Lyr Req/Add: Stond Horse + The Merry Nightingale

Subject: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 09:46 AM

I return from an early-music workshop with a lovely round with the line "the stond horse kicks and flinges and flinges". The round was printed in Ravenscroft's Pammelia in 1609.

Does anybody know what "stond" means? It is not in my dictionary. (I tried stand, staund and stawnd as possible alternatives, but no luck.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Peace
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 10:15 AM

Here.

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Link switched from Google Cache to the actual source location, according to our usual practice for posting links. If information is available at an actual Website, please don't link to the Google cache.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 01:56 PM

"Peace" linked to a Google Cache of "thefreedictionary.com," which defined "Stond" as:

n.        1.        Stop; halt; hindrance.
        2.        A stand; a post; a station.
v. i.        1.        To stand.

I guess that could mean a "stond horse" is a stationary one, but it doesn't quite satisfy me. Leeneia, can you post full lyrics for the song?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Barbara
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 02:34 PM

Possibly it's a tied-up horse. As in a horse tied to a post, rail or stanchion. Higher spirited horses tend to toss their heads a lot when tied when they want to be moving.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Peace
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 02:49 PM

I think it might be verb transitivity. The song was from the early 1600s and the word is a carry-over.

"Stond wel, Moder, Ounder Rode"

The above title listed as a title of and Old/Middle English work indicates that it is a form of the verb 'to stand'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Peace
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 02:57 PM

Just a guess "Joe".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 04:13 PM

Some pedantic etymological speculation here:

In the IndoEuropean languages, almost all words and roots starting with "st(vowel)" are from the Sanskrit word (phonetic) "sthay", signifying to stand or be located, more or less.

Thus "stand" (surprise!), "station", and "stop", cited above. Also the second syllable of "conSTItution", and (now I'm getting to it, I think) "stable.

I don't know offhand, and am too lazy to go look it up, but maybe "stallion" is also from "sthay".   If so, we could come up with this fun sentence: "The stallion stood stock-still stationary in a stall, staring stonily at the stationwagon stopped outside the stable in the station." I'm pretty sure that's a "stond horse".

Subject: ADD: The Merry Nightingale
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 05:10 PM

Thanks, everyone, esp. Peace. Here are the lyrics:

The Merry Nightingale

The nightingale, the merry nightingale,
she sweetly sits and sings and sings.
The pretty nimble doe doth trip it to and fro.
The stond horse kicks and flings and flings.
The cuckoo he doth fly from tree to tree,
and merrily through the wood,
"cuckoo! cuckoo!" rings.

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Click to play

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I believe that the horse is tethered, and it being spring, the horse is feeling frisky and kicks, flinging its legs out.

Uncle DaveO, you were right. Stallion comes from the OF estalion and the OGH stal, a stable. Who'd a thunk it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 06 - 10:22 PM

Very pretty, Leeneia. If you'd like to send me a MIDI, I'd love to post it.
-Joe

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Mr Fox
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 08:39 AM

'Stone horse' is an old phrase for a stallion, meaning, presumably, a horse with 'stones' i.e. testicles.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 08:51 AM

Yes - I was about to ask if the o was short or long!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 08:59 AM

We sang it as if it were "stahnd". That pronunciation just sounds right.

Spellcheck wanted to change stond to stoned, but I didn't let it. College students have enough problems without that.

(I learned it from a man who usually teaches at a college.)

Joe, I will send you the MIDI.

Mr. Fox, I don't know whether you are teasing or not. Stones means testicles?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Snuffy
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 09:22 AM

"'E's just a boy. 'Is stones ain't dropped yet"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 09:35 AM

As in The Derby Ram :

"Took all the women of Derby to roll away his stones..."

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 09:37 AM

In fact, reading the lyrics, I reckon stoned it is, alright.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 10:14 AM

No, no, that would have meant that people had been throwing rocks at the poor thing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Peace
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 10:16 AM

Or that the horse had been smoking stuff . . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 10:50 AM

I have a vague recollection of a similar usage somewhere in Shakespeare...

Regards

p.s. leeneia: wonder what he was flinging (back)?!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: the stond horse (?)
From: Mr Fox
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 01:01 PM

"I have a vague recollection of a similar usage somewhere in Shakespeare..."

Martin, it's a (rather rude) pun in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream':-

Flute: O wall, full often hast thou heard my moans

For parting my fair Pyramus and me.

My cherry lips have often kissed thy stones,.............etc

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: the stond horse - The Merry Nighting
From: Joe Offer
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 04:49 PM

Thanks to Leeneia, we have a tune:

Click to play

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: the stond horse - The Merry Nighting
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Jun 06 - 05:20 PM

Below please find the remarks I have about the MIDI
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This round was published in Ravenscroft's "Pammelia" in 1609. The book was a best-seller in its day, and people are still singing from it.

If you have a music program, you can download my MIDI file and edit it to suit yourself. Power!

A few comments about it: first you will hear the complete tune so you can learn it. When you hear it, you might think, "That's ugly." However, when you hear the parts together, it becomes beautiful and interesting. Many rounds from this era are like that.

The tune has a big range. That's because it was intended for men to sing, and men (given practice)can switch their voices from high to low. It's another way they have of showing off.

I put it in the key of C for brightness, but at my house we will do it in A. We are all altos at my house.

SPECIAL OFFER! If anybody actually downloads the tune and says "Thanks, I intend to sing/play this beautiful piece," I will post another of the same type.