Lyr Req: Male/female duets

Subject: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST,Bobtheautoharp
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 07:51 AM

I have been asked to do a duet with an American lady musician!, so am looking for traditional English male/female duets, where we can take some words/verses each and maybe harmonise in some parts. Can anyone suggest some titles/lyrics to look at? I have had one suggestion. - KEYS OF CANTERBURY - which will do very nicely, but need to offer my friend a selection to choose from.

[Many song titles in this thread have been converted to links by a Mudelf.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:09 AM

Not English but they do sing in English and not traditional but it does go back 46 years. Do Esther and Abi Ofarim count?

No? I thought not, but they flashed into my memory when I saw the thread title for some reason. And I enjoyed it :-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: MMario
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:19 AM

TWO MAGICIANS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:20 AM

Sorry Dave, no. No to Islands in the Stream, I've Got You Babe and I Won't Do that also. Looking for very British trad - found another possible in DABBLING IN THE DEW and other Milkmaid variants.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:25 AM

Thanks, MMario - might be a bit lusty for my friend, but I might be able to find a more refined variant - reads like TAM LIN?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:28 AM

Thought as much. Still, worth the nostalgia trip :-)

How about "NO, JOHN, NO" ?

The lyrics are a bit limited for the lady but she can put a lot of feeling into it - Particularly the later verses shown here.

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: freda underhill
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 08:34 AM

here's Esther + Abi doing COTTON FIELDS great!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST,Bobtheautoharp
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 10:06 AM

thought of GAME OF ALL FOURS and EGGS IN HER BASKET too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 12:47 PM

If you want a nice male/female dialogue song (rather than both singing at once) and can cope with the Scots lyrics, try "HUNTINGTOWER". There's a thread on it on Mudcat and Youtube and various other websites have it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 12:54 PM

How about the Copper Family's COME WRITE ME DOWN ? - aka the Wedding Song!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 01:06 PM

And come to think of it, also from the Coppers there's CLAUDY BANKS!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 01:29 PM

A friend & I used to sing THE TAILOR IN THE TEA-CHEST as a duet. We would sing the narrative verses together, then she would sing all the wife's lines and I would do the tailor and the sailor-husband, and the shipmate who commented on the weight of the chest. Might sound a bit complicated; but it was generally popular as part of the programme that our village singing group, the Haddenham Singers, used to tour these parts (Fenland Cambs & around); & it was a lot of fun to do.

There are a lot of narrative songs involving dialogue which could be similarly arranged between participants, I am sure.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Rumncoke
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 01:31 PM

DROYLSDEN WAKES?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Bert
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 01:47 PM

SOLDIER, SOLDIER.
THERE'S A HOLE IN THE BUCKET.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Bert
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 01:51 PM

If you don't mind getting away from traditional you could look up Miki & Griff.

Also I wrote one called MID-LIFE CRISIS. Send me a pm if you are interested.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Jul 14 - 02:55 PM

SOLDIER, SOLDIER, Come From the Wars

A mournful dialogue song, with questions by the girl, answers by the man, and duet singing on the two-or-so-line chorus.

(I assume this is not the Soldier, Soldier mentioned by Bert.)

The girl asks a series of questions of the returned soldier, inquiring for her true love, a soldier-comrade in the soldier's unit. He answers each of her questions, the successive answers progressively making it clear that her soldier lover has been killed in battle, his final reply suggesting that when she's through with her grief, "You'd best take me for your new love".

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Nick
Date: 10 Jul 14 - 08:17 AM

ONE MORNING IN MAY or one of its many variants.

In fact, any song with a willing woman and a man with a flute, whistle or fiddle that needs some form of attention

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 10 Jul 14 - 09:45 AM

PAPER OF PINS

He: I'll give to you a paper of pins
    and that is how our love begins,
    if you will marry me, me me,
    if you will marry me.

She: I'll not accept your paper of pins
      and so our love will ne'er begin
      and I'll not marry thee, thee, thee
      I'll not marry thee.

repeat for 'dress of red, all bound around with golden thread'

finally:

He: I'll give to you the key to my heart,
    and you and I will never part...

SHE: I do accept the key to your heart
      and you and I shall never part.
      And I will marry thee, thee, thee
      I will marry thee.

You can change 'will' to 'shall' as the fancy strikes you. (There are probably more verses on the net somewhere.)

This song has a charming tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Gutcher
Date: 11 Jul 14 - 06:27 AM

If you are into tearjerkers try "ANNIE'S TRYST".
Note that it is "tryst" not "trist"

"Aa daurna tryst ye there Willie,
Aa daurna tryst ye there.
But we"ll keep oor tryst in heaven Wlllie,
In the springtime o the year."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST,Male Duettist
Date: 11 Jul 14 - 02:59 PM

Try:
Peter & Barbara Snape, Paul & Liz Davenport, Tom and Barbara Brown, Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman, Issy and Dave Emeny, Barry and Ingrid Temple, Peta Webb & Ken Hall; I could go on. These are a few of the current male-female duets in the English folk scene. I can't understand why the postings on this thread haven't mentioned them.
Most have websites or should be available if you google or Youtube them.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Paul Davenport
Date: 12 Jul 14 - 08:21 AM

Saw our name there nd thought of …me. Seriously, Bobtheautoharp, take a look at our website if you'd like to nick some stuff. http://www.hallamtrads.co.uk where we have some stuff on YouTube too.
PS. Male Duettist maybe a real name would help me know if you're one of the aforementioned? :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: Bert
Date: 12 Jul 14 - 01:04 PM

This is the one I was referring to here

Only we used to sing,

'Oh soldier, soldier, won't you marry me...'

And

'Up she went to her Grandfather's chest
and she got him a hat of the very very best'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 14 - 01:18 PM

Dave and Toni Arthur - British duo 40ish years ago..

Youtube video links

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Dave+%26+Toni+Arthur

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Jul 14 - 06:14 PM

I think the last two guests are a bit confused. The OP and the thread following have been seeking songs suitable for singing as duet; not the names of well-known m/f folk duos.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Male/female duets
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 14 - 08:22 PM

MtheGM - the last GUEST [me] is not at all confused.

That is why he/she [me] provided a link to eminently suitable songs for a duet;
as performed by Dave and Toni Arthur.......

Subject: Lyr Add: ANNIE'S TRYST
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Feb 18 - 05:52 PM

This song was mentioned by Gutcher on 11-Jul-2014. Apparently, it has never been posted at Mudcat before.

These words, with musical notation, can be found in Franklin Square Song Collection: No. 6 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1888), page 155:

ANNIE'S TRYST*

Your hand is cauld as snaw, Annie.
Your cheek is wan and white.
What gars ye tremble sae, Annie?
What maks your e'e sae bright?

The snaw is on the ground, Willie,
The frost is cauld and keen,
But there's a burnin' fire, Willie,
That sears my heart within.

The spring will come again, Annie,
And chase the winter showers,
And you and I shall walk, Annie,
Amang the simmer flowers.

O! bonnie are the braes, Willie,
When a' the snaws are gane,
But my heart misgi'es me sair, Willie,
Ye'll wander there alane.

O! will ye tryst wi' me, Annie?
O! will ye tryst me then?
I'll meet ye by the burn, Annie,
That wimples doun the glen.

I daurna tryst wi' you, Willie,
I daurna tryst ye here,
But we'll hold our tryst in Heaven, Willie,
I' the springtime o' the year.

[* The sheet music, written in 4-part harmony, is attributed to "W. E. Aytoun" but I suspect he is merely the composer or arranger.

[In some old books, the spelling is "tryste."

[The oldest copy of the words I can find appears without a tune in The New Scottish Song Book, edited by J. E. Carpenter (London: John Routledge and Sons, 1867), page 186.]

Subject: Lyr Add: OVER THE HILLS AND FAR AWAY
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 10 Feb 18 - 01:49 PM

The Beggar's Opera by John Gay 1728
Act I, Scene xiii, Air XVI??Over the Hills, and Far Away?

MacHeath. Were I laid on Greenland?s coast,
And in my arms embraced my lass,
Warm amidst eternal frost,
Too soon the half-year?s night would pass.
Polly. Were I sold on Indian soil,
Soon as the burning day was closed,
I could mock the sultry toil
When on my charmer?s breast reposed.
Mac. And I would love you all the day,
Polly. Every night would kiss and play,
Mac. If with me you?d fondly stray
Polly. Over the hills, and far away.

Subject: Lyr Add: TURTLE DOVE (Martin Carthy)
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 10 Feb 18 - 03:43 PM

Turtle Dove sung by Martin Carthy

Fare thee well, my dear, I must be gone
And leave you for a while.
If I go away, I'll come back again
Though I go ten thousand mile, my dear,
Though I go ten thousand mile.

Ten thousand mile it is a long way
To leave me here alone,
To leave me here to sigh and complain
Where you never will hear my moans, my dear,
Where you never will hear my moans.