Lyr Add: Skada At America

Subject: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: cnd
Date: 13 Jun 20 - 11:19 PM

A little different from my usual musical tastes, but I've recently been enjoying this Swedish folk song about the immigrant's journey to the United States. I've copied the lyrics as presented in the album I have and provided the information the album notes had as presented, with no effort on my behalf to correct or improve the notes since I know no Swedish and haven't personally looked into the song any more (yet).

Listen to the song online here

From American Folk Music by Various Artists, Life Treasury L1001 (1961)

Skada at America

SUNG BY GENE BLUESTEIN

All the people who came to America over the centuries, whether by accident or design, whether a hundred or a thousand years ago, came with a preconception of the new land. This is undoubtedly true of the earliest explorers, the Norse, the Spaniards--and perhaps the Welsh, if the Madoc story can be believed. Certainly it is true of the later explorers, and their songs are the only ones that have survived. Skada at America is a Swedish song of hope about distant America. Its melody stems from a Swedish evangelical hymn which was adapted by immigrants, some of whom moved west to the Minnesota-Dakota country. The lyrics are given here first in Swedish and then in English.

Broeder va ha langt at go
Oever salte vaten
Ok sa fins America
In vid andre stranden
Inte ordet moy-yeligt
Ok yo det er so froydeligt
Skada at America! Skada at America,
Lige skal so longt ifron.

Brothers we have far to go
Across the salty waters;
There we'll find America
On the other shore.

CHORUS: Though you say it cannot be
Take my word and you will see.
It's too bad, America,
That wonderful America
Should be so far away.

The trees which stand upon the ground
Are all as sweet as sugar,
And everywhere you look you'll find
Girls like pretty dolls.

(CHORUS)

If you decide you want a wife
Four or five will offer.
While on the ground and in the fields
English money grows.

(CHORUS)

Broeder va ha langt at go
Oever salte vaten
Ok sa fins America
In vid andre stranden
Inte ordet moy-yeligt
Ok yo det er so froydeligt
Skada at America! Skada at America,
Lige skal so longt ifron.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 14 Jun 20 - 10:29 AM

cnd, you want any help with this or are you good to go as is? If you want help, gimme a direction. If not, that's ok :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: cnd
Date: 14 Jun 20 - 10:34 AM

Starship, I haven't started looking into it yet so if you wanna take a dive, go ahead!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 14 Jun 20 - 10:56 AM

Hey, I remember this!
My parents' record collection had this Life magazine album,
and I remember the performance accompanied by banjo.
A spirited thing!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 14 Jun 20 - 11:07 AM

The only thing I've found that may be of use to you in your search regarding this song is found on p.48 at

https://books.google.ca/books?id=EV8HGCW9Q9sC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=skada+at+america&source=bl&ots=0Mji5ogEDm&sig=ACfU3U0MFPa-c-md

I don't want to clutter your post with the more humdrum stuff, but it's an older song with an interesting past.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: cnd
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 10:51 AM

Thanks Starship, that's not cluttering things at all. Now we have a clear source of the song. I, for one, never would have thought that a Danish opera from 1836 would be its source, but, hey! You learn something new every day.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 11:46 AM

Well, dig a little deeper and you will find something really curious.

The author of the words (NOT composer) is identified as

Hans Christian Andersen
1805 - 1875

and it is said that he was commissioned to write
an opera libretto based on
a Sir Walter Scott novel titled Kenilworth.

The Danish piece ended up being called
Festen på Kenilworth,
and the composer of its music --
presumably, the composer of the origin of our tune --


is one
Christopher Ernst Friedrich Weyse
1774 - 1842.


Here, from Hans Christian Andersen's collected works,
is the original Danish.


Brødre, meget langt herfra,
Over salten Vande,
Reiser sig Amerika
Med de gyldne Strande,
Det er der Fugl Phønix boer;
Guld og Sølv på Marken groer,
Og i Skovens Skygge,
Stegte Dyer bygge!

Hvor frydeligt!
Gud, hvor det er nyedligt!

Skade, at Amerika,
Ligge skal så langt herfra.


Der gåer Solen aldrig ned,
Stegt er hver Kastanie,
Der er Alting Kjærlighed,
Kilderne Champagne.
Gi'er man der sit Hjerte hen,
Fåer man strar to, tre igjen,
Og på Mark og Enge,
Blomstrer der kun Penge.

Hvor frydeligt!
Gud, hvor det er nydeligt!

Skade, at Amerika
Ligge skal så langt herfra!


Børnene de lege hver
Der med Guld-Soldater,
Hagler det, så hagler der
Hollandske Dukater.
Gaderne, tænk hvilken Pragt,
Er med Specier brolagt,
Og isøvne kommer
Guld i Alles Lommer!

Hvor frydeligt!
Gud, hvor det er nydeligt!

Skade, at Amerika
Ligge skal så langt herfra!


Brødre, hver som gåer herfra
Over salten Vande,
Reisen til Amerika,
Vil han aldrig bande,
Han gåer op i Fryd og Guld,
Og slåer Døden ham omkuld,
Der det Slag fornøier,
Det er bare Løier!

Hvor frydeligt!
Gud, hvor det er nydeligt!

Skade, at Amerika,
Ligge skal så langt herfra!


-- oages 114 - 116,
Sange af Syngestykkerne
"Ravnen,"
"Bruden fra Lammermoor"
og
"Festen på Kenilworth".

Digte af H. C. Andersen, første Deel. Appears in
Samlede Skrifter af H. C. Andersen, femtende Bind,
Kjøbenhavn:
C. A. Reitzels Bo og Arvinger,
1854.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Jun 20 - 06:52 PM

The score for the stage piece, music by
Christopher Ernst Friedrich Weyse,
is online, and I have just had a look at this number,
which is perhaps the second number of the first act,
near the beginning of the work.

And I don't recognize, at all,
the music from the Danish opera.
Of course, the quote in an earlier post on this thread
says that the words
were fitted to a hymn tune to become the folk song.

So it looks as though the lyrics managed to outlive
their original musical setting
(which is nothing memorable, in my opinion).

Speaking for me, my next questions would be:
what is this hymn from which
the folk-song melody is derived;
and how did the switch
from Danish to Swedish happen?

just one further comment on the 1836
source for the folk-song's lyrics:
Hans Christian Andersen would have been all of 31 years of age,
a relatively young nineteenth-century European
who lived to a ripe old age.
While the composer was something else again,
an eighteenth-century
"Golden Age of Denmark" figure,
who in 1836 would have been in his early sixties
and did not have long to live.
Andersen had quite the struggle to arrive at
his eventual fame and fortune, and
I suppose this was part of his upward path;
while Weyse would have been near the end of his career.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: cnd
Date: 17 Jun 20 - 12:56 AM

Good searching, Keberoxu!

Identifying which hymn the tune is based on is going to be difficult. Bluestein's recording is much faster than you'd expect any traditional hymns to be played. It's frustrating to me that Bluestein wrote the same comments equally devoid of specificity for two separate sets of liner notes.

I have found that the song is also called "Amerikavisan" (The American Ballad) or "Lovsång över det fjärran Amerika" (In Praise of the Far Off America), or "Bröder vi har långt att gå" (Swedish). The book Images of America in Scandinavia (The Image of the United States in Danish Literature by Sven H. Rossel) contains a fairly concise history of the song, and calls Andersen's song a drinking song.

I've also found a "street ballad version" dated to 1848, crediting the publication to Behrends Enke, which was essentially the first two stanzas of the original Anderson text (source, p. 221)

Sadly, still no identification of the hymn tune. I started searching through Swedish hymns and found this hymn, titled Ängsliga hjärta which I'll tentatively say sounds similar to the song in question but not similar enough to convince me.

Also see:
- This link which appears to be a Swedish version of the song
- A second recording of the song by Anne-Charlotte Harvey (note: the title is spelled "Skada Att Amerika")

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Jun 20 - 10:20 PM

Well, online (in these United States, anyway)
there are digital files from university libraries with
the following Swedish version, from a 1903 anthology.

It has a tune, all right, melody printed with lyrics.
And it is NEARLY the same tune, although there are one or two
melodic phrases where things go up
and Gene Bluestein, bless him, goes down.

I'll stick to the Swedish text for now.
(no title apart from the opening line)

Bröder, vi ha långt att gå
Öfver salta vatten,
Och så fins Amerika
In vid andra stranden.

CHORUS
Inte är det möjeligt?
Ack jo, det är så fröjdeligt!
Skada, att Amerika,
Skada, att Amerika
Ligga skall så långt ifrån.

Träden, som på marken stå,
Söta är som socker,
Landet är af flickor fullt,
Däjeliga dockor.
CHORUS

Önskar man sig en af dem,
Får man straks en fyra fäm,
Ut' på mark och ängar
Väkser engelska pängar.
CHORUS

Höns och änder rägnar ner,
Stekta jäss och ännu fler
Flyga in på bordet,
Med knif och gaffel i låret.
CHORUS

Solen, den går aldrig ned,
Släkt uti hvar män'ska.
Här är munterhet och sång,
Källare full champanje.
CHORUS


August Bondesons Visbok. Folkets visor sådana de lefva och sjungas ännu i vå tid, andra Bandet, Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag, 1903, pages 231 - 232

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: cnd
Date: 18 Jun 20 - 11:53 PM

Thanks for that. You can read that online here

That version has a note at the top which reads "Till sjös, af en hälsingborgare," which Google Translate says means "To sea, by greeting a citizen," which I assume means something along the lines of "from overseas, a citizen's welcome."

That same book lists Amerikavisan (pp. 249-251), which Poul Houe (in the link from my last post) said was the same song as Skada At America, but here it appears to be a separate song. I'll post the lyrics here for your comparison, but I'm not convinced they're the same song. The tune does seem to march fairly closely the rhythm which Bluestein sang, but the meaning of the lyrics is not at all right.

Amerikavisan

1. Vi sålde våra hemman och gaf oss sedan ut,
Som fogeln här bortfloyger, när sommaren är slut;
Han kommer en gång åter, när våren skrider fram,
Men vi få aldrig skåda vårt kära fosterland

2. Vi tänkte att förljufva det sista lifvets slut,
Liksom att komma längre, än härren stakat ut;
Vi reste ifrån Sverge med någo öfvermod,
Vi kände ej det öde, som för oss därute stod.

3. Vi reste ifenom de engelska ort
På vagnar och banor som fåglarna så fort.
Det var så skönt att skåda och landet få bese,
Men vi fördes så snart den lokalen förbi.

4. Och när vi kommo till den Liverpolska hamn,
Begynte ångerns tårar så stridt att bryta fram;
Det blef en hjärtans sveda i bröstet på hvar en,
Det taltes nu om Sverge och om vårt förra hem.

5. Här lades våra pängar tillsammans på en gång,
En väksel seda köptes uppå en engelsk bank,
Vi fingo dem utbyta mot guldet klart och fint,
Men att få dem tillbaka, der var oss nu förment.

6. Det skickades nu före till Nyorks ränteri,
Man fick dem aldrig skåda, man fick dem aldrig se;
Ty när man kom att fordra, var myntet taget ut,
Då blef en ryslig klagan, som skrifves om till slut.

7. Vi packades tillsammans uti ett osundt kvaf,
Det var för oss att skåda liksom en öppen graf,
Och födan, som vi fraktat ifrån vår svenksa jord,
Den blef oss nu förbjudet att taga med ombord.

8. Här talas och här skrytes: «I fån ju må så väl,
Här fattas eder intet till kropp ej häller själ.»
Det fick man seda finna, hur man bedragen var,
När hungern kändes komma, som icke lifvet spar.

9. Och när vi hade seglat en vecka eller två,
Ett mörker däcket höljde och bredde sig därpå;
Vi kind' ej se hvarandra, knappt andas eller gå,
Det var en faslig plåga för stora och för små.

10. Nu styrdes det åt norder, mot isens kalla bärg,
Då blef en ryslig kyla, som gick till folkets märg;
Vi kunde oss ej bärga ej häller våra barn,
Ty kölden var nu värre, än vi var hemma van'.

11. Nu styrdes sen åt söder, till söderns varma vind,
Där solen sönderbrände vår bleka, magra kind;
Nu klagas och nu gråtes, men ingen lindring var,
Ty solen här nu brände, så skarp och het och klar.

12. Nu blir en ömklig hunger, med sorg och gråt och gny,
En jämmer, som sig tränger till himlens höga sky,
Och döden fasligt härjar på folket inom bord,
Man ser de döda kastas i hafvets vida flod.

13. Ett är det nu, som grämer mitt hjärta till min död,
Att se de arma barnen här gråta efter bröd!
Vi kunna dem ej hjälpa, ej lindra deras nöd,
De måste nu få gråta och sedan därpå dö.

14. Här fans väl ock ett hjärta, som var af hårda sten,
Jag ryser, när jag nämner den engelska kapten,
Liksom ett djur i skogen, som rofvet griper an,
Det var djäfvulskt foster, han var af skälfva fan.

15. Vi såg nu ganska tydligt, och det är äfven nog,
Att han med flit och vilja oss efter lifvet stod;
Att bringa oss till döden, det var hans högsta lust,
Det odjuret hade gripit ett rof från Sveas kust.

16. En fader måste bära sitt barn i famnen upp
Och det från däcket kasta i vida hafvet ut.
Det måste då väl tagit hans hjärta ganska svårt,
Ty döden genast klappade på faderns hjärta hårdt.

17. Och när vi ängdtligt sträfvat till Kvebäcksstranden fram,
Där möter oss koleran, där stupar mången man;
Där var en ryslig jämmer med kvinnor och med män,
Ty alla lågo sjuka och bars i land med säng.

18. Om någon förr har skådat de mänskor, som var kvar,
Han hade säkert vågat, de ej desamma var.
Se de förfallna kroppar med blekhet uppå kind
Och ögat uti pannan, fördunkladt, fallit in!

19. O, härra gud, bevara hvar mänska på vår jord
Att ge sig såi fara och tro kolp'törers ord!
Det är ett kylningspulfver arr här få taga in
För dem, som ämnar resa och har ett flyktigt sinn'.

20. I Sverge var af ålder ett folk så fromt och godt,
Men af maturen kommer, att de ofta spelat lott
Och låtit sig bedraga och kommit illa ut,
Det skett i forna dagar, det sker ock nu till slit.

21. En allmakt nu så lagat, vår gud har så bestält,
Att ogräs skall uppryckas här på vårt Sveas fält,
Som bindas skall i knippor och sedan sändas ut
Till långt aflägsna länder att hömgod rota ut.

The lyrics to this song are the exact opposite of Skada at America; they are of Swedish immigrants regretting moving to America, talking of famine, missing home, and of how awful America is.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 20 Jun 20 - 02:25 PM

CND,
I wonder if the statement by that author/scholar
implied something different:

that these two very different songs
could be, and were,
given the SAME TITLE under certain circumstances,
and through their titles
could be confused with each other.

I strongly suspect that this author
would not confuse one song with the other
in any other fashion.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Skada At America
From: cnd
Date: 20 Jun 20 - 05:52 PM

Keberoxu, I had considered that but I don't think it's what he meant based off the way he said it. Houe wrote: "Until recently a nineteenth century ballad, entitled 'Amerikavisan' (The American Ballad) or 'Lovsång över det fjärran Amerika' (In Praise of the Far Off America) has survived in the Swedish-language oral tradition of Minnesota." He goes on to describe the song, describing very clearly 'Skada' and even goes on to refute the idea that the song was sarcastically glorious of the US, a problem anyone reading the Amerikavisan text I shared above would not have. What you have suggested does seem to be the case, though.

However, I have found other references of the song by that name; here's one by Hai and Topsy called "Amerikavisa" [no 'n'] (click), as well as this recording (by YouTube user 'hakan abrahamson') which gives that name as an alternate in the description.

To further complicate things, I also found this song (Amerikavisa by Roger Engvik) and this song (Amerikavisan) which both sound to be separate songs from both Skada and the Amerikavisan lyrics I provided above.