An evocative adjectival form of callithump, commonly used from 1836 in the American mid-West, describing a parade or band of noisemakers, but also originally an 18th-century British dialect noun for a group who made a rumpus on election days in southern England.
The English Dialect Dictionary also reports Gallithumpians as a Dorset and Devon word from 1790s for a society of radical social reformers, and also in reference to “noisy disturbers of elections and meetings” (1770s). The US reference is most commonly “a band of discordant instruments” or bangers on pots and pans, especially to so-called serenade a newlywed couple to show disapproval of one or the other or the match.
In the British context, it describes rabble rousers or hecklers or someone who disturbs order at Parliamentary elections (then public events, not secret ballots) or those trying to intimate other voters. This probably derives from the word gally, “to frighten”, which turns up in another dialect word gallicrow for a scarecrow.
It’s also theorised that the word is a blend of calliope and thump, evoking a noisy fairground atmosphere, although calliope, in the sense of the steam-driven musical instrument, is not recorded before 1858.
There’s a Callithumpian Parade on 4the July every year in Biwabik, Minnesota, and in the names of the Callithumpian Consort, which performs avant-garde music, such as Pierre Boulez's Le Marteau Sans Maître (The hammer without a master 1955), a challenging setting of the surrealist poetry of René Char for alto and six instrumentalists:
Or perhaps more accessibly, Jack Maheu’s Fire In The Pet Shop Callithumpian Jazz Band, making this kind of wonderful racket:
The word also a meaning in Australia and New Zealand, referring to some unspecified non-conformist religious sect, possibly derived from the other meaning given in the English Dialect Dictionary of “a group of social reformers”.
Feel free to share anything in relation to callithumpians, gallithumpians or anthing related, in musical examples, or wider culture, such as from film, art, or other contexts in comments below.
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