Poor Jenny

Subject: Poor Jenny
From: SRD
Date: 04 Nov 24 - 03:36 PM

Listening to Shostakovich's concerto for piano, trumpet & strings I recall asking Gerard McBurney how it was that Shostakovich was quoting from the playground song "Poor Jenny is a'weeping" He told me that one of the professors at the university Shostakovich was working at was investigating English folksongs. But I also find that the tune is part of "La Bourrée des Galvachers" a composition of French folk dance tunes. Does anyone have any further info on how this tune came to be used in English playgrounds?

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Nov 24 - 05:53 PM

I can't answer your question directly, but I'm glad you brought this up, as this was one of Mrs Steve's piano pieces when she was trying to learn the piano about forty years ago. She never made it, sadly, but this is the one tune of hers that has stuck in my head for all these years. So cheers for that!

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 06:14 AM

Please tell me I wasn't the only one who thought Everly Brothers, on reading the title of this thread !

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: JennieG
Date: 07 Nov 24 - 10:57 PM

Well, I certainly did!

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: BobL
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 03:53 AM

Unless it's a different version, the playground song starts with a simple note sequence that is unsurprisingly found elsewhere, for example the Beatles' "She Loves You."
Joshua Rifkin's superb "Baroque Beatles Book" links this, in turn, with the opening notes of a Bach quodlibet - sorry, can't give title or BWV number unless I do a loft search.

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 06:53 AM

Try Variation 30 of Bach's Goldberg Variations, which is called a quodlibet. YouTube has a few versions, but google "quodlibet Goldberg" unless you want the whole lot!

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: robomatic
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 12:38 PM

I saw the title and immediately thought of "The Saga of Jenny" from the Gershwin musical: "Lady in the Dark." I spent a lot of time trying to memorize the Russian Coomposers song sung by Danny Kaye, and Shostoakovich is in it, so there's a reference back to the OP of sots. (sorts).

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: GUEST,O-C Charles
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 02:16 PM

I took my little Jenny to a party last night
The whole thing ended up in a terrible fight
Somebody hit my Jenny, she went out like a light
Poor Jenny!

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: BobL
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 03:40 AM

Thanks Steve, that's the one. BWV 988. Just enjoyed Lang Lang's superb performance on YouTube.

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: Mo the caller
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 11:26 AM

Well googling the Bach gives a reference to a German folk tune but listening to it the first 6 notes are "Since first i saw your face".
Good tunes get around.

Subject: RE: Poor Jenny
From: GUEST,Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Nov 24 - 01:28 PM

Sir George Grove, writing over a hundred years ago, referred to it as a "golden chain."