Annotations - Part Last

[Amy Wilson]

Fond greetings, all!

Here is the last installment of the historical notes to period songs I listed
from "Reliquary of English Song:  1250-1700," edited by Frank Hunter Potter
(G. Schirmer, 1915, 1945).



The Willow Song (aka O Willow, Willow)  - time of Elizabeth (1533-1603)

'Desdemona's song in "Othello" is one of the best known of the traditional
Shakespeare airs.  It is found in various publications and in differing
versions.  Shakespeare's is given in our text...The balled was quite
proverbial, for it was parodied (and that is a complete test of currency) so
late as 1686, in the reign of James II, when it appears in Playford's Pleasant
Musical Companion as "A poor soul sat sighing by a gingerbread stall." [The
original lyrics are "A poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree" - C.]  This
is an unusual period for a song to remain popular in the metropolis.  Others
have far outlived this span, but generally in remote parts of the country, not
in London.

'It will be observed that the accompaniment in the reproduction ... of this
song... [is] in an unusual notation.  This is what is known as lute tablature,
a form of notation employed for lutes and other stringed instruments of the
same character....The lute was a troublesome instrument in many ways.  The
tremendous strain on the belly was always racking it to pieces, so that
continual repairs were necessary, and a lute-player who lived in Paris
remarked that in that city it cost about the same to keep a horse or a lute. 
It was also difficult to keep in tune, and another famous musician calculated
that in the life of any lute-player 80 years old, 60 years at least had been
passed in tuning his instrument.'


The British Grenadiers - tune, time of Elizabeth (1533-1604); words, late
1600s

'The date of this tune is uncertain, but it is clearly much older than the
words, and from its likeness to two other airs, whose date is known, namely,
"Sir Edward Noel's delight" and "All you that are good fellows," it has been
assigned to the same period, the reign of Elizabeth.  The date of the words is
equally uncertain, but it cannot be earlier than 1678, when the grenadier
company was formed, nor later than the reign of Queen Anne, when the
grenadiers ceased to carry hand-grenades.'


Love will find out the way - time of Elizabeth (1533-1604)

'This tune is another which has had a lasting popularity in England, for while
it has been printed in numerous collections ever since it appeared in
Playford's "Musicks Recreations on the Lyra Viol," it was so recently as 1860
taken down by a Kentish organist from the lips of a hop-picker.  The words
used here are in Percy's "Reliques"; other versions are found in several other
collections, differing widely among themselves.

 
What if a day - time of Elizabeth (1533-1604)

'There are few English songs which afford more room for speculation than this
one.  Its origin and its authorship are both in doubt, for it is one of those
songs which are found in two countries, and while it has been ascribed to a
particular author, there is presumptive evidence that it was popular long
before he was born.

'"What if a day" is well known in Holland under the title "Berg op Zoom," in
which shape it will be found in Kremser's "Altniederla:ndische Volkslieder." 
Here it is a patriotic song of splendid martial vigor.  But it is also found
in a Dutch publication of 1647 under the name of "Essex's Lamentation." 
Furthermore,...Holland had few if any original folk-songs; most of those
current there could be traced back to an English, French, or German origin. 
>From these facts, it would seem probable that the tune is English and was
carried over to Holland by some of Elizabeth's soldiers who fought in the Low
Countries.

'There is some doubt as to the authorship.  In one or two early collections it
is assigned to Thomas Campion, but that means nothing, for editors were
flagrantly careless about such things at that period and much later.  Playford
was the most careful of them, yet the song "Why should'st thou swear" was
assigned to no less [fewer! - that's one of my grammatical pet peeves :) - C.]
 than three different composers in three successive editions of his "Ayres,"
all published within seven years.  Neither words nor music of "What if a day"
are to be found in the collection of Campion's songs, and from the dates of
references to it and the similarity of its words to older songs, it may very
well belong to a much earlier period than the beginning of the 17th century,
when Campion lived.'


That's all folks!  :)  I shall trouble you no longer....

Catelin the Patient