Chords/Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes

Subject: the broom of the cowden knowes
From:
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 08:12 PM

I am looking for this scottish midi...Please help me find it! i have looked and looked and have not been able to find it Thank you asroc5

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 08:41 PM

You can hear a midi of it on my website. (www.erols.com/olsonw) Click on 'ABCs of Broadside Ballad Tunes' and go down the index to B045 and click on it.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 08:45 PM

Well having spent many a happy hour trawling through Playford's looking for the origin of the tune St Patrick's Day, I can tell you that the " Bonny Broom" is there in almost all it's glory.. i.e. you can see where the tune came from.

If you want to email me at [e-mail] I will send you a midi of the tune as it appears there.

Cheers

Mick

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Mick Lowe
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 08:46 PM

You beat me to it Bruce..LOL

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 09:00 PM

It's happened to me, too. I start typing when there's nothing there, but by the time I'm done and have it posted I find someone beat me to it.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Jeri
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 09:10 PM

Click here for Bruce O's website

new site address now hosted at Mudcat

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Julia
Date: 21 Feb 01 - 09:18 PM

Just a note to say that there are two songs named "Broom o' the Cowdenknowes" One is where the guy takes advantage of her in the heather and the other is an emigration song.Don't think they have the same tune.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST,Bill
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 04:15 AM

You can hear an MP3 sample at the Ugie Folk Club web site. http://ugiefolk.8m.com. The singer is our own Barbara Ann and the entire track is on the North East Traditions II album.

Cheers

Bothy Ugie Folk Club

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Garry Gillard
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 08:15 AM

The Watersons version seems to be an emigration song. There's not much story left.

Garry

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: nutty
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 01:03 PM

The Waterson's version (the shorter one) is from the East Riding of Yorkshire - in the area of Hull - and can be traced back to the time of Queen Elizabeth the First

The longer version is obviously Scottish but I have no information other than that

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: nutty
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 01:10 PM

Whoever transcribed the Watersons version had problems with the second verse - probably because of the accent - but I always understood it to be

Oh the maids that ever were deceived
Their pain would ease my woes
For once I was a bonnie lass
When I milked my Daddy's yows

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Elise
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 02:29 PM

Silly Wizard does a song by that name, but it doesn't sound like what you're all describing.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST,Kate
Date: 22 Feb 01 - 02:36 PM

The Andy M. Stewart / Silly Wizard version of this song is here:

http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/broom-cowdenknowes.html

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 12:32 AM

I forgot to mention the Ewan MacColl sang it on the Child ballad series of LPs with A. L. Lloyd. It was put out first on the Riverside label, and later on the Washington label. It's on Washington 717. Lamarca, who used to pop up here does, with husband George, an excellent version (song and singing).

I'll believe it's Elizabethan when I see some solid evidence for that, and not before then.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: nutty
Date: 23 Feb 01 - 03:57 AM

Would love to provide you with the evidence Bruce - its somewhere in my attic but whether it will ever see the light of day again is another question

Its one of those useless pieces of information I unearthed while undertaking a music dissertation in the early 70's.

The challenge of the dissertation was to consider how the use of different Modes produced different moods in folksong - particularly (in this instant) songs concerning the employment of women

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Garry Gillard
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 08:58 AM

As the 'whoever' who transcribed the Watersons' version, nutty, and my name is at the bottom of the page, I can't hear the 'pain' you 'always understood'. There's definitely a 't' in there.

Snick. Definitely a catch.

Garry

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 12:44 PM

There are several 'broom' songs from Queen Elizabeth's time including, "Broom, broom on hill" in 'The Longer Thou Livest the More Fool Thou Art' but "Broom of Cowdenknowes" isn't one of them.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: nutty
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 01:09 PM

Gentlemen ..... I stand corrected
It would appear that I am being shot down from all directions

As I said the information I collected - was collected -- in 1975 and as I would have to face the spiders in the attic in order to access my source material I do not feel in a position to argue

Garry - as I said I have sung the song for many years ( more than 30) and have never had my version of the words corrected.If they are wrong .. perhaps my North - East Yorkshire accent lends authenticity

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 02:45 PM

C. M. Simpson in 'The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music', 1966, notes that the earliest ballad that can be associated with the tune "The bonny, bonny broom" is "The New Broom" of the 2nd quarter of the 17th century (ZN2211 in my broadside ballad index). It doesn't have a tune direction, but the meter and text leave little doubt of it's connection to "The Broom of Cowdenknows". This agrees with earlier sources, such as Wm. Chappell's PMOT. Information from 1975, if there really is any, would be most interesting to see, but until I do, that of 1966 will be taken as the most recent reliable evidence.

The earliest copies of "The Broom of Cowdenknowes" seem to be from the early 18th century ("The merry broomfield", ZN3627, overlooked by Child at #43) on, and are in the Douce collections on the Bodley Ballads website.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: nutty
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 05:05 PM

Reaching into the depths of my memory - I seem to remember something about some documentation in the British Museum - but there again I could be wrong.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: shankmac
Date: 28 Feb 01 - 05:13 PM

I can't follow all the historical background but I can tell you that the Cowdenknowes is a farm in the Scottish Borders and is a well known song of the area.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: bassigny
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 06:45 PM

anyone out there with the chords to this song

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: michaelr
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 06:49 PM

A Amaj7 D A
A Amaj7 D E
A         D A
Bm       E

Subject: RE: Tune Req:+chords the broom of the cowden knowe
From: bassigny
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 06:54 PM

anyone with the chords

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 07:05 PM

There's that. And there's this. And here it is sung by Liam Clancy

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: michaelr
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 07:14 PM

Jeez, it takes me 4 minutes to post the chords, and 5 minutes later he asks again. What's the matter, was I not prompt enough?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 04 Apr 08 - 07:20 PM

Your chords sound better, Michael. I just thought he must want an alternative.
There are six variant MIDI files in the DT as well.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Apr 08 - 02:50 AM

According to Sir Walter Scott [ The Minstrelsy Of The Scottish Borders ]
Cowdenknowes is on the Leader about 4 miles from Melrose, Scotts version has 26 verses.

eric

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 08 - 11:42 AM

[changed Jeri's old link above to reflect that Bruce O's website is now hosted here at Mudcat]



[mudelf]

http://www.mudcat.org/olson/viewpage.cfm?theurl=BLDTNNDX.html

Subject: RE: Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: Fidjit
Date: 06 Apr 08 - 08:42 AM

Alternate chords

A A E7 A
A A D

A A D A

A E7 A

cHAS

Subject: Chord Req: The Broom of the Cowdenknowes
From: GUEST,TrevorA
Date: 08 Jan 11 - 05:25 PM

Can anyone help me out with the chords for the Silly Wizard version of this song pse?

Subject: RE: Chord Req: The Broom of the Cowdenknowes
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 08 Jan 11 - 07:42 PM

For me, if I'm playing in "F", (on piano) I use these chords.
F C7 F Dm Bb F F7 Bb F C7 Bb Gm(or Gm7) C7.

Subject: RE: Chords/Tune Req: the broom of the cowden knowes
From: MartinNail
Date: 26 Sep 20 - 08:35 AM

Returning to the question of the Watersons' version:

Oh the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom
The broom of Cowdenknowes
Fain would I be in the north country
To milk my daddy's ewes.

All the maids that ever were deceived
Bear part of these my woes
For once I was a bonny lass
When I milked my daddy's ewes.

Oh the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom
The broom of Cowdenknowes
Fain would I be in the north country
To milk my daddy's ewes.

The first and third verses are pretty standard, but the second isn't in most versions and appears to come from The lovely Northerne lasse (Roud V20510, printed by Child as an appendix to 217).

I would be very interested to know where their version comes from. The sleeve notes to New Voices (Topic 12T125 1965) and the reissue on Early Days (Topic TSCD472 1994) are by Bert Lloyd and talk about the seventeenth and eighteenth century sightings of the tune, but say nothing about the origin of their version.

Earlier in this thread it is suggested that the version is from East Yorkshire -- can anybody provide confirmation and references?