G'day Wolfgang,

A letter from a Bush Music Club member, about a TV program shown on our Australian SBS channel (Special Broadcasting Service ... non-Anglo focus programs) about the revival of Die Wandergesellen and their traditional 3 years and 1 day period as journeymen starts this query. The program spoke of this journeyman period as die waltz .. perhaps as being auf die waltz - and this expression has been quoted in relation to the late 19th century Australian description of swagmen being Waltzing Matilda.

Now that the history of the tune and words have been dragged clear of the spurious "Marlborough" song ... it may be time to look back for the German connections - if not with the later song, at least with the expression. It has been suggested, by Richard Magoffin (in several books on the history of the song Waltzing Matilda that both terms were found together in German military slang of the 19th century - possibly as "Mechilde" ... ultimately "Metze" - a camp follower, serving the soldiers.

From that, we have vague rumours of a (probably bawdy - and thus unpublished) song of the journeymen - Die Wandergesellen - being "Auf die waltz mit Matilda/Mechilde ...", in this case meaning with their roll of tools and possessions. (There is also a suggestion that the song was more prevalent among apprentices - looking forward to the comparative freedom of the journeyman years.) No one, around this end of the world, seems to be able to authenticate - or deny - the existence of such a song.

What I am hoping is that, with the revival of such customs as those of Die Wandergesellen, there may be the opportunity for folksongs that may have been forced underground by passage of time, change of customs ... and the Nazi misuse of folksong and lieder ... to resurface. I wonder if you have come across any references to any songs of wandering workers with "(Auf) die waltz" - or even "Matilda / Mechilde" references to tool roll and kit?

I would mention that the Australian use of Waltzing Matilda seems to have been, before Paterson's poem / song, confined to a region of Queensland that saw considerable settlement by Germanic people in the 1880s - mostly political / economic / religious refugees from Bismarck's "Unification of Germany". I know collectors from this group/area, but they do not have any record or recollections of the sort of journeyman's song I am seeking. Of course, 120 - and two World Wars have wiped out almost every trace of German language songs in their tradition.

Regards,

Bob Bolton