a song may transmit the precise information of human activities. The well-known example of this fact is a work song. There are many types of work songs: agricultural work songs, industrial folk songs, sea shanties, cowboy songs, African American work songs and others. Often work songs conveyed the information about skills that can be learned by anyone through singing. The songs took their rhythms from the work being done and helped people working together.
Why did people employ songs for transmitting the information through generations?
The answer is obvious – people had no alternative technique for transmitting verbal information without altering its text. Only songs can save the integrity of verbal information while passing from generation to generation. The opportunity that a song can be changed haphazardly is very low, because any unintentional alteration in the text of lyrics violates the rules, in accordance with which any particular song has been written.