rett’s English Folk Songs (No. 32); Songs of the West (No. 21); and English Folk Songs for Schools (No. 37).
Dr. Barrett, in a footnote, says that the song was a great favorite with factory girls in the East End of London, where, I am told, it is still to be heard.
That printed in English Folk Songs for Schools is undoubtedly the normal form of the tune, which is always in the major, or Mixolydian, mode. The mode in which the air given in the text is cast is the Æolian with a sharpened third, the only instance of this irregular scale that I have ever come across—probably the unconscious invention of the singer who gave me the song. The tune is a variant of the air traditionally associated with “Chevy Chase” (see Northumbrian Minstrelsy, p. 3, and Traditional Tunes, p. 19). Chappell mates the tune to “The Children in the Wood,” but states that it was known to be one of the “Chevy Chase” airs.
No. 46. Fanny Blair
The words that I took down from the singer of this song were very corrupt and almost unintelligible. I have therefore substituted lines taken from a Catnach broadside in my possession.
The tune is a very curious one. The singer varied both the seventh and third notes of the scale, sometimes singing them major and sometimes minor in a most capricious manner, so that I can only give the tune in the form in which he most frequently sang it. In English Folk Song: Some Conclusions (pp. 71, 72), I have expressed the opinion that in my experience English folksingers very rarely vary the notes of the mode, except, of course, in Mixolydian-Dorian tunes. Mr. Percy Grainger’s researches in Lincolnshire, however (Journal of the Folk-Song Society, volume iii, pp. 147–242), appear to show that this feeling for the pure diatonic scale is not shared by the folksingers of that county.
No. 47. Arise, arise
I have taken down four variants of this ballad, but I do not know of any published form of it. The tune is partly Mixolydian. The words have not been altered, although I have made use of all the sets that I have collected.
No. 48. Searching for Lambs
So far as I know, this has not been published elsewhere. The tune is modal, but lacking the sixth of the scale, it may be either Æolian or Dorian—I have harmonized it in the latter mode. The words are almost exactly as they were sung to me. Taking words and tune together, I consider this to be a very perfect example of a folksong.
No. 49. Green Broom
For other versions with words, see Pills to Purge Melancholy (volume vi, p. 100, ed. 1720); Songs of the West (No. 10); Northumbrian Minstrelsy (p. 98); and English County Songs (p. 88). The words are on broadsides by Such, Pratt, and others, and also in Gammer Gurton’s Garland.
No. 50. The Bonny Lighter-Boy
I have not heard any one sing this song except the man who gave me this version. Nor do I know of any published form of it. The tune is in the Æolian mode. The words in the text, except for four lines in the first verse which the singer could not remember, are as they were sung to me.
No. 51. The Sweet Priméroses
This is one of the most common of English folksongs. The words are on broadsides by Barraclough of Nuneaton and others. Variants of the tune are given in Barrett’s English Folk Songs (No. 46), and in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume i, p. 21). In the version of the tune given here the rhythm is quite regular, differing in that particular from all other forms of the air that I know. Barrett, in a footnote, states: “This song is usually sung without any attempt to emphasize the rhythm.”
The words have been compiled from those supplied to me by several singers.
