Cries of London

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Cries of London. Orig. the calls of street salesmen (hawkers) in selling their wares; over 150 have been collected. Some Eng. composers, e.g. Gibbons and Weelkes, incorporated these mus. cries into their works. The 20th-cent. composer Berio has written a work called Cries of London and Vaughan Williams incorporates a reminiscence of the lavender-seller's cry into his London Symphony.