Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Jan 06 - 12:38 PM

If you go to this site

http://www.singout.org/444toc.html

and click on "Pleasant and delightful", you will hear one of the tunes for this song. I like it, and I plan to add it to my dulcimer repertoire.

Thanks for reminding me of this song.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: BillE
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 05:05 PM

Sorry I'm unable to help with the original question, but the best version, in my opinion, for good harmony singing is the one sung in the West Country, particularly around the Padstow area. Recorded by Charlie Bate at an EFDSS concert at the Royal Festival Hall in 1965, on the Folksound of Britain LP (EMI CLP1910) , and by Tommy Morrissey and Charlie Pitman on Veteran Tapes VT122. Better still go to any singing pub around Padstow at May time. Although it is basically the same tune as sung elsewhere, this version probably owes something to Chapel singing and is far more gentle and measured than those sung elsewhere.

I was not impressed with the Coope Boyes and Simpson recording (on Hindsight album) which I found flat and lacking in feeling.

But, for a really spirited version try the one one sung by the Holme Valley Hunt at the end of the first track "On a Fine Hunting Day" on the Fine Hunting Day LP (Leader LEE 4056) 1975.

I would be very interested to learn of other recordings...

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: Peace
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 04:14 PM

Small point but it may help in your search: The title of the song is

"It was Pleasant and Delightful".

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: Peace
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 04:10 PM

'At The Eel's Foot in 1939 Lloyd found part of what he had been looking for: a living tradition of rural English folk song. He was so impressed with the singing of Velvet Brightwell and other regulars at the pub that he returned with recording equipment on March 13, accompanied by BBC producer Francis Dillon, to record songs, music, and conversation. Lloyd and Dillon recorded "The Foggy Dew," "The Blackbird," "Indian Lass," "Poor Man's Heaven," "Little Pigs," "There Was a Farmer in Cheshire," and "Pleasant and Delightful" plus a concertina solo called "Jack's the Boy." The singers included a Mr. Goddard (his first name was not obtained) and Jumbo Brightwell. Titled "Saturday Night at the Eel's Foot," the resulting program was broadcast July 21, 1939. This was A. L. Lloyd's first substantial contribution to the Folk Song Revival, a radio broadcast demonstrating that English folk song had not died out but lived on, in full vigour, in the villages of East Anglia.'

from

AL Lloyd and the English Folk Song Revival, 1934-44

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: pdq
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 04:02 PM

In 1951-2, Stinson recorded a couple of University of Virginia college students named Paul Clayton and Bill Clifton. The record was not released although Sinson did let Clayton record an album of sea chanties a few years later. It is stlll highly respected. Oddly, the Clifton/Clayton record was eventually released by Bear Family and is still available (yes, a vinly LP):

                              check set list for title

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: Artful Codger
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 02:56 PM

Because the words are the same, only the line pattern is different, and I feel the letter approach (standard for things like this) indicates this most clearly. If such a simple thing befuddles you, you're unlikely to be able to answer my question anyway, and should refrain from carping, thanks.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 09:29 AM

I tried to add, why didn't you try using the words of the song in your example, instead of a series of letters that don't mean anything ?

eric

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 03:18 AM

Well I'm totally baffled.

eric

Subject: Tune Add: Pleasant and Delightful
From: Artful Codger
Date: 07 Jan 06 - 06:12 PM

On the album "Bright Shining Morning", Lou and Sally Killen sing "Pleasant and Delightful" to a somewhat different tune than usual--one which I much prefer. The final line of each verse is not sung complete before a refrain-like section. Rather, considering the last line to be split into two parts (D & E) the pattern is: ABCDDDE. The usual pattern is ABCDE DDDE.

In the [1975] liner notes, Mr. Killen says:
"Not long after I'd learned it [the full song], my friend Paul Carter, now of Bristol, presented me with this tune, to the same set of words, but much sweeter to harmonize."

Is anyone able to trace this variant back any farther than Paul Carter, or know if Mr. Carter tweedled it himself? There is enough resemblance in the tail ends of both that they appear to be variants rather than disparate tunes.

Some minor editorial corrections to the DT text (which must be the Rovers' rather than the Killens' version):
verse 2, line 2: truelove = true love
verse 2, line 3: load = loud
verse 3, line 4: Two sentences: question and reply

Thanks in advance...