The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #76336   Message #1353893
Posted By: Crane Driver
11-Dec-04 - 08:25 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Looking for Elizabethan Era songs - help
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Looking for Elizabethan Era songs - help
Masato earlier posted references to Thomas Ravenscroft, who published three books of "gentleman's drinking songs" in the early 1600s - Stuart period. But these songs are collected by, not written by Ravenscroft, and he described them as "old" when he published them. He seems to be putting them together like a folk song collector, in the sense of trying to preserve something from an earlier era that's dying out. This suggests the songs ARE in fact Elizabethan. One of them is "Martin said to his Man", still widely sung today. Another is a cumulative drinking song called "Balla Moy" which on close examination seems to be a version of "The Barley Mow". Another of Ravenscroft's collection is "Soldiers Three", recorded by the late Peter Bellamy on a theme album called "The Tale of Ale". This could be a good place to start.

All the best,
Andrew