Lyr Req: Unconstant Fair

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unconstant fair lyrics
From: GUEST,Skelly
Date: 16 Feb 02 - 04:35 AM

Thanks Snuffy for making the effort to put it into ABC (which I don't know). I won't bother to put the rest of the tune on, as MCP has said where it can be found.

Thanks too to MCP - very useful info. Where can I see these books? At the RV Williams library? I'm thinking of joining EFDSS to use it.

Interesting to see that stuff about '...me her bird alone' and '...bird, alone' (with the comma between the two words). There has always been confusion in people's minds about the word 'bird'. 'Burd-alone' used to mean on your own, but it's not clear whether that comes from the old word 'burde' (= woman, specially the aristocratic, virginal heroines of medieval romance who pined in their ivory towers while their heroes were on quests), now spelt 'bird', or whether it comes from 'bird' of the feathered variety.

Anybody else know anything about the song? Has it been sung in recent memory?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unconstant fair lyrics
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 14 Feb 02 - 04:19 AM

One of the broadsides directed to be sung to the tune She's Gone And Left Me Bird, Alone can be found in the Bodleian as A Voyage To Virginia or The Valiant Soldier's Farewell to his love

Mick (mickpearceATaolDOTcom)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unconstant fair lyrics
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 14 Feb 02 - 03:41 AM

According to Simpson's The British Broadside And It's Music this appeared in Pills To Purge Melancholy V, 80 and is a reworking of the Valiant Trooper (The Valiant Trooper And His pritty Peggy) which had the burden

    But unconstant woman, true to no man,
    Is gone and left me her bird alone
  

The tune quoted above is the start of the tune listed as 213 in Simpson, which is the tune from Pills

He goes on to quote "Two ballads of 1702 to the tune of "Did you not hear of a Gallant Sailor" establish the existence of the reworked "Valiant Trooper" by that date... In The Beggar's Opera and Achilles, Gay calls the tune "Did you ever hear of a gallant sailor"..."

This is under the entry for I Live Not Where I Love

Mick (mickpearceATaolDOTcom)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unconstant fair lyrics
From: Snuffy
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 08:25 PM

That should be

X: 197
T:Unconstant Fair
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:G
BcA|
G2 AB cA|B2 cd ef|d2 Bc AG|

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unconstant fair lyrics
From: Snuffy
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 07:24 PM

Assuming all the Cs are high, here's an attempt to put Skelly's tune into ABC. Can't say I recognise it: anyone else?

X: 197
T:Unconstant Fair
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:G
BcA|
G2 AB cA|B2 cd ef|d2 Bc AG|

Can you give us the rest of the tune, Skelly?

WassaiL! V

Subject: ADD: Unconstant Fair
From: GUEST,Skelly (Guest)
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 09:29 AM

Sorry, I misremembered. It's not a book from the mid-20th century, but the beginning of the century ('The Minstrelsy of England', vol. 2, by Edmondstoune Duncan, Augener, 1909). His complete note on the song is:

'The ballad and air are quoted from 'Wit and Mirth' (1719), vol. v., p. 80 - a reprint of the piece which first appeared in the edition of 1707, vol iii., p. 156. It was familiar a generation ago to country singers.'

The words are as follows:

Did you not hear of a gallant sailor,
Whose pockets they were lined with gold,
He fell in love with a pretty creature,
As I the truth to you unfold;
With kind salute, and without dispute,
He thought to gain her for his own,
Unconstant woman proves true to no man,
She's gone and left me all alone.

Don't you remember my pretty Peggy,
The oaths and vows you made to me,
All in the chamber we were together,
That you would ne'er unconstant be;
But you prove strange love, and from me range,
And leave me here to sigh and moan,
Unconstant woman is true to no man,
She's gone and left me all alone.

When first I saw your charming beauty,
I stood like one all in amaze,
I studied only how to pay duty,
And could not speak but only gaze;
At last said I, O fair maid comply,
And ease a wretched lover's moan,
Unconstant woman proves true to no man,
She's gone and left me here alone.

Since Peggy has my kindness slighted,
I'll never trust a woman more,
'Twas she alone who e'er me delighted,
But since she's false I'll leave the shore;
In ship I'll enter, on seas I'll venture,
And sail the world where I'm not known,
Unconstant woman proves true to no man,
She's gone and left me here alone.

I'd also be interested in any alternative song set to the same tune, as it's a particularly nice one. I give the first 2 lines: there are 3 beats in a bar and all the notes are either crotchets (c) or quavers (q), all within the same octave of the scale. The first strong beat is the 4th note:

Bq, Cq, Aq, Gc, Aq, Bq, Cq, Aq, Bc, Cq, Dq, Eq, Fq, Dc, Bc, Cq, Aq, Gc.

Line Breaks <br> added.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unconstant fair lyrics
From: Joe Offer
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 06:51 AM

What words do you have? I searched the forum and database for "unconstant fair," but got nothing. Maybe we'd have better luck if we knew what you have already.
thanks.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Unconstant fair lyrics
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 06:42 AM

I have a version of this English folk song in a book from around the mid-20th century, where it says it was common among country singers a generation before. The words seem a bit 'bookish' though. Does anyone know of any words for it that have been properly 'sung in'? Or of any recorded performances?