minstrel: Ecce Macdonaldus Senex

[Jessica Tiffin]

greetings, minstrels all.

I emerge from lurk mode with an off-chance sort of query.  Our vocal 
group is currently working on a rather hysterical arrangement of "Old 
Macdonald Had A Farm," translated into Latin and with a pretty 
complex four-part harmony.  (Sorry if this makes the purists wince, 
we do mostly authentic stuff, promise, this is just light relief.  It 
goes down very well with the Shire... well, _you_ try singing "cum 
moo moo hic" with a straight face... ).  The first line is "Ecce 
Macdonaldus senex qui fundum habent, E I E I O"; the sopranos keep 
the well-known tune, although with some very strange timing in the 
version we have; the other 3 parts have some rather modern-sounding 
harmonies.

Problem is, the song was taught to us by an ex Shire member who wrote 
it out from memory, and who didn't give us an author or source. The 
only info I have is that it's an SCA-generated piece, and the 
ex-member hailed from Lochac,  so this is very much a stab in the 
dark.  Has anyone ever come across anything like this piece?  does 
anyone know who wrote it?  does anyone have an authoritative version? 
 I really don't like singing anything that (a) we cannot attribute, 
and (b) is very much a from-memory and slightly problematical version 
(the timing is very odd).

hoping someone might recognise this,
Jehanne


Lady Jehanne de Huguenin  *  Seneschal, Shire of Adamastor, Cape Town
(Jessica Tiffin, University of Cape Town)
Sable, three owls rising argent, each maintaining a willow slip vert.
http://users.iafrica.com/m/me/melisant/stidings.htm

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