The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #47202   Message #703005
Posted By: Joe Offer
02-May-02 - 01:48 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: american version of Two Sisters
This is a song that captures the imagination, so you'll find lots of information here about it. I think I'd suggest searching for wind and rain. You can also search for #10 because it's Child Ballad #10. This thread (click) has a variety of versions, including the version done in the memorable recording by David Grisman and Jerry Garcia.

I'm going to copy-paste the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index. The 25 (!) songbook citations should give you lots of information.
-Joe Offer-

Twa Sisters, The [Child 10]

DESCRIPTION: A knight woos two (three) sisters, choosing the younger. The older drowns the younger. Her body is recovered and made into an instrument by a passing miller/musician. As the knight prepares to wed the older sister, the instrument sings out the truth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1656 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: courting murder music minstrel sister drowning
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland,England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Child 10, "The Twa Sisters" (25 texts, 3 tunes)
Bronson 10, "The Twa Sisters" (97 versions)
Randolph 4, "The Miller's Daughters" (8 texts, 5 tunes)
Eddy 4, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Olney, pp. 209-210, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 74-78, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 150-156, "The Two Sisters"; "The Two Sisters (Wind and Rain) (2 texts, 2 tunes)
OBB 23, "Binnorie" (1 text)
Warner 98, "The Two Sisters That Loved One Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 7, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Gummere, pp. 171-173+343, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 6, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune -- a composite text)
Lomax-FSNA 90, "The Two Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 32, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
DBuchan 3, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text, 1 tune in appendix)
JHCox 3, "The Twa Sisters" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Ord, pp. 430-432, "The Bonnie Mill-Dams o' Binnorie"; pp. 459-460, "Hey the Rose and the Lindsay, O" (2 texts, 1 tune)
MacSeegTrav 3, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text plus two variant verses, 1 tune)
TBB 9, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 54-56, "The Twa Sisters" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 20-24, "The Two Sisters"; "The Two Sisters (The Wind and Rain)" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
LPound-ABS, 4, pp. 11-12, "The Two Sisters"; pp. 12-13, "The Old Man in the North Countree" (2 texts)
Darling-NAS, pp. 56-59, "The Two Sisters"; "Rollin' a-Rollin'"; "Wind and Rain" (3 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 224, "The Two Sisters" (1 text)
DT 10, BINNORI* TWOSIS* TWOSIS5* WINDRAIN* SWANSWIM* TWOSIS8 TWOSIS9 TWOSI10 TWOSS11

RECORDINGS:
Horton Barker, "The Two Sisters" (AAFS 33)
Loman D. Cansler, "The Two Sisters" (on Cansler1)
Jean Ritchie, "The Two Sisters" (AFS; on LC57)
John Strachan, "The Twa Sisters" (on FSB4)
John Strachan, Dorothy Fourbister, Ethel Findlater [composite] "The Twa Sisters" (on FSBBAL1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "An Sgeir-Mhara (The Sea-Tangle, The Jealous Woman)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bows of London
The Cruel Sister
Rolling a-Rolling
The Wind and Rain
The Swan Swims Bonnie
The Old Lord by the Northern Sea
Bowie, Bowerie
The Little Drownded Girl
Lay the Bent to the Bonny Broom
Notes: The refrains sung with this ballad vary tremendously, but virtually all versions have a refrain of some sort. - PJS
And generally a lyrically attractive one ("the swan swims bonnie," etc.), as has been pointed out by several scholars. - RBW
File: C010

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