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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: Gibb Sahib Date: 08 Mar 10 - 03:46 PM BTW, here's a stab at the chantey version: Pretoria (chantey) |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST Date: 28 Mar 10 - 10:23 AM I learned this song in 3rd grade music class in the early 70s in Iowa. I remember all we were told about it was that Pretoria was in Africa. The history of the song is interesting but I still have no clue why so many people around my age were taught/sang it in early elementary school. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,ront2 Date: 29 Jun 10 - 12:24 AM We sang this song, training(marching) at Ft. Dix, NJ 1967... seems like we did also at Ft.Belvoir, VA. Army OCS. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Org Potgieter Date: 12 Nov 10 - 05:45 PM The Blue Bulls rugby union team (HQ Loftus Versfeld, Pretoria) plays 'Marching to Pretoria' at their venue from time to time. BTW Josef Marais was the nom de plume of Josef Pezach. I never realised that he translated so many Afrikaans songs into English. Check the right hand side of this link for more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgyus4J67_g&feature=related It seems the recordings were just about all made in 1939. You will also find SARIE MARAIS the "Afrikaner anthem" (like Waltzing Mathilda for the Aussies)there in English. This song originated in the Anglo Boer War (1899-1902). |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,flatint Date: 04 Jan 11 - 03:32 AM Hi all, I have finally added an audio clip of the original c1901-03 British version of "Marching ON Pretoria" to my website here or go to: www.flatinternational.org/template_volume.php?volume_id=150 This is the Boer War Zonophone release mentioned above. Enjoy! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 04 Jan 11 - 02:25 PM Thanks for a great old recording. Posting of the lyrics here in mudcat would be appreciated- by me, at any rate. It does seem to be the ancestor of the several versions. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,catherine Date: 04 Jan 11 - 03:04 PM Like Cort, who grew up in New Jersey in the 1950s-60s singing "We Are Marching to Pretoria" in school, i grew up in California during the same time, and we were also taught this song. I believe that it was in a song book alsong with "I've Got Six-Pence," "Kukkabura Sits in the Old Oak Tree," "The Ash Grove" (a dang depressing song for a third or fourth grader!), and a great, rousing, supposedly Russian or Czech or Polish pre-Communist song (in English) with the lines: Loudly the baron blows his horn! Wake up, my steward! Wake up, my steward! Reaping begins at early morn, Wake up, my steward, Day is born! HEY! Water from mountain flows Melted from Winter snows Turning it gaily goes Circlling the maple tree Water from mountain flows Melted from Winter snows Turning it gaily goes, Calling to me! HEY! or something to that effect. And i also wonder, why? why? why? Why were we singing these very strange songs about the Boer War and the colonization of Australia, and Tsarist Russia (or wherever it was)? They came from a book, that i know, not from a record. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Clara Mare Pienaar Date: 18 Feb 11 - 10:19 AM As far as I know my great great uncle Steven Mare wrote the song.Can any body reply please |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,GUEST - JAM Date: 18 Feb 11 - 04:43 PM Turk Murphy with his band performed a number called PEORIA, and after having listened to the melody of Pretoria, I believe there is a connection. Part of the chorus of PEORIA went something like this: I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria today. How I miss the girls in Peoria, Peoria today. I'd like to say "Good morning Gloria" On the sidewalks of Peoria. Oh I wish I was in Peoria, Peoria today. The verse preceding the above chorus described a terrifying day at sea with the wind blowing and the waves tossing the ship - and the captain finally breaking down and wishing to be safe in Peoria. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Mark Mandel Date: 30 Mar 11 - 09:00 PM @GUEST,catherine, Date: 04 Jan 11 - 03:04 PM: I remember the song you cite ("Loudly the baron blows his horn!") with slightly different lyrics: Streamlets down mountains flow, Pure from the winter's snow. Joining, they swiftly flow, Singing of life so free. Streamlets down mountains flow, Pure from the winter's snow. Joining, they swiftly flow, Calling to me. I don't remember where I heard it either (grew up NYC & vicinity in 50s and 60s), and I have an unclear auditory memory of parts of lines with what could well be Slavic lyrics. (I.e., in a Slavic language, such as any of the ones you mention.) Hey, this is funny: Looking at your post recalled the chorus and tune to my mind, and after a little thought I remembered the lyrics as above. But only when I went back to your post, to get your name and the date, did I think of the verse. The only verse I remember is Sweet is the air with new-mown hay, Cooling in the twilight, cooling in the twilight. Sweet is the air with new-mown hay As we homeward go at close of day. (HEY! Streamlets etc.) -- which makes good sense as a second or a final verse. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST Date: 07 Apr 11 - 12:14 PM May 3, 1900 - 3 May 1900 - Anglo-Boer War 2: General Lord Roberts departs from Bloemfontein and begins the 'March to Pretoria' with almost 44000 men, 18000 horses, and 1200 field-guns. He leaves to the strains of " We are marching to Pretoria" which is heard for ...3 May 1900 - Anglo-Boer War 2: General Lord Roberts departs from Bloemfontein and begins the 'March to Pretoria' with almost 44000 men, 18000 horses, and 1200 field-guns. He leaves to the strains of " We are marching to Pretoria" which is heard for the first time. (Cloete: The Anglo-Boer War: a Chronology) http:// africanhistory.about.com/library/thisweek/bl- |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Norman Mills Date: 13 Nov 11 - 06:06 PM I was born in Pretoria in 1939. I am sorry to say that I have only today seen this correspondence, but I do have something to add to it. My mother was Afrikaans-speaking until 19 years of age, and my grandfather, though having the surname Mills, fought for the Boers in the Boer War, and spent two years in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) as a POW, and, I am told, narrowly escaped being executed as a supposed traitor. The version of the song I learned as a child had three languages in a single verse. (There may have been more, but I do not recall them.) Totsiens, Sarie, totsiens: (Farewell, Sarie, farewell Alles sal reg kom, en dan, (Everything will come right, and then) We´ll be marching to Pretoria, Aikona, sakabona, (? language, ? meaning?) We´ll be marching to Pretoria, Back into your arms again. As I learned it from predominantly Afrikaans speakers, and the suggestion is that Sarie is living in, or near , Pretoria, it does sound as though THIS version was being sung by Boers, albeit, like my own family, with perhaps some British links. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Banjopicker Date: 30 Nov 11 - 05:06 PM The weavers doing this song a carnegie hall with Erik Darling is EPIC |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,flatint Date: 06 Mar 12 - 04:44 PM "Marching ON Pretoria", the Zonophone 78 rpm, mentioned above is actually an update of an 1865 American Civil War marching song "Marching Through Georgia" by Henry Clay Work. You can listen to the original American version at the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project of the University of California. (Thanks to Bruce Kearnan for leading me here.) Linking there from this message though results in my comment not being posted so check out the links at the flatinternational website with a search for "Marching On Pretoria" or "Zonophone". |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST Date: 17 Oct 12 - 01:58 PM Do you have the music for "Onions and Potatoes"? |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Aileen Date: 16 Feb 13 - 02:39 PM My Brooklyn, NY, elementary school sang "We are marching to Pretoria" on such a regular basis that the lyrics are emblazoned in my brain, many years later. Question: why were we singing this song? Were we being taught (unconsciously) to glorify colonial powers or ...? |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: Lighter Date: 16 Feb 13 - 02:48 PM If your school was like mine, in NYC, you were being taught to sing along to a catchy, upbeat tune popularized in the '50s through the international stylings of Marais & Miranda. You were also being taught there was a foreign land called the Union of South Africa and that Pretoria was a city inside it. Many of us found that incredibly interesting. You could also march around the classroom, which was quite relief after sitting since lunchtime. Another song was "I Got a Mule and her Name is Sal." Raising our consciousness about animal rights? I don't think so. It was just fun to sing and taught us that canal boats, the Erie Canal, and mules used to be very important. There was actually something interesting called "history"! |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Russell Date: 17 Feb 13 - 01:39 PM We sang this in elementary school in New Jersey in the late 70s… along with Feeling Groovy, Yellow Submarine and Michael Row The Boat Ashore |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Molly Lynn Watt Date: 18 Oct 17 - 11:08 AM I sang "marching to Pretoria" over and over marching round and round a room triumphantly stamping the beat at Saturday School at The Hartford Theological Seminary in the early 1940s. I had no idea why we were marching or where Pretoria was, but it was a favorite of ours along with "picking up paw paws put them in a basket " and "skip skip skip to ma Lou" - I did not know who Ma-lou was but I thought she must be very nice and maybe would give us a treat. mostly I just loved marching or skipping and singing with my neighbors on Saturday mornings. The missionaries who were sent home to Hartford from postings abroad during the war were our teachers and the school was a gift to all of us kids who grew up in the Seminary. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Marching to Pretoria From: GUEST,Keith Date: 16 Dec 18 - 03:52 PM My grandmother used to sing 'Marching through Pretoria" I don't remember all of the words except for the line Marching through Pretoria,"Lord Roberts and Kitchener, Baden Powell and me" which seems quite different to the song quoted before. This thread has been plagued by spam. If you wish to post here, ask a moderator to reopen it. ---mudelf |
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