Subject: RE: Chords Req: Willie o' Winsbury
From:
Brian Peters
Date: 09 Jan 14 - 05:50 AM
'False Foudrage'(Child 89) is one of the relatively small number of ballads for which Child supplied a melody, corresponding to version 89C and deriving from the Harris MS. This was printed in the final volume of ESPB, in the section 'Ballad Airs from Manuscript', and is very similar to the tune commonly used for 'Willie O Winsbury'.
In my Dover edition, a tune for 'Willie'(100J) is printed over the page - it's nothing like the Foodrage tune. The story goes (I remember Diane Easby discussing it here on Mudcat) that Andy Irvine flipped over the page - accidentally or by design? - and used the Foodrage tune for Willie. It's odd how a relatively recent compilation like that can become so definitive that hardly anyone now thinks of singing 'Willie O Winsbury' to the tune that once went with it.
"Though I can't, come to think of it, recall ever having heard Fause Foodrage sung. Anyone out there sing it?"
Well I do ( the only other person I know is Chris Coe, and she uses a different text and tune - not the one in Child either). As Susan says, I adapted Lord Gregory, because the tune in Child seemed too firmly associated with Willie. If you want to hear a sample of mine, go here and click on the title.
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sj
