Lullaby - Late 17thc. American

Subject: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Plume
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 12:04 PM

I'm designing sound for a production of The Crucible and the director has asked me to come up with a lullaby that would have been likely sung in Salem, Mass in the late 17th century. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have though of suggesting The Coventry Carol but I'd like to avoid the overly familiar if at all possible. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Sarah2
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 12:38 PM

I'd think members from over the pond would be the best help here. So many songs, especially lullabies, would have come over on the boat.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 01:21 PM

What about one of the Child Ballads? It would certainly be in period. Or PRETTY SARO.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Sarah2
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 01:26 PM

'zakly, Sorcha. Or a lullaby indigenous to the Plymouth area?

Sarah

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: MMario
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 01:29 PM

or go with a dutch lullabye. don't forget that a lot of the "Pilgrims" had spent time in the Netherlands. by the late 17th century you would probably not have any around who had spent time there, but you WOULD have some who had grown up with the dutch influence and might be passing along cradle songs they had had sung to them.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Plume
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 01:44 PM

Thanks to all who've responded so far. I'm not sure I'd be inclined to use the bulk of the Child Ballads for lullaby source material — Matty Groves? Little Sir Hugh? Tam Lin? —but these people were a rather gruesome lot, weren't they? Actually, part of the difficulty of this is that the Salem of the 1690's was already a very different society from 1620's Plymouth. It's an interesting challenge because the period culture from across the pond is late restoration, a very different kind of sensibility. But again, thanks, and keep those cards and letters coming, folks.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Sorcha
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 01:55 PM

Actually, I was thinking about #20, The Cruel Mother . Insert a little irony with the "lullaby".

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Sarah2
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 02:08 PM

Well, Plume, the Puritans were into "come-uppence" theology, weren't they? P'rhaps they would hum "Matty Groves" to an infant. And a lullaby very much hand-me-down songs, so I'd question whether there would be much variation in that aspect of culture development, unless the Puritans would be more likely to insert a line or two of dogma into the lullaby.

Sarah

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Alice
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 02:21 PM

Wasn't singing considered only appropriate in church? (Can you imagine having to hide singing at home?)

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: MMario
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 03:32 PM

actually - according to various lectures I have heard at Plimouth Plantation, it wasn't singing that was discouraged, but singing of secular songs. But I would imagine that lullabyes, being primarily sung in the home, would be an exception.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Barry T
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 06:25 PM

A couple of old Scottish lullabies...
Can Ye Sew Cushions and Highland Fairy Lullaby
...were collected in the mid 1700's, but had been around for a long time before that.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Margaret V
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 06:37 PM

Poet Anne Bradstreet (of Puritan Massachusetts) mentions singing lullabies in her poem "The Four Ages of Man," published in 1650. An excerpt:

With wayward cries, I did disturb her rest;
Who sought still to appease me, with her breast.
With weary armes, she danced, and Bye, Bye, sung,
When wretched I (ungrate) had done the wrong.

Sorry I can't be more specific. Margaret

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 10:48 PM

See "Balow, my babe", ZN377 in the broadside ballad index on my website. ABCs of two tunes for it are B021 and 022 in file BM0.HTM. www.erols.com/olsonw

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Plume
Date: 07 Jan 01 - 11:09 PM

Dear Bruce, Thanks very much! What a terriffic resource is that website of yours. I think this will do the trick.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 01:27 PM

I think maybe I've been to the same lectures as M.Mario. Until late 1700's in Puritanical Massachusetts the only acceptable "songs" were Psalms sung plainsong style. Like all prohibitions, it was probably ignored freely, but I doubt that it would have been when the witch-hunters were about.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Alice
Date: 08 Jan 01 - 09:12 PM

That's what I meant. I see now my message wasn't clear.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: Ferrara
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 01:46 AM

Highland Fairy Lullaby would probably have been completely unacceptable. Still, Barry T, I'm glad you put up those links because they're beautiful songs.

Subject: RE: Lullaby - Late 17thc. American
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 10 Jan 01 - 02:36 AM

I've added a text of "Balow, my babe" from a manuscript in the Scarce Songs 2 file on my website. I've also corrected one of the tunes for it, B022. That was one of my early efforts, and I didn't know that most ABC programs can't find that change of meter (M:n/m) if it isn't on a line by itself.