Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightingale Sings

Subject: The Nightengale Sings??
From: jeepman (inactive)
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 04:17 PM

A few years ago I taped a Celtic group playing at "Merlefest". I cannot remember their name but they made fine music. The song was The Nightegales Sing or The Nigh tengales song. I have lost the tape and would really like to hear it again. I found the words but would really like to hear it or at least learn the chords. Jeepman

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 04:33 PM

Was it the version of Soldier Soldier about Hear the waters glide, see the nightingale sing? We need more partial lyrics to help, I think...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: jeepman (inactive)
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:08 PM

Mrrzy. I do remember "they walked together arm in arm like sister and brother". Hope this helps. Jeepman

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Sarah2
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:16 PM

Oh, rats, all I recall is the tune and "They loved so sweet and comfortin' as they clung to each other" or some such -- goes before the line above.

ARRRRRRRRGH!

Sarah

Subject: Lyr Add: NIGHTINGALES SING
From: Bernard
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:25 PM

This is the song as I know it:

NIGHTINGALES SING

As I went out a-walking one morning in May
I met a young couple, a-making of hay.
One was a young maid, and her beauty shone clear,
And the other was a soldier, and a bold Grenadier.

Chorus:
And they kissed so sweet and comforting
As they clung to each other.
They went arm in arm along the road
Like sister and brother.
They went arm in arm along the road
Till they came to a stream,
And they both sat down together, love,
To hear the nightingales sing.

A-walking and a-talking, and a-walking together.
A-walking so far that they knew not whither.
So they sat themselves down by a clear crystal stream,
All for to see the flowers grow,
And hear the nightingales sing.

Then, with kisses and with compliments,
He took her round the middle,
And from out of his knapsack he drew forth his fiddle.
He played her such a merry tune, made the woods all to ring,
Oh, it's hark, hark, says the fair maid,
How the nightingales sing!

Well, it's come now, says the soldier,
It's time to give o'er.
Oh, no! says the fair maid, let's have one tune more!
For I do like your music, and the tune of your string,
And I do like to see the flowers grow,
And hear the nightingales sing.

Well, it's come now, says the fair maid, will you marry me?
Oh, no! says the soldier, this never could be!
For I have a wife in my own country
And so fair a woman you ever did see.

It's, no! says the soldier, this never could be!
For I have a wife, and I've children three,
But if I come this way again, it will be in the spring,
And we'll both sit down together, love,
And hear the nightingales sing.

There's a variant on this called 'Dorset Be Beautiful'...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:26 PM

Here you go...

Subject: Lyr Add: THE NIGHTINGALE (trad. Irish)
From: Stewart
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 05:31 PM

THE NIGHTINGALE (from Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book, Oak Pub)

As I went a walking one morning in May
I met a young couple who fondly did stray
And one was a young maid so sweet and so fair
And the other was a soldier, and a brave grenadier.

Chorus: And they kissed so sweet and comforting as they clung to each other
They went arm in arm along the road like sister and brother
They went arm in arm along the road til they came to a stream
And they both sat down together for to hear the nightingale sing

And out of his knapsack he took a fine fiddle
And he played her such a merry tune as you ever did hear
And he played her such a merry tune as you ever did hear
And he played her such a merry tune as the valleys did ring
And they both sat down together for to hear the nightingale sing.

I do a version called THE GRENADIER AND THE LADY (Trad. Dorsetshire).

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Barry T
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 07:14 PM

My midi and lyrics are here...

...and Stewart's right. This tune is also titled as The Grenadier and the Lady, which confuses the blazes out of people because there is a different tune known by that same title.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 08:43 PM

That's the one I figured, but didn't want to type it all in (my version isn't in the Trad but is similar enough to the ones here) only to find it was the wrong one!

This one always made me wonder what sisters and brothers are supposed to act like...

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 13 Jan 01 - 10:26 PM

There are several versions in the Database:

The Nightingales Sing  as recorded by the Clancy Brothers, apparantly; with tune.
The Nightingales Sing  Appalachian version, with tune.
The Brave Volunteer  Apparantly an American version, with tune.
The Wild Rippling Waters  American version, with tune.

In the Forum:

Nightingale's Song (original)   17th century text.
One Morning in May...   several versions; one or two are even attributed to their traditional sources!
The Grenadier and the Lady

At  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

Bold grenadier  Printer and date unknown.

At Lesley Nelson's  Folk Music   site:

The Nightingales Sing
The Nightingale   with tune.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 12:40 AM

Barry, I'm assuming the first (click) of those tunes at Lesley's site is yours, and the second (click) is Lesley's - am I right? Where did you get your tune? I like both, and can't decide which I like better.
Dick Holdstock (from my area, Northern California) has made the first one into almost a signature song for him - same tune, but he does it in his unusually entertaining style. One time, he and another guy did a medley of "the Nightingale" and Wild Rippling Waters, avery different cowboy version of the same song.
You'll note that this song has been assigned DT #340, so you can use the blue box to search for #340 (click) to see what we have. You can also search for [Laws P14] and get get the same results in different order. Are there versions in the database that haven't received these numbers, or are there versions posted or linked to in this thread, that should be added to the database? Are there versions without nightingales?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 12:44 PM

I suspect that there's always a nightingale, just as the sexual metaphor is always there, even when the singer doesn't realise that that's what it is!  The song was still being found in tradition into the 1960s; mainly in Southern England, though it made it to America (Kentucky in particular) and Nova Scotia.  I haven't heard of any traditional Irish versions, though broadside copies may easily have got there from England, and obviously it has been commercially recorded by a lot of Irish and "Celtic-style" performers since the '60s, and has become popular enough there in recent years to turn up in the Soodlums book.   With reference to the "One Morning in May" link I gave above, I should mention that  The Sweet Nightingale  is an unrelated song that happens to have a similar title, and is really a version of By the Green Grove, which is in the DT as  Birds in the Spring.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 02:38 PM

DaveO sings a totally different one that may go as "To Phyllis". "To make love while the nightingale sings in the tree" is the refrain. Burl Ives recorded it.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 02:54 PM

There is a lovely rendition of the song, without the chorus , int the film (movie) Far From The Madding Crowd.
Hoping the nightingale sings for you, Keith

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Barry Finn
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 05:35 PM

The Wild Rippling Water version is recorded by A.Lomax & also done by him on an LP that he recorded, the tile is soomething like Songs (or Folk Songs) of Texas. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Barry Finn
Date: 14 Jan 01 - 05:35 PM

The Wild Rippling Water version is recorded by A.Lomax & also done by him on an LP that he recorded, the tile is soomething like Songs (or Folk Songs) of Texas. Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 03:08 PM

The DT Midi file for Wild Rippling Water(s) is not the tune as published by the Lomaxes. I've send a new file to Mmario.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: Wild Rippling Water tune
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 03:09 PM

(just re-posting to change the subject line for future searching purposes)

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 03:40 PM

As indicated by Desert Dancer, the title of the version in the DT should be titled "The Wild Rippling Water," not 'waters.'
It was first printed in "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads," by John A. and Alan Lomax, 1938, pp. 183-185, with 6/8 music to be sung "with a good swing," words by Alex Moore and E. N. Bowen.
It is not in the earlier John A. Lomax, "Cowboy Songs," as the note appended in the DT indicates.

The song also appears in Austin E. and Alta S. Fife, 1969, "Cowboy and Western Songs," with somewhat different music (3/4 with chords) as arranged and sung by Frank Goodwyn, pp. 6-7. This may be where the DT midi file came from (or another songbook).

Like many cowboy songs, the tune was varied by the singer to suit his ideas and voice.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 06:03 PM

Q, do you have any sense about how literally one should take "words by words by Alex Moore and E. N. Bowen", given the song's appearance in the Fifes' book? How similar are the versions? What are the odds that Frank Goodwyn got it from the Lomaxes' book or their source?

~ Becky

Subject: Lyr Add: THE COWBOY'S STROLL
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 08:37 PM

Since Lomax and Lomax say the words to their version are from Moore (verses 1-3, 6-8) and from Bowen (verses 4-5), yep, I take that 'literally,' not wishing to accuse them of fibbing. The tune is from the singing of Bowen on Library of Congress Record 59A1.

There are steam-dozen variants of "One Morning in May," "The Nightingale" or whatever title of many for versions of the song cluster.

The Lomaxes were not the first to print a cowboy version; J. Frank Dobie in 1928 published it with the title "The Cowboy's Stroll," with a tune quite different from those in L&L and F&F.

J. Frank Dobie, 1928, Editor, "Follow de Drinkin' Gourd," Pub. Texas Folk-lore Society, No. VII, pp. 167-168, with music. This version was "made-up" by Mr. Charlie Johnson, using "The Nightingale," which was again popular during the Civil War (A text (not cowboy) with 'gliding waters' also appears in Missouri Hist. Rev. vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 400-401).

Lyr. Add: THE COWBOY'S STROLL

One evening, one evening, one evening in May,
I spied a fair maiden a-raking of hay.
"Good evening, I'm glad of meeting you here,
Although you are a lady and I'm a ranger."

They walked and they talked until they came to the spring
And from his knapsack he drew a fine violin.
His bow, it being ready, his arm so strong,
He played her sweet music the whole evening long.

Now says the lady, "Just play one tune more."
.........(missing)
He tuned up his fiddle to a much higher string,
And he played her a tune called "The Valleys Do Ring."

Now says the lady, "Won't you marry me?"
"Oh," says the cowboy, "that never can be.
I've a wife in old Texas and children three,
One of the prettiest little babies you ever did see.

"I'll go back to old Texas and there stay one year.
I will drink of cold water instead of strong beer,
And if ever I return it will be in the spring
To see the water gliding and hear the nightingale sing.

"I will build me a castle in some Texas town,
So strong that no wind can blow it down.
And if anyone asks if I live alone,
Pray tell them I'm a cowboy far away from home."

Collected in 1927 from Charlie Johnson, in San Antonio, by J. Frank Dobie. Johnson was 'on the trail' starting in 1880. When he wrote his version is not stated.




I said nothing about the lyrics given in Fife and Fife (some are different from those in the Lomaxes' book, but not significantly so); only that the tune used is not the same but was prepared by Frank Goodwyn.
Have you read either book?

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 09:35 PM

Well, of the Lomaxes I've got nearly everything except the two versions of Cowboy Songs. Folksongs of North America is what I've been working from for this song, and the attribution there is "Lomax adaptation from the Gant Family, Austin, Texas," so your further details on their "adaptation" are useful.

I don't have either Fife & Fife or Dobie.

I do know that this song made the rounds on both sides of the pond. I personally started with Judy Collins's version (which had stuck with me since I was a teen). It seemed most likely to be an adaptation of the Lomax's adaptation, so I went back to them.

~ Becky

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:09 AM

The Alan Lomax "The Folk Songs of North America," 1960, pp. 382-383, has a different tune for "The Wild Rippling Water" than the one found in "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads," pp. 183-185.
The sheet music in the former is 3/4, ###, rather than 6/8, bb, and slightly differently accented.
The verses are 4-line, eliminating the last line repetition, rather than 5-line. Some words are changed. AThe whole effect is quite different.
Comparing the first verses:

Lomax 1960
Gant Family version
As I was out walkin' an' a-ramblin' one day,
I spied a fair couple a-makin' their way;
One was a lady and a fair one was she,
An' the other a cowboy, an' a brave one were he.

Lomax and Lomax 1938
Alex Moore version
I was out walking an' a-ramblin' one day;
I spied a fair couple a-comin' my way;
One was a lady as fair as could be,
And the other a cowboy, an' a brave one were he,
An' the other a cowboy, an' a brave one were he.   

Fife and Fife 1969
Frank Goodwyn version
As I was out walking, a-rambling one day,
I spied a fair couple a-coming my way.
One was a cowboy, a brave one was he,
The other a lady and a beauty was she,
The other a lady and a beauty was she.

All three versions are distinctive,each having merit in its own way.
I find it useful to identify them by the singer or group who provided the song to the collector.

"Found in modern currency in England" is meaningless. The same may be said of the Beetles songs.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:30 AM

Hmm! I had been assuming that the Lomax 1960 version was the same as the   1938 Cowboy Songs version. I guess not! The plot thickens. Just goes to show, you can never have too many folk song books. ;-) Thanks, Q.

I do believe that the DT text under the Wild Rippling Water(s) name is the one from the Lomax 1960 book, and the midi I've sent in goes with that. But now I wonder where the other midi came from.

Unfortunately, this thread is not among those linked to the song in the DT. Maybe I'll PM Joe.

~ Becky

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:55 AM

The DT text of "Wild..." is from Lomax and Lomax 1938, "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads." Note the five-line verses with the last line repeated.

The midi is for a four line verse! Possibly taken from the 1960 Gant version in Lomax' Folk Songs....," but there are some DT midis that are from untraceable sources. Yep, this needs correction.

The entry was put together by RG- which may mean Dick Greenhaus. PM him. He may remember what he did.

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 02:15 AM

The Lomax 1960 version also repeats the last line: it shows up in the music notation with repeat bars; in the text the "(2)" to the right of each verse indicates the last line is repeated. As far as I can see it's identical to what's in the DT (barring typos and missing line breaks).

I've sent a midi of that tune, which I expect Mmario will load soon. The midi that's on there at the moment sounds like a "Brave Grenadier"/"Patriot Game" version.

~ Becky

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: Leadfingers
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 06:31 AM

Another fragmented short version:-

As I was a walking one morning in May
I spied this young couple so fondly did stray
And one was a soldier and a bold Grenadier
And the other was a Choirboy - I said 'Bugger -Thats queer!'

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: MMario
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:11 PM

Desert Dancer sent me the tune in midi format from Alan Lomax, Folk Songs of North America (1960) for Wild Rippling Waters.

To me, at least - it sounds quite different from the one in the DT -

will post asap

Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: The Nightengale Sings??
From: MMario
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 12:16 PM

Here it is in ABC:

X:1
T:ntngale3_B
Q:1/4=130
I:abc2nwc
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:A
z4E2|E2C2F2|E2C2FF|E2C2B,2|A,6|z4E2|
A3A c2|B2A2c2|A2E2F2|A4z2|A4cc|B2A2cc|
A2E2F2|A4FF|E2C2F2|E2C2FF|E2C2B,2|
A,4FF|E2C2F2|E2C2FF|E2C2B,2|A,4z2|]