gnu, you're welcome. Hope the illumination doesn't blind you. Thanks for the link to Valdy, I didn't know him before and I'm quite impressed.

I read the other threads about Der Fröhliche Wanderer and talked about it with a German friend of mine who is a real expert. We agree that the song, admittedly somewhat superficial (as has been complained about in other threads), may have conveyed a special meaning in 1810. Wandering for pastime was an attribute of a rebellious bourgeois youth then, as previously only journeymen would travel by foot. During such walks, young men conceived the revolution that culminated in 1848.

The Fa-la was not an English or "Germanic" invention; it was adopted from Italian models, which probably were not the first ones either.