The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #76844   Message #1365298
Posted By: Desert Dancer
27-Dec-04 - 03:50 PM
Thread Name: Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail
Subject: RE: Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail
Pasting in case of link difficulties at some point:

via Malcolm Douglas:

Roud 209, with a great many examples listed. This one is presumably that noted by Cecil Sharp from William Crockford at Bratten, Somerset, 12 September 1906. It appeared in Folk Songs from Somerset (5), in (I suspect; I haven't seen it) a slightly edited form. Here it is as it appears in Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, II, 528:


Old apple tree, we'll wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear.
The Lord does know where we shall be
To be merry another year.
To blow well and to bear well
And so merry let us be.
Let every man drink up his cup
And health to the old apple tree.

(Spoken)
Apples now, hat-fulls, three bushel bag-fulls,
tallets ole-fulls, barn's floor-fulls, little heap under the stairs.
Hip Hip Hooroo (3 times)


X:1
T:Wassail Song
T:Appletree Wassail
S:William Crockford at Bratten, Somerset, 12 September 1906
Z:Noted by Cecil Sharp
B:Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, II, 528
N:Roud 209
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:6/8
K:G
D|G2 G (FE)D|c2 c (AB)c|
w:Old ap-ple tree,_ we'll was-sail thee_ And
B2 G A2 F|G3-G2 D|G2 G F2 D|
w:ho-ping thou wilt bear._ The Lord does know where
c2 c ABc|BBG A2 F|
w:we shall be To be mer-ry an-o-ther
G3-G2 (B/c/)|d3 dcB|
w:year._ To_ blow well and to
c3 cBA|B2 c d2 B|
w:bear well And so mer-ry let us
A3-A2 D|GGG (FE)D|
w:be._ Let e-ve-ry man_ drink
c2 c (AB)c|BGG AAF|G3-G2|]
w:up his cup_ And health to the old ap-ple tree._


The text appears on a number of websites, but none that I've seen has had the courtesy to acknowledge either Mr Crockford, who sang it, or Cecil Sharp, who collected and published it.