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Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)

02 Dec 03 - 11:03 AM (#1064465)
Subject: Lyr Add: FANNY BLAIR (from Christine Hendry)
From: ThomasO

Hey Mudcat,

After a discussion/singing lesson with Christine Hendry the other day I learnt this fantastically dark version of Fanny Blair. It seems like it may of been the original which was 'cleaned up' by Cecil Sharp. Her Notes read:

"This song deals with the alleged sexual abuse of a child.
It is a Broadside Ballad from the 16th century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, a more discreet version was published by Cecil Sharp. The little girl was a young woman of 18 years and the accusation was one of theft. Broadside prints and oral versions concur in stating that it was a sex crime and that Fanny was a little perjurer."

Anyway as well as wanting to spread this variation, I wondered if anyone had any history of the song and also did Cecil Sharp censor a lot of songs? Does anyone have any more pre CS versions of songs? To me his censorship took a lot away from the impact of the songs. What do people think?

Thanks a lot, Tom

FANNY BLAIR

Come all you young fellows, wherever that you be
Beware of false witness and sad perjury
For by a young female I am wounded full soon
And you see I'm cut down in the height of me bloom.

It was last Monday morning I lay in me bed
When a young man came to me and unto me said,
"Rise up, Henry Higgins, and flee you elsewhere
For they're bound out against you on the word of Fanny Blair!"

Fanny Blair is a girl of eleven year old
And though I were dying the truth must be told
I never had dealings with her in me time
And now I must die for another man's crime.

Well the trial wore on and Squire Vernon was there
And onto the table they lift this Fanny Blair
Well the lies she came out with I'm ashamed for to tell
But the judge spoke up quick saying, "You've told us it well."

When the people all heard that young Higgins was to die
They rose up against her with a murmuring cry
We'll catch her and crop her for she's a perjuring young whore
Young Higgins is innocent of that we're all sure.

Just one last request before I meet me doom
Don't bury me here in the prison yard so far from me home
Lay me body to rest in the sweet Bramwell mould
And I pray that the Lord pardon that little girl's soul.

02 Dec 03 - 11:21 AM (#1064473)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan

Click here for lots of background, much of it supplied by John Moulden, sometime visitor to these shores.

Regards

02 Dec 03 - 12:05 PM (#1064488)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: Malcolm Douglas

It would be interesting to know why Christine Hendry thinks this is a 16th century piece, and where the above text came from. As Martin has pointed out, the historical basis is known, and dated broadside editions are all of the 19th century. It was evidently popular, as scandals so often are; the Bodleian Library has 14 copies from various printers:

Fanny Blair

Sharp couldn't have published the set he got from George Say as it stood; not because of any particular impropriety in that particular version, but because it was incomplete and barely coherent. It consisted of 2 verses, rather confused, of Fanny Blair; plus one-and-a-half that had somehow wandered in from The Deserter. As for "censorship", you have to remember that this was nearly a century ago, and Sharp was publishing songs to be sung, and was obliged to modify certain things if they were to reach the general public. It was not until the Lady Chatterley trial that it became possible to publish frank material outside specialised, scholarly works or the "yellow" press.

A few sets were found in tradition; Ralph Vaughan Williams got one from Peter Verrall, but as usual neglected to note the words; George Butterworth got them later in 1909 (Michael Dawney, Ploughboy's Glory, London: EFDSS 1977, 43). George Gardiner found it in Hampshire in 1907 (Frank Purslow, The Foggy Dew, London: EFDSS , 29-30) and Gale Huntington (Songs the Whalemen Sang, Barre 1964, 229-31) prints a text from the log or journal of the ship Java, out of New Bedford, 1839, set to George Say's tune. It has also been found in America. Number 1393 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

02 Dec 03 - 12:31 PM (#1064495)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: IanC

This MusTrad Article provides a useful discussion, much of which is summarised by Malcolm above. The first printed version seems to have appeared in the 1820s and it was clearly very popular on broadsides in the 19th Century (including the period during which it was being collected).

Malcolm ... I counted 17 different versions in The Bodleian!

:-)

02 Dec 03 - 12:36 PM (#1064497)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: Joe Offer

Herga Kitty made an interesting comment in this message (click):
    I remember hearing Martin Carthy saying at the English National Festival at Sutton Bonington several years ago that he'd stopped singing Fanny Blair, because he thought Higgins was guilty, and that Fanny had been abused and wasn't a perjuring little whore at all. That's not about political correctness, that's about the credibility of the song on its own terms.
The Traditional Ballad Index has a rather short entry:

Fanny Blair

DESCRIPTION: Eleven-year old Fanny Blair falsely accuses a young man of molesting her. He is tried and sentenced to death, although the community doubts his guilt. He begs to be buried at home rather than in the prison yard, and hopes God will pardon the child.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1830 (Lover)
KEYWORDS: accusation lie abuse rape punishment trial execution
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1785 - Execution of Dennis Hagan for rape (see NOTES)
FOUND IN: Britain(England) US(Ap) Ireland
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 103, "Fanny Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Butterworth/Dawney-PloughboysGlory, p. 43, "Thomas Hegan and Sally Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 46, "Fanny Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Huntington-SongsTheWhalemenSang, pp. 229-231, "Fanny Blair" (1 text, 1 tune)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, pp. 102-103, "Fanny Blair" (1 text)
DT, FANBLAIR* FANBLAI2*
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, "Ballads and Ballad Singers: Samuel Lover's Tour of Dublin in 1830," -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 141-145, "(Fanny Blair)" (sundry excerpts plus discussion of the song's history)
Roud #1393
NOTES [183 words]: In Sharp's version the crime is robbery, and Fanny Blair is not the victim but an accomplice who is turning king's evidence. - PJS
As Paul's note shows, details of the crime and punishment in this ballad vary, and the girl's age varies from eleven to eighteen. I suspect, however, that Sharp's version is cleaned up, by him or his informant. As John Moulden notes, it is a very touchy subject! Moulden believes the song actually originated in Ireland, and Lover's does appear to be the earliest version, with the next-earliest possibly also having been learned in Ireland.
Moulden's belief is that the accused in the song was Dennis Hagan, and that one of the people to whom he appealed was was John, First Viscoutnt O'Neill (1740-1798). Hagan, who was nineteen years old, was charged with raping a nine-year-old, with the charges formally brought by one Frances Blair. Hagan was sentenced to hang in October 1785.
The collective evidence is very strong; I think Hagan was the person executed for the crime. I have no idea if he was actually guilty; Moulden has little evidence on that point. - RBW
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The Ballad Index Copyright 2023 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.

02 Dec 03 - 01:47 PM (#1064555)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: Herga Kitty

It was a few years ago, but it was one of those fascinating morning sessions at the National when a singer is interviewed (in an informal setting)about the influences on their singing. Except, as far as I can remember, Martin volunteered loads of stuff without having to be asked. I think the reference to Fanny Blair was part of a general topic of why he still sang songs he'd been singing for years and years, and dropped others. He just didn't feel comfortable singing Fanny Blair any more.

But the whole subject is much more delicately nuanced now than it would have been when the broadsides were published. Child abuse v false memory etc. Just think of all the current problems with allegations by schoolchildren against teachers.....

Kitty

02 Dec 03 - 01:48 PM (#1064556)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: Malcolm Douglas

There are indeed 17 sheets at the Bodleian, but I wasn't counting duplicate copies as separate entries (neither do they).

Of the two sets here in the DT (see thread head), the first is from Huntington, and the second is the Sharp re-write. On comparing the tune Huntington used with the Sharp one, they turn out to be quite different, though a casual reading of the note attached gives a rather misleading impression. The DT midi is unplayable online, as the music in it does not start until the 308th bar; mind you, when I eventually found the little bit of music tucked away there, the key-signature was wrong and so was the barring! The midi with the Sharp set is an accurate transcription from his One Hundred English Folk Songs.

The only really significant differences between Sharp's re-write and the broadside(s) he used are his alterations of "eleven" to "eighteen" and "never had dealings with her" to "never stole with her". I've seen far more drastic (and silly) editorial changes made to songs nowadays in the name of political correctness, of which this is merely the equivalent of a century ago.

The set in Loraine Wyman's Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs (Boston: Oliver Ditson, c.1920. 102-4) retains "eleven" and "dealings", but whether or not the original meaning will have been clear to her readership I wouldn't know. The book can be seen in facsimile at Kentuckiana Digital Library:

Twenty Kentucky mountain songs

02 Dec 03 - 03:35 PM (#1064626)
Subject: Tune Add: FANNY BLAIR
From: Joe Offer

Here is an ABC copy of the Huntington tune from Digital Tradition for Windows.
How does this compare with the tune in Huntington's book?



X:1
T:FANNY BLAIR
C:
Q:84
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
(D/2 E/2) |F F F E/2 E/2 F2 D E |F A B c d3 c |(c B) B d (c A) F ^G |(A/2 ^G/2 A/2) B B B3 |A/2 A/2 |
w: Come_ all ye young men and mai-dens, where e-ver you may be, Be-ware_ of false swear-_ ing and sad__ per-ju-ry; For it
A ^G A B (B A) F A/2 A/2 |(B c) d c B3 F/2 =G/2 |A A B A (F E) F D/2 D/2 |(E F) D D D3 |
w: is by a false wo-_ man I am woun-_ ded so soon, And you see how I am cut_ down in the height_ of my bloom.

To play or display ABC tunes, try concertina.net

I guess maybe our MIDI conversion of the DT tune didn't work, because it seems OK in the Downloadable DT. Click here for MIDI and GIF of the DT's Huntington tune at Yet Another Digital Tradition.

-Joe Offer-

02 Dec 03 - 04:38 PM (#1064651)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: ThomasO

Cheers Kitty,

Just gives us more proof of how folk-song is still very relevant today. Think Michael Jackson.

The tune I know is very similar to the gallows tree as done by the bothy band.

t

02 Dec 03 - 05:01 PM (#1064665)
Subject: Lyr Add: FANNY BLAIR (from Loraine Wyman)
From: Joe Offer

Fanny Blair

  1. One morning, one morning, one morning in May,
    As I went a-walking to breathe the sweet air,
    A young man came to me, These words he did say:
    "There's vengeance sworn against you by young Fanny Blair!"

  2. "There is young Fanny Blair scarce eleven years old,
    I'm a-going to die so the truth I'll unfold.
    I never had dealing with her in my time
    'Tis hard to die for another man's crime.

  3. Just before they counted table young Fanny was there,
    Brought up to profess herself she did prepare,
    Of judge's hard swearing, I'm ashamed for to tell.
    Says the judge, "Your old mother has tutored you well."

  4. "There is one more thing of my old parents I crave,
    In the midst of their garden to dig my grave.
    I come of respectable parents, that's what you may know.
    I was born in old England, brought up in Tyrone."

    Source: Loraine Wyman's Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs

02 Dec 03 - 06:21 PM (#1064731)
Subject: Tune Add: FANNY BLAIR (from Gale Huntington)
From: Malcolm Douglas

I'm sure it's just the DT midi conversion routine; there are a few where the music doesn't start until a few hundred bars in. The mirror site version is perfectly ok. I'd render the abc slightly differently to get the beams and the triplet:

X:1
T:Fanny Blair
B:Gale Huntington, Songs the Whalemen Sang. Barre, 1964: pp. 229-31.
S:Text: Log/journal of the ship Java, out of New Bedford, 1839. Tune: source unspecified.
N:Huntington prints the two final notes in bar 7 as eighths (quavers).
Q:1/4=100
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
(D/2E/2) |FF FE/2E/2 F2 DE |FA Bc d3 c |
w:Come_ all ye young men and mai-dens, where e-ver you may be, Be-
(cB) Bd (cA) F^G |((3A^GA) BB B3 (A/2A/2) |
w:ware_ of false swear-*ing and sad__ per-ju-ry; For it
A^G AB (BA) F A/2A/2 |(Bc) dc B3 F/2=G/2 |
w:is by a false wo-*man I am woun-*ded so soon, And you
AA BA (FE) F D/2D/2 |(EF) DD D3 |]
w:see how I am cut_ down in the height_ of my bloom.

The two final notes in bar 7 are changed to sixteenth-notes here, which fits the time signature; in Huntington they are eighth-notes, which is either a mistake or the bar is in unindicated 9/8 time. I don't know which is right, as I don't know what the source for the tune was.

I notice that the Wyman-Brockway set was collected in Letcher County, Kentucky, which is a little unfortunate in the circumstances; or apposite, depending on how you look at it.

02 Dec 03 - 08:35 PM (#1064804)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Fanny Blair (Uncensored!!)
From: Joe Offer

Touché, Malcolm.
-Joe Offer-