Tune Add: Jesus Christ the Apple Tree from 1805

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Haruo
Date: 07 Apr 13 - 11:06 AM

I just got an email from Mr. Malone in response to an unrelated query of mine on the Fasola discussion google group, so now that I know his email I am as I type in the process of asking his permission to post the above mentioned scan.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Haruo
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 01:39 PM

I have received his permission to scan his version of the tune (remember, this is reset in fasola notation; it is not a facsimile of the 1805 printing) and to post it for you-all's edification. I will be doing so within the next 24 hours. Stay tuned!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 01:45 PM

No Haruo, there are laws that punish those who violate copyright, but there are no laws to punish claiming a copyright to which one is not entitled. And so people claim fake copyrights all the time.

I have read about the copyright laws in encyclopedias, in books and at the copyright office's own site. Except for the welter of expiration dates, copyright law is simple. And it doesn't say anything about protecting the mere re-arrangement, or the mere reprinting, or even the mere editing of anybody else's creative effort. However, I understand your desire not to get in a brouhaha over this.

But thanks for the scan, anyway. It will be interesting to hear from Mudcatters who are trying out the tune.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Haruo
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 03:11 PM

Well, leeneia, I think you are in the UK and I know for a fact the UK has very different copyright laws from the United States. Here, I have no doubt that Mr. Malone has the right to keep others from distributing scans or photocopies of his 2005 edition of Christian Harmony, or, the Songster's Companion, except in certain rather limited ways permitted by what is called the "Fair Use doctrine". One would have to have a copy of the 1805 edition before one's eyes in order to know for sure whether Malone held a copyright to any particular feature of his edition. The unavailability of such evidence is a major part of the topic of this thread, i.e., people want to see Ingalls' tune for the song but can't. I will post a scan of Malone's edition of Ingalls' tune, with Malone's permission, but I still have no way of knowing whether any particular part of it (except for the shape notation) is Malone's work. Now, if I hadn't sought his permission, he would have had to go to court to seek royalties or damages or whatever from me, if he wanted to; the US government doesn't go around enforcing copyright without the owner's complaining about infractions first. However, some web domain owners are very skittish on this subject, and might shut down my site where I posted the thing, or even ban me from creating anything in their domain, and then I would be the one who had to go to court if I wanted to assert my rights...

I agree that publishers frequently overstate their copyrights. My favorite is the Hal Leonard Christmas fakebook, where for example Hal Leonard Corporation asserts copyright in the melody line and first verse of "Silent night, holy night" (to STILLE NACHT)...

A marginal case might by Paul McCartney or whoever's "ownership" of "Happy Birthday to You". I don't think he (or whoever it was) owns the piece, but it could be a court case if someone really cared.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Haruo
Date: 10 Apr 13 - 11:42 PM

Here it is: The Appletree, tune by Jeremiah Ingalls, 1804. This edition (fasola-style shapenotes) © 2005 Thomas B. Malone.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Artful Codger
Date: 12 Apr 13 - 04:40 PM

Here's an ABC reconstruction which I mainly prepared from leeneia's MIDIs. I haven't attempted to align the text beyond the first two stanzas, since this is much a matter of personal choice. I prefer to serially pair the stanzas, omitting the fifth. In Malone's reworking, his three verses correspond to the first, sixth and seventh stanzas of the original text, with the second stanza used as a set chorus for the second half of the score.

People have wondered where the melody lies in this setting. The soprano part carries the melody until the bass part rejoins the other two in the "chorus", when the tenor part takes over the melody.

Click to play MIDI (joeweb).
Click to download or show PDF (joeweb).


X:1
T:The Apple Tree
C:Text by R.H. (by 1761); music by Wm. Reeve and Wm. Shield
C:Arranged by Jeremiah Ingalls (1805)
%%writefields SNZ
S:Christian Harmony (song #61), compiled by Jeremiah Ingalls. Exeter, New Hampshire: Henry
S:Ranlet, 1805.
Z:leeneia and Artful Codger
V:1 treble
V:2 treble-8
V:3 bass middle=D,
%%score [1 2 3]
M:2/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=82 " Lively"
K:C
V:1
%%MIDI program 74
c2 (G/A/)(G/F/) | EG ce | dc df | (e/f/)(e/d/) cG |
w: 1.~The tree* of* life my soul hath seen, La-den with fruit* and* al-ways
G2 zc | Bd dB | ce ec | Bd dB | ce e ||
w: green; The trees of na-ture fruit-less be, Com-par'd with Christ the Ap-ple-tree.
|: "^Soft."d | ec cc | Gd dd | ec cc | Gd dd |
w: [2.]~This beaut-y doth all things ex-cel, By faith I know but ne'er can tell, This
ec ce | dB Bd | ec ce | dB Bd |
w: beaut-y doth all things ex-cel, By faith I know but ne'er can tell, The
"^Loud."e(e/c/) f(f/d/) | e(e/c/) gg | (g/f/)(e/d/) (e2 | Hf3) (e/d/) | cde2- | e3 :|
w: glo-ry* which I* now can* see In Je--sus* Christ_ the* Ap-ple-tree._
%
V:2
%%MIDI program 73
G2 (C/D/)(E/F/) | GG Gc | Bc BA | (G/A/)(G/F/) EC |
w: 1.~The tree* of* life my soul hath seen, La-den with fruit* and* al-ways
C2 zG | Gd dd | ec cc | Gd dd | ec c ||
w: green; The trees of na-ture fruit-less be, Com-par'd with Christ the Ap-ple-tree.
|: G | cA AA | BG GG | cA AA | BG Gd |
w: [2.]~This beaut-y doth all things ex-cel, By faith I know but ne'er can tell, This
ge ee | fd dd | ge ee | fd dd |
w: beaut-y doth all things ex-cel, By faith I know but ne'er can tell, The
g(g/e/) a(a/f/) | g(g/e/) dd | (c/d/)(e/f/) (g2 | Ha3) (g/f/) | ed c2- | c3 :|
w: glo-ry* which I* now can* see In Je--sus* Christ_ the* Ap-ple-tree._
%
V:3
%%MIDI program 42
C,2 C,C, | C,C, C,C, | G,A, G,F, | G,G,, C,C, |
w: 1.~The tree of life my soul hath seen, La-den with fruit and al-ways
C,2 zC,| G,G, G,G,| CC, C,C,| G,G, G,G,| CC, C, ||
w: green; The trees of na-ture fruit-less be, Com-par'd with Christ the Ap-ple-tree.
|: z | z4 | z4 | z4 | z3 G, |
w: [2.]~This
G,C CC | F,G, G,G, | G,C CC | F,G, G,G, |
w: beaut-y doth all things ex-cel, By faith I know but ne'er can tell, The
CC F,F,| CC G,G, | CC (C2 | HF,3) (E,/F,/) | G,G, C,2- | C,3 :|
w: glo-ry which I now can see In Je-sus Christ_ the* Ap-ple-tree._
%%vskip .25in
%%leftmargin 1.5in
%%begintext

1. The tree of life my soul hath seen, / Laden with fruit and always green;
The trees of nature fruitless be, / Compar'd with Christ the Appletree.

2. This beauty doth all things excel, / By faith I know but ne'er can tell,
The glory which I now can see / In Jesus Christ the Appletree.

3. For happiness I long have sought, / And pleasure dearly I have bought,
I miss'd of all but now I see / 'Tis found in Christ the Appletree.

4. I'm weary with my former toil, / Here I shall sit and rest awhile;
Under the shadow I will be, / Of Jesus Christ the Appletree.

5. With great delight I'll make my stay, / There none shall fright my soul away;
Among the sons of men I see, / There's none like Christ the Appletree.

6. I'll sit and eat this fruit divine, / It cheers my heart like spiritual wine;
And now this fruit is sweet to me, / That grows on Christ the Appletree.

7. This fruit doth make my soul to thrive, / It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in haste to be / With Jesus Christ the Appletree.

%%endtext
%%leftmargin .75in
%%vskip .25in

I recommend using the ABC converter at mandolintab.net.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Haruo
Date: 15 Apr 13 - 04:26 AM

Thanks, Artful C.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 15 Apr 13 - 10:41 PM

Remember Peter Schickele's (sp) rendition of Beethoven's 5th as a football game, where the challenge was to track the theme (football) as it was passed from player to player? Sometimes locating a melody in "Christian Harmony" seems like the same process.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 16 Apr 13 - 06:36 AM

Those who wonder where the melody lies in this setting may have a look at that other thread, message from masato sakurai 04 Jan 06 - 01:09 PM. The melody transcribed from "George Pullen Jackson's Another Sheaf of White Spirituals ([1952]; Folklorica, 1981, p. 78)" entirely corresponds to the middle voice ("tenor") of Ingalls's arrangement, but is more "regular". I would guess that it is close to the common ancestor, but it could also be copied from Ingalls and "regularized". (BTW: The word "tenor", literarily meaning "holder", was originally used for the pre-existing melody of an arrangement; additional voices would be higher [altus] and/or lower [bassus]. Ingalls, though definitely non-academic, may have been aware of that tradition.)

The Ingalls version is "nonstandard" in more than one way.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 16 Apr 13 - 06:45 AM

... literally ...

(My fingers wanted to recompense for the reverse error I committed in another thread.)

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Haruo
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 01:59 AM

Even though he didn't use the four-shape notation and wasn't wedded to the specific kinds of harmonies that the Sacred Harp later fossilized, Ingalls was firmly in the faw-so-law tradition, and the tenor line is where one would expect to find the "melody".

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: Artful Codger
Date: 17 Apr 13 - 11:37 PM

The performance of the Boston Camerata (with their combined years of research in this period and style of music) bears out my belief regarding the part-crossing of the melody. Since they performed an instrumental version, it's possible they referred to some extant score of the march.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: JC the Appletree from 1805
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 18 Apr 13 - 05:48 AM

The "incipit" given here is "//1/1234//55/51+//71+/71+//5", for D major, which may mean something like

X:1
T:Quick March from Oscar and Malvina
M:C
L:1/8
K:D
D4 DEFG|A2A2 A2d2|c2d2 c2d2|A2

- certainly closer to Jackson's melody than to Ingall's upper voice. It would be interesting to see the whole piece, which seems to have been popular enough so that nine sources around 1800 are mentioned.