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DOWN IN YON FORREST the refrain lines are: sing may, queen may, sing mary sing all good men for the newborn baby verses: down in yon forest be a hall 'tis coverlidded over with purple and pall and in that hall is a pallet bed 'tis stained with blood a scarlet red and by that bed there lies a stone on which the virgin did atone and under that hall is a gushing flood from christ's own side hit's water and blood and by that bed a shrub tree grows since he was born hit blooms and blows and on that bed a young squire sleeps his wounds are sick, and see, he weeps o hail yon hall where none can sin 'cause hit's gold outside and silver within indeed collected and arranged by John Jacob Niles, and the copyright (1935) must therefore refer to the arrangement. the tune is quite different from the corpus christi carol... filename[ YONFORST ER oct99 |
Down in Yon Forest (per Malcolm:This text was quoted from John Jacob Niles, who copyrighted it in 1935, apparently, though he made no claim to have written it. I don't have the relevant book, so I don't know who he said he had collected it from, though it seems that he got it in North Carolina; however, an almost identical text, with tune, was published in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol.4, number 3, 1942. It had been noted in 1936 by Ralph Vaughan Williams from the singing of the folklorist Evelyn Wells, who learned it from Amos Curtis of Brasstown, North Carolina. Midi made from RVW's notation. There are a few minor textual differences; none greater than might be expected and not worth noting here (assuming the DT file to be a correct quote from Niles). Perhaps at some point in the future somebody who has the Niles music can compare the two; I expect them to be pretty much the same.) |
