COMPTINES DE DENTELLIÈRES BRUGEOISES (1730–1850): ENTRE TRAVAIL, ÉCOLE ET JEU, COLÈRE ET PRIÈRE
WORKSONGS OF LACEMAKERS OF BRUGES (1730–1850)

Summary/Abstract: The present contribution pursues our investigation of Lootens and Feys’s Chants populaires flamands, a published collection of Flemish popular songs transcribed in texts and music from the lips of a middle-class lady born in Bruges in 1795. Besides 161 „chants populaires“ of all categories (religious, mystical, tragic, comic, etc.), this corpus includes a minor portion of texts, particularly fragmented and without music, presented as „poésies populaires diverses“. These are lacemakers’ worksongs, learned in the lady’s early years as a pupil at one of the workshop-schools, then common throughout Flanders. Besides attesting the collectors and/or the editor’s modern folklore concept, the presence of these songs in the collection – the earliest sources for tellingen in Flemish tradition – allows a rare understanding of their meanings as a specific song category as well as of their interrelationships with the song tradition in local culture. Pervading their diversity of form and character, these 21 pieces demonstrate a dynamic network of meanings and functions in relation to the technical as well as socio-economic aspects of acemaking. These insider songs of the lacemakers of Bruges demonstrate how poetic rhythm and expression transformed the tedious reality of their work through play (aural, verbal and dramatic) providing for mental and spiritual development as well as for social and emotional re-creation on the job.

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