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Malcolm Douglas Tune Add: Missing Tunes Wanted-part SIX (99* d) RE: Tune Add: Missing Tunes Wanted-part SIX 17 Jun 01


Having had the 'phone line taken out by lightning on Friday (along with a lot of other people), I've been rather cut off from things; I've got my connection back, now, but my new phone is fried.  Still, it's given me a bit of time to catch up on some more missing tunes:

THE BOLD POACHERS  This is the set noted by E.J. Moeran from Robert Miller of Sutton, Norfolk, in 1921.   Midi made from the notation in the Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 26 (1922).  The DT file is an inaccurate transcription of Steeleye Span's second shot at an arrangement of this song; their first (never issued on record, so far as I can remember) was more faithful to their source.  The DT transcription was presumably made without the assistance of the sleevenotes that came with the record ( Parcel of Rogues), and therefore contains a number of mis-hearings:

Verse 2, line 3: "Which brought the keepers nigh" [not up]
Verses 6 and 9: "May God forgive their crime" [NOT They can't forgive their crime]
Verse 10: "They were taken with speed/ All for that inhuman deed" [NOT ...spee/ For their inhumanity/ ] ; "hearts", not "heart", and "For their young tender years", [NOT For they're of tender years]
Verse 11: "There seen ..." [NOT That scene...]

For what it's worth, Robert Miller's song was a bit different; not sufficiently so to spell it out here: I give the corrections above simply because the DT file is not an accurate transcription of the recording it was made from.

Martin Carthy -from whom S Span got the song- recorded the Sutton version on Landfall (Phillips 6308049, since reissued on CD) at a much slower pace than Mr. Miller sang it; the midi is, therefore, set to play at 75%.  I hadn't realised, until I looked this one up, where it came from: a little over 50 years later, my parents had the village post office at Sutton.  There were still people there who remembered some of the old songs, but I was living far away, and sadly didn't find out until it was too late.

HI HORO 'S NA HORO EILE  Midi made from the notation in Alfred Moffat's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Highlands.  The tune is a variant of Rory Dall's Port, to which Burns set his Ae Fond Kiss.

HICKS THE PIRATE  A broadside copy of this song at the Bodleian Library, printed c.1860 by H. De Marsan of 38 & 60, Chatham Street, New York, specifies The Rose Tree as tune.  This is the tune that Burns knew as Jockey's Grey Breeks; it was used for a song, The Rose Tree in Full Bearing, in William Shield's opera The Poor Soldier (1782) , and is now often known by that name.  The tune is so widespread, and varies so little, that we're spoiled for choice for a source; I've made a midi from the notation in A.P. Graves' The Irish Songbook (1894), where he gives the tune by one of its later Irish names, Máirin ni Chullenain.  In three places I've split half-notes into pairs of quarter-notes in order comfortably to accommodate the words.  NOTE:  I've just noticed that this one's been done; would you confirm that it's the same tune?  If it is, I don't need to send it.

I WILL GO  Midi made by ear from a "Corries" record.

THE LADY LEROY 2  The DT file contains no indication of any kind as to where this text is from, though it manages to describe it as "Irish".  It's close enough to a longer set from the Sam Henry collection, though, to be set to that tune; midi made from notation given in the Folk Music Journal, vol.3 no.4 (1978).  The other DT text,  THE LADY LEROY  is a specific version taken from a specific book, and I have no idea whether the same tune or one like it was used.

PRESS GANG  The DT file is transcribed from a recording by Ewan MacColl, and quotes his note on the subject of press-gangs; what it does not do is give any indication as to MacColl's source.  His text, however, is pretty much the same as one noted by E.J. Moeran from James Sutton of Winterton, Norfolk, in 1915, so a midi made from the notation given in the Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. 7, No. 26 (1922) will serve until someone comes up with the version MacColl actually used.

PRETTY PEGGY OF DERBY, O  The very extensive notes associated with this file mention a set of the tune in Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. III (c.1788) as "a good vocal version of the tune".  Apparantly, the tune was first printed only 3 years prior to that, so this would seem a good choice for what is an early example of the text (there are a great many modern ones well-known through commercial recordings by popular "Irish" performers, but that's not the issue here, as it's specifically an early text) : midi made, then, from Aird's notation, as transcribed into abc by Richard Robinson, with a few half-notes split into pairs of quarter-notes to accommodate the text.  NOTE:  I've just noticed that this one's been done; would you confirm that it's the same tune?  If it is, I don't need to send it.

THE STREETS OF DERRY  The DT file names no source of any kind for this text, and for some unknown reason describes it as a "rebel" song.  It's commonly sung in Ulster to the same melody as Anach Cuain, so in the absence of concrete information, a cross-reference to that should suffice.

TOCHER, THE  The DT file states that one of the two alternative tunes for this piece is the English Joan's Placket, as used by Burns for the chorus of a song, Jumpin John, contributed to the Scots Musical Museum vol.II (1788).  Midi made from notation in Kinsley's Burns: Poems and Songs (OUP, 1969); a few half-notes have been split into pairs of quarter-notes in order to fit the DT text.  NOTE:  I've just noticed that this one's been done; would you confirm that it's the same tune?  If it is, I don't need to send it.

Malcolm


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