Tune Req: To Althea From Prison

Subject: To Althea From Prison
From: John-S
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 02:19 PM

Does anyone have the music or chords for the song To Althea From Prison? I know it was on Fairport's 9th album but I can't get a hold of that anywhere. An mp3 would be nice.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: MMario
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 02:33 PM

a midi or abc would be even nicer. or if you could e-mail me a scan of the music. this is one of the DT "missing tunes"

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 03:36 PM

An ABC of "When Love with unconfined wings" (opening line) is B508 among the broadside ballad tunes at www.erols.com/olsonw. It's Dr. John Wilson's setting, 1659, of Lovelace's poem, 1642.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 03:39 PM

Thanks, Bruce. I've been struggling with a poor connection to post the following:

The DT file appears to have been transcribed by ear from a record, (presumably Fairport?) but it names no source of any kind, contains mishearings and fails to mention the poem's author, Richard Lovelace, who wrote it some time between 1642 and 1649 (when it was first published, in a collection of his poems entitled Lucasta). TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON

Alan of Australia posted corrections in a thread of 1997, and Bill in Alabama posted the missing third verse; these have not yet been incorporated into the current version of the DT. LYR Correction: To Althea From Prison.

Notes in the 1887 edition of Percy's Reliques:

"The music to this most exquisite of prison songs was composed by the celebrated Dr. John Wilson, and first printed (according to Dr. Rimbault) in his Cheerful Ayres or Ballads set for three Voices, Oxford, 1660."

I don't know whether or not Fairport used Wilson's music.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: MMario
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 03:41 PM

mille grazie - oh mysteious un-named one!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: John-S
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 03:44 PM

Many thanks.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: MMario
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 03:58 PM

NWC file (with corrected lyrics) forwarded to DT

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 04:05 PM

According to C. M. Simpson (The British Brodside Ballad and Its Music) Wilson's tune was published in 1659 in Select Ayres and Dialogues, then in 1660 in Cheerful Ayres. Simpson cites evidence that the tune was known a few years before it was published.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 04:25 PM

Odd that I didn't think to check Simpson; oh well. Thanks for pointing that out.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: To Althea From Prison
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jun 02 - 04:36 PM

The tune is a broadside ballad tune because Lovelace's poem was the basis for the broadside ballad "The Pensive Prisoner's Apology" (ZN1724), entered in 1656.