History
As is the case with many children's songs, the origins of the Three Chinese are difficult to determine. Germany's performance rights organization GEMA classifies it as a "copyright-free folksong".
However, the song is relatively young; even its direct forerunners cannot be traced back much farther than World War I. For a song of such widespread popularity, written evidence is surprisingly scarce.
Read more about this topic: Drei Chinesen Mit Dem Kontrabass
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History, as an entirety, could only exist in the eyes of an observer outside it and outside the world. History only exists, in the final analysis, for God.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“There are two great unknown forces to-day, electricity and woman, but men can reckon much better on electricity than they can on woman.”
—Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)