Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet

Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: A FARMER'S SON SO SWEET
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 08:02 PM

A FARMER'S SON SO SWEET
Collected & arranged Cecil J Sharp

A farmer's son so sweet
Was keeping of his sheep,
And careless fell asleep,
While his lambs were playing.

A fair young lady gay,
By chance she came that way.
And found asleep he lay,
Whom she loved so dear.

She kissed his lips so sweet,
As fast he lay asleep.
I fear my heart will break
For you, my dear.

She said: Awake I pray,
The sun is on the hay;
Your flock will go astray
From you my dear.

He woke with great surprise
Beheld her handsome eyes.
Like an angel from the skies
She did appear.

For your sweet sake alone,
I wandered from my home:
My friends are dead and gone:
I am left alone.

His flock he laid aside:
Made her his gentle bride.
In wedlock she was tied
To the farmer's son.


X: 1
T: Farmer's Son
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
Z: NP 04/09/2017
K: G
z3 D| G B A A | D3 D| BABc|d3 d| edcB|c2 B3/2 G| AAG/2 G3/2
w: A far-mer's son so sweet Was kee-ping of his sheep, and care-less fell a-sleep, While his lambs were play-ing.

From: A Selection of Collected Folk Songs arranged by Cecil J Sharp and R Vaughan Williams
Published by Novello & Co (Undated)
NP

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 08:33 PM

Collected from Mrs. Snow of Somerton, Somerset by Sharp on 5th Jan 1906;
Also collected several times by Baring-Gould and Miss Broadwood. No indication who Vaughan Williams collected it from.

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Sep 17 - 10:16 PM

Roud gives this song #1431, and gives 66 citations for the song. As far as I can tell, there is no listing for this song in the Traditional Ballad Index, and I don't find it in the Digital Tradition. Have we had anything posted on this song before?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Sep 17 - 03:25 AM

Joe:
I checked before posting & couldn't see anything.

I'll be going through the book (A Selection of Collected Folk Songs arranged by Cecil J Sharp and R Vaughan Williams Published by Novello & Co (Undated))to see if there's anything else in there which isn't yet represented.

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Sep 17 - 07:38 AM

Hi, Nigel -
"A Farmer's Son So Sweet" was a real "find." What books or other resources contain songs Sharp collected in the British Isles? I have Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, but not much from the UK other than The Idiom of the People (Reeves - 115 songs collected by Sharp, lyrics only); and a Dover reprint of a 1916 book called One Hundred English Folksongs, edited by Sharp. Is that all there is? Can you tell us more about the book you have?
Since Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, is so comprehensive, I'm surprised Sharp didn't do something equally significant for the British Isles.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 05 Sep 17 - 12:55 PM

Okay, Joe, as you ask.
The comment at the end of the first post covers most of what is on the title page, but for the sake of completeness:

                       A
                   SELECTION
                      OF
                   COLLECTED
                  FOLK SONGS
                 ARRANGED BY
                CECIL J. SHARP
                      AND
              R. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
  
  
            (Price Three Shillings)
  Voice parts only (in both notations), price 1s. 6d
  
       LONDON: NOVELLO AND COMPANY, LIMITED
  NEW YORK: THE H.W.GRAY CO., Sole Agents for the U.S.A
                Made in England
  

The pages are sequentially numbered (what a surprise) but each song has its own Novello copyright date at the bottom. (all dated between 1908 & 1913 but not in date order) so this gives an earliest date for the book of 1913.
Most of the songs are headed 'Somerset' so it is likely that this was published as an example of 'regional' songs (or regional 'derivatives')
The next one I'm likely to Transcribe is 'Heave away my Johnny' which doesn't seem to appear in the DT or the 'cat.

Contents list:
A Farmer's Son so sweet
Admiral Benbow
As I walked through the meadows
Brennan on the moor
Bingo (B.I.N.G.O.)
Come all you worthy Christian men
Dashing away with the smoothing iron
Down by the Riverside
Farmyard song
Green Broom
Heave away, my Johnny
I will give my love an Apple
I'm seventeen come Sunday
King Herod and the cock
My boy Billy
My man John
O No, John!
O Waly Waly
One man shall mow my meadow
Spanish Ladies
The Briery Bush
The Carter
The coasts of High Barbary
The crystal Spring
The female Highwayman
The Fox
The Holly and the Ivy
The Keeper
The keys of Canterbury
The Lark in the morn
The painful Plough
The Red-Herring
The Sheep Shearing
The Tree in the wood
Wassail song
William Taylor

Anyone want something specific from there I'm happy to transcribe, as time allows, or to send a scan for that person to transcribe (a suitable quid pro quo)

Any I transcribe will have the melody in ABC format (to the best of my ability) although the book has accompaniments as well. (hence the comment on the title page of 'voice parts only' also available.


Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 03:33 PM

Thanks, Nigel -
My copy of One Hundred English Folksongs has many of the same songs, but the two books are not identical. Mine was published by Oliver Ditson Company of Boston in 1916, and reprinted by Dover. My book doesn't have "A Farmer's Son So Sweet."

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 03:50 PM

Joe, Sharp tended to publish things in smaller batches. I suppose the most influential set was the 5-vol set of 'Folk Songs in Somerset'. However most of his English manuscript stuff was published by Maud Karpeles in the 2 vol Cecil Sharp's collection of English Folk Songs. I think all of Sharp's manuscripts, English and American, are available online at the EFDSS website. Other than that if you still need a biblio I would suggest Wikipedia. And again Steve Roud has a full biblio for most folk song books ever published in English and this is available with his indexes, both from him direct in various formats and on the EFDSS website.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 06 Sep 17 - 05:08 PM

Heave away, my Johnny now added

Cheers
Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: A Farmer's Son So Sweet
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 09 Sep 17 - 06:52 PM

Admiral Benbow added. Clearly a variation to those we already hold.