Well, here is the promised discography and some clarifications on the history - Yeats published 'The Song of Wandering Aengus' in 1897. In 1907 he published an expanded essay on his earlier 'Speaking to the Psaltery' of 1902, which was again reprinted in 1961 in 'Essays and Introductions'. In this essay he discusses his interest in reciting poetry in a bardic fashion, to psaltery accompaniment, as introduced to him by Florence Farr, and his going as far as having a half psaltery/ half lyre made for him by Arnold Dolmetsch. He also includes 6 poems and the musical notation for them, three taken from the recitations of Florence Farr, one from an A. H. Bullen, and two as he says " taken down by Mr. Arnold Dolmetsch from myself,'. The two of Yeats are 'The Song of the Old Mother' and 'The Song of Wandering Aengus'. The music is as in my first posting,

c c c c c d d b

I went out to the hazel wood,

b a a c c b b d

Because a fire was in my head,

d c c c c d d b

And cut and peeled a hazel wand,

b a a c c b b d

And hooked a berry to a thread;

d d d d d d d d

And when white moths were on the wing,

d d d d d d d d

And moth-like stars were flickering out,

c d d b b a a c

I dropped the berry in a stream,

c d d b b a a c

and caught a little silver trout.

The earliest recording of this poem to the 'melody' of Yeats is sung acappela by Burl Ives on: - 'Burl Ives: Songs of Ireland' Decca DL 8444 (ca. 1954) which he titles 'The Wandering of Old Angus' (William Butler Yeats). The liner notes state 'Burl Ives learned to chant this William Butler Yeats poem from the late actress Sara Allgood.' Sara Allgood was part of the early Abbey Theater and often gave recitations and songs as part of her performances there, independant of the plays that she performed in. (She might be best known to Americans as the Welsh mother in the John Huston film of Richard Llewelyn's 'How Green was My Valley'.) Burl IVes visitied Ireland in the early 50's, Allgood died in 1950, but he would have met her in Hollywood or more likely in New York theater.

The next recording is by Judy Collins to guitar accompaniment on: - 'Golden Apples of the Sun' Elektra EKS -7222 (1962, (re-released on cd by Wildflower in 2001) titled 'Golden APples of the Sun' (W. B. Yeats/J. Collins) The liner notes give this information - (which is also included in one of her autobiographies and somehwat in her songbook)

"Learned from the singing of Will Holt, this stunning song is a musical setting of a W. B. Yeats poem 'The Song of the Wandering Angus'. The haunting melody is probably the composition of Richard Dyer-Bennet. 'It is not a folk song,' says Judy. 'It tends to be an art song. It has a traditional feeling about it; the repetitiveness gives you the impression of an incantation, which the poem does too.' Of her learning it she remarks, 'I had heard the song almost two years ago. When I heard EWill Holt sing it late one night at the Gate of Horn, I was greatly impressed, and determined to learn it. Will sang it for me a number of times, and even gave me a tape of it. I lived with the Golden Apples of the Sun almost a year-and-a-half before I ever sang it, and then it burst out one day - almost of its own accord - while I was visiting friends. It took me a long time to assimilate it, but now it's part of me. I feel that the song has something to do with what people want - what they don't have - and sometimes the desire for these things is almost as satisfying as the getting.'"

mORE TO FOLLOW - bILL kENNEDY