The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #115213   Message #2463930
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
12-Oct-08 - 06:04 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Female Drummer
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Female Drummer
There are three examples in the DT, including the text John has just posted.

Female Drummer   transcribed from a Steeleye Span record, but with numerous mis-hearings. They got it from the Watersons, who got it from Bert Lloyd, who told them that Percy Grainger had collected it from 'a Yorkshire-born singer' at Barton on Humber (Lincolnshire); this seems to be wrong. So far as I can tell, Grainger noted the song once only; from a Mrs Mary Hawker, at Broad Campden in Gloucestershire. Perhaps Bert wanted the Watersons to think that it was a Yorkshire song.

The Female Drummer   copied from Frank Purslow, The Wanton Seed (London: EFDS, 1968). Contains some typos. The traditional source is not acknowledged in the DT, but for the record, it was noted by Dr George Gardiner and Charles Gamblin from William Bone of Alton, Hampshire, in November 1907. Purslow 'regularised' the order of the verses and edited the text a bit.

Soldier Maid   no source of any kind is credited, but it appears to have been copied from Gavin Greig, Folk-Song of the North-East (a text without tune, collated from several traditional versions); Norman Buchan and Peter Hall included it in The Scottish Folksinger, with a tune from Mrs Jean Horn of Aberdeen. The DT file merely links to William Bone's tune.

All three are also copied-and-pasted into thread DT Correction/origins: Female Drummer/Soldier Maid, which was started by somebody who wanted to correct the DT transcription; sadly, he made nearly as many mistakes himself.

Michael's text is quoted on a few websites, but only one of them credits any source (Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill; presumably the others learned it off her record); but where did she get it?