The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5238   Message #2939820
Posted By: Artful Codger
04-Jul-10 - 07:46 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Poor Babes in the Woods
Subject: RE: Origins: Poor Babes in the Woods
As with the music in the Levy collection, the guitar and flute parts of the 17th c. score are restatements of the melody but in different keys (C and D, respectively). And though the first two lines are demarcated by section bars in the music, as if this is the chorus, the real chorus doesn't occur until this melody is restated in the third part of the tune. The section demarcation is really a logical distinction that only holds for the first verse, and leads to musical confusion; nevertheless, in the transcription, I've preserved it as written.

The score includes an accompaniment of block or tremolo chords, but you can do better in your sleep, so I've only transcribed the melody; the last fourth is the instrumental interlude. In my MIDI, I omitted the fermatas (H's below) to avoid throwing off the listener.

ABC transcription:

X:1
T:The Babes in the Wood
C:William Gardiner (uncredited in the sheet music)
S:Sheet music provided by Billy Weekes; date estimated at 1794-8.
Z:Artful Codger; melody only
%%MIDI program 1 69
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:3/8=60 "Semplice"
K:A
e3 | c A c e z e | c A c e2 z | A> G A F B> A |
w: The Babes in the Wood! The Babes in the Wood! Don't you re-mem-ber the
G E G A2 || B/ A/ | G E G d2 d | c A c e2 c/ c/ |
w: Babes in the Wood? When a Child on the knee How si-lent I'd be, While my
c d e f Hf c | d B A HG2 e/ e/ | c A c e z e |
w: Mo-ther re-lat-ed the Sto-ry to me Of the Babes in the Wood, The
c A c e2 z | A> G A F B> A | G E G A2 ||
w: Babes in the Wood, Don't you re-mem-ber the Babes in the Wood?
%
%    Interlude
e/>d/ | cAc e2 e/>d/ | cAc e2E | A>GA/G/ FB>A | {A}G/F/G/E/F/G/ A2 x ||


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