Music: an introduction
Songs at gatherings, chants on demonstrations, the massed voices of street choirs, the labour movement has been always had music and song at its heart. With stories to tell and thoughts to spread it has been song rather than music which has been to the fore, though Gustav Holst was a keen Clarion Cyclist and was seen going off to meets with his trombone strapped on his back.
The WCML has a good collection of songbooks and songsheets with items from a wide range of sources including the Labour Church, the Young Communists and the International Workers of the World.
James Connolly, famed for his political thought and activity, was also a songwriter. In his lifetime he published a book of lyrics, and more than fifty years after his death many were collected into the James Connolly Songbook.
Only a year old when Connolly was executed, Jimmy Miller of Salford, changed his name and became world famous as Ewan MacColl, writer and singer of hundreds of songs. Here you will find several pages on his musical career.