Lyr Req: Monk's March

Subject: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 07:11 PM

"Monk's March" (or "General Monk's March", or "Monck's March" ) is a standard morris dance tune. I'm guessing it commemorates the actions of George Monk (Monck) when he led the Coldstream Guards into London to restore the monarchy to the throne in the 1660s.

So, you'd think there would be lyrics that matched the tune. I've searched Mudcat and I've Googled but have found none except some lyrics written to the tune but having nothing to do with Monk.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: Peace
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 07:14 PM

http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:gRw4bTHHP1oJ:www.concertina.net/forums/lofiversion/index.php%3Ft1226.html+General+Monk%27s+


Discussion on that site that might interest you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 07:35 PM

Sydney Carter's "George Fox" ("Old Leather Britches") was written to the tune of Monk's March.

Sydney picked on the tune because of course General Monk was a contemporary of Georg Fox. Though they didn't have much else in common.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 08:29 PM

Yes, I saw that and it is indeed interesting. However, I'm interested in finding out if there were lyrics to the original tune when it was written, lyrics to do with Monk. And if so, does anyone have them?

As a morris dancer I am well familiar with the tune, the dance (which I've seen performed and performed myself as a bar-dance - it is danced with pints of beer in hand, and gulps are taken at certain musical intervals, and the mug/glass is upended over the dancers head at the end). I hadn't heard of the lyrics written to fit the tune about the Friends (Quakers).

Thanks

--Bill Brown

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: Compton
Date: 26 Feb 08 - 08:41 PM

I went to a Morris Ring meeting once and sang some hymn or other to Monk's March.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 02:44 AM

Compton - the "hymn" was probably George Fox!

"There's a light that is shining in the heart of a man
It's a light that was shining when the world first began..."?

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: jonm
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 02:58 AM

"My faith it is an Oaken Staff" is often sung to the tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: John J
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 03:17 AM

I once played for a ladies morris side, they would sing:

"I must, I must,
I must increase my bust"

JJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: Lynn W
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 04:47 AM

The Bodleian site has a restoration ballad set to this (The Brimigham ballad) but it's later than the tune - says "to the tune of Monk's March", 1682. The Fiddlers Companion site says it's in Playford 1665 and has lots more info -
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/MON.htm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 06:53 AM

But note the following:

'A tune known variously as "Monk's March," "The Lord Monck's March" and "General Monk's March" is found in The Dancing Master, 3d ed. supplements; Musicks Hand-maid, 1678; Musicks Recreation on the Viol, Lyra-way, 1682; volume two of The Dancing Master, 3d ed., 1718, and of Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing-Master, 1719. It does not fit the Euing ballad [Number 160, 'A Loyal Subjects Admonition, or a true Song of Brittains Civil Wars', which cites as an alternative tune 'General Moncks right march that was sounded before him from Scotland to London'] nor is it adapted to other ballads citing such tune titles as "Monk's March," "My Lord Monks March to London," "General Monks March," "General Monk hath advanc'd himself since he came from the Tower," "Monk hath confounded," "General Monk sail'd through the Gun-Fleet," "General Monk was a nobleman." These tune titles, associated with ballads written in a variety of rhythmic and stanzaic patterns, have nothing in common save their reference to the first Duke of Albemarle.'

Claude M Simpson, The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, 309 (footnote to 'The Highlanders' March').

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: Compton
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 08:56 PM

Jonm...That's exactly what it was!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Are there Lyrics to 'Monk's March'?
From: vectis
Date: 27 Feb 08 - 09:15 PM

Adge Cutler/The Yetties put words to the tune. It was about a very boozy Christmas. I still sing it every Christmas.

Subject: Lyr Add: GENERAL MONK'S MARCH
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Oct 10 - 08:33 AM

From Songs of Britain: a Collection of One Hundred English, Welsh, Scottish, and Irish National Songs by Frank Kidson, Martin Shaw (New York: Boosey & Co., 1913), page 102. That page also has musical notation for one voice and piano.


GENERAL MONK'S MARCH.

George Monk, afterwards Duke of Albemarle, was born in 1608. He was a distinguished general and fought for Charles I during the Parliamentary wars. He died 1679. The fine tune is found, as "Lord Monk's March" in print in 1665. At a later date, 1719, it is printed as "Monk's March with the Wanders." Its supposed association with the Monks of Bangor, who were massacred about 603, has no justification.

1. Loosen your sword.
Strike for the Lord.
Dash down rebels in their might,
For Charles is your king,
Victory bring,
They will find that we can fight!
Cromwell's force we need not fear;
Send him back to brew his beer!*
He would clutch the crown,
Monarchy pull down,
Which has stood this thousand year.

2. March all ye men
Into the den,
Spare not the sword in battle's fray;
But conquer or die,
Never fly,
From base rebels such as they.
Fortune smiles on all who fight
In the cause "for Charles and right,"
Parliament may frown,
Fight for the crown,
Shot "for King" before you smite!


* It was popularly supposed that Oliver Cromwell was a brewer. His father was a brewer at Huntingdon, and it is probable that the son had some connection with the business.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Monk's March
From: Les from Hull
Date: 17 Oct 10 - 09:56 AM

'fought for Charles I during the Parliamentary wars' He also fought for Parliament in Ireland, and then helped Charles II back to the throne. The ultimate turncoat.

Subject: ADD: My Faith It Is an Oaken Staff
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 May 16 - 01:40 AM

Here's "My Faith It Is an Oaken Staff" from the original Cyber Hymnal


MY FAITH IT IS AN OAKEN STAFF

My faith, it is an oaken staff,
The traveler’s well loved aid;
My faith, it is a weapon stout,
The soldier’s trusty blade,
I’ll travel on, and still be stirred,
By silent thought or social word;
By all my perils undeterred,
A soldier pilgrim staid.

I have a Guide, and in His steps
When travelers have trod,
Whether beneath was flinty rock
Or yielding grassy sod,
They cared not, but with force unspent,
Unmoved by pain, they onward went,
Unstayed by pleasures, still they bent
Their zealous course to God.

My faith, it is an oaken staff,
O let me on it lean!
My faith, it is a trusty sword,
May falsehood find it keen!
Thy Spirit, Lord, to me impart,
O make me what Thou ever art,
Of patient and courageous heart,
As all true saints have been.

Lyrics: Thomas T. Lynch, in The Rivulet: A Contribution to Sacred Song (London: Longman, 1855).

Melody: The Staff of Faith, variously described as traditional Swiss melody, or an English folksong

And take note of this Twelfth Night (click) use of the song, and the entry at hymnary.org

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Monk's March
From: GUEST,Tom Fletcher
Date: 05 Apr 17 - 02:22 PM

I was told once many years ago when we were at a ring meeting in Sherborne that the tune was originally an Austrian hymn tune but I can't remember who told me. I believe the Rev. Ken Lovelace (? spelling) was the Ring Squire then.