Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132

Subject: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: Roberto
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 02:53 PM

Tunes to two versions of Child 132. I'm looking for the tune of ROBIN HOOD AND THE PEDLAR collected by R. Vaughan Williams from the singing of Mr. Denny of Billericay, Essex, 1904, and for the tune of THE BOLD PEDLAR as sung by Geordie Robertson (The Muckle Sangs). Roberto

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: masato sakurai
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 09:21 PM

Roberto, here you are.

From Bronson, vol. III.

(1) "Robin Wood and the Pedlar"
Vaughan Williams, JFSS, II, No. 8 (1906), p. 155. Also in Vaughan Williams MSS., II, p. 144; and sung by A.L. Lloyd, Riverside rec. No. RLP 12-624 (B4), ed. K.S. Goldstein. Sung by Mr. Denny, Billericay, April 25, 1904.

X:1
T:Robin Wood and the Pedlar
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:C
D EG|A3 G EC|D3 G Ac|d3 c GG|A3 G Ac|
d3 c (3AGE|C3 D EG|A3 G EC|D3|]

(2) "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood"
Archive, School of Scottish Studies. Sung by Geordie Robertson. Collected by Hamish Henderson for the School of Scottish Studies. Transcribed by Francis M. Collinson.

X:2
T:The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:D
D2| F3/2E/ D3 E/E/| FE D3 D/D/|FE F2 F2|
F3/2A/ d3 d|d3/2d/ d2 cB|(3cBA A3 c|(3BAG A2 GF|
E3/2^C/ D2 || D|D3/2E/ G/A3/2 BA|ED D3 D|GG G2 AB|
c3/2B/ A3 F|AA A3 G|A3/2A/ d3 d|d3/2c/ A2 G2|ED D3|]

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 09:22 PM

Roberto,

I can tell you that ED McCURDY did a very singable tune for this ballad. It was on a record of Robin Hood ballads on Riverside Records about the late 1950s. Unfortunately I've no way to get the tune to you at present.

Sometime Mudcatter Frank Hamilton was the guitar accompaniment for Ed McCurdy on that record.

FRANK, that must make you at least 110 years old!! Right?? ;-)

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 12 Dec 04 - 09:26 PM

To Mr. Massato Sakurai,

Good sir,

It is an honor to have you beat me by a minute with your much better post.

All the best to you,

Art

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: Roberto
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 02:42 PM

Masato Sakurai, I do thank you. I didn't expect such a perfect information. Art Thieme, I have two different reecordings of this ballad sung by Ed McCurdy, one from Legend of Robin Hood, Riverside RLP 12-810, 1957, and the other from an Elektra lp, Badmen, heroes, pirate songs and ballads, with tracks by Ed McCurdy, Oscar Brand, Jack Elliot and Dick Wilder (this second version of the ballad was also on an Elektra sampler). Ed uses two differen tunes: I'd like to know the sources of the two, and possibly to have their notation. I'm also interested in your Robin Hood's Death, that I do like, (source and possibly melody), as well as in Wallace House's Robin Hood's Death and Burial. Roberto

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 03:06 PM

Roberto,

I had no tune that I liked for Robin Hood's Death until I remembered the tune Frank Hamilton had with his version of "Geordy" on his Folkways album from the early 1960s. I changed emphasis and phrasing etc. but that is basically the tune I used. It's interesting how Frank Hamilton seems to be tangentially involved in both of these songs we're talking about. I'll e-mail him and tell him to look at this thread.

Ah,the old Oral Tradition rears it's accomodating head yet again ;-)

Art

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: GUEST,Frank Hamilton
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 05:12 PM

Hi Art,

I wasn't born about ten thousand years ago. :)

I don't remember the tune I did with Ed McCurdy. Not much help to you here.
He may have written it. He was a great songwriter.

The "Geordie" tune, I made-up based on a traditional variant that I "heard wrong" and didn't care since I liked my tune as well. I guess you'd call it the Folk Process.

That I am involved tangentally is probably a coincidence although I once set a poem by Robert Merrick to tune using an "Elizabethan" motif.

Thanks for alerting me to the thread.

Best to you and your health and happiness.

Frank

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Robin Hood and the Pedlar #132
From: Roberto
Date: 19 Mar 05 - 12:27 PM

Anyone knows whether the tune used by Barry Dransfield for his recording of Robin Hood and the Pedlar is the one in Everyman's Book of English Country Songs, edited by Roy Palmer, Dent,1979, sung by George Trainer, Haywards Heath, Sussex; collected by Mike Yates, 1964? It seems quite similar.