Origins: 'The huntsman'

Subject: Origins: 'The huntsman'
From: seville
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 04:56 PM

Dear Mudcatters,

As part of my work on a new children's songbook, I'm trying to find a published source for this song, to show whether it's under copyright or perhaps old enough to be in the public domain:

   The huntsman blows his bugle horn,
   the hounds are up to greet the morn,
   so gallop away, before it is day,
   halloo, halloo, halloo!

http://www.waldorfschoolsongs.com/wp-content/uploads/00-The-huntsman.pdf

Any clues?

Thanks.

--seville

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The huntsman'
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 05:27 PM

Whilst not immediately identifying these lyrics with a particular song, all of the phrases are those used in thousands of such pieces written by the London lyricists of the 18th century who provided songs for the theatres and pleasure gardens. Some became very popular and were indeed even found in oral tradition in the 19th and 20th centuries. They were absorbed into the repertoires of the different hunting fraternities along with their locally composed pieces. The style became a little more homely and a little less flowery in the 19th century as hunting became more of a pursuit of the middle classes, and I would guess this is from a 19th century piece as Bright Phoebus isn't mentioned and the language isn't over-artistic.
It's not in any of the hunting anthologies I have.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The huntsman'
From: Jack Campin
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 05:43 PM

Who in the British folk scene was linked to the Waldorf/Steiner crowd when they adopted that?

Subject: RE: Origins: 'The huntsman'
From: seville
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 08:34 PM

It figures, I'd find a possible source right after posting here!

It seems the Waldorf folks adapted it from a German song:

https://youtu.be/xvLJi22FMtc?t=53s

"Trara, das tönt wie Jagdgesang"

Subject: ADD: Trara, das tönt wie Jagdgesang
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 11:22 PM

I found the German lyrics at lieder-archiv.de. They're quite different from the English words you have, but I think it's supposed to be the same song. The melody is the same, anyhow.

I visited the Steiner/Waldorf world headquarters in Basel last June, and I was sorely tempted to buy some songbooks, but they were very expensive.

Here are the German lyrics:

Trara, das tönt wie Jagdgesang

Trara, das tönt wie Jagdgesang,
wie wilder und fröhlicher Hörnerklang,
wie Jagdgesang, wie Hörnerklang:
Trara, trara, trara.

A canon with four parts. Source: Das große Liederbuch, Diogenes Verlag, Zürich, 1975, page 119