Lyr Req: hey ho to the greenwood

Subject: Lyr Req: hey ho to the greenwood
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Mar 04 - 05:49 PM

I've come across a very nice round by William Byrd called Hey Ho to the Greenwood, but I can't find the lyrics. I've tried the DT and Google. Does anybody know them?

Subject: ADD: Hey Ho to the Greenwood (round)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Mar 04 - 06:00 PM

Hi, Leeneia -
You just ain't Googling right. try this (click)
This page (click) has a complex MIDI, and this one has one that's nice. This page has the song and all sorts of other stuff you'll like. This page has a gif of the sheet music. I'll post lyrics and a MIDI in a moment or three.
-Joe Offer-

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Hey Ho, To the Greenwood!
(William Byrd, 1543-1623)

1. Hey ho, to the greenwood now
   
2. let us go. Sing heave and ho, And
   
3. there shall we find both buck and doe. Sing heave
   
4. and ho. The hart and hind and the little pret-
   
5. ty rowe. Sing heave and ho.

The above is from Sol Weber's Rounds Galore!, and it's the confusingest round I've ever seen. It's in five lines of three measures each, with lyrics divided as above. The GIF I linked to above looks a lot more possible:

¹Hey ho, ²to the greenwood now ³let us go.
Sing heave and ho,
And there shall we find both buck and doe.
Sing heave and ho.
The hart and hind and the little pretty rowe.
Sing heave and ho.

Tune is the same, either way.

---

Click to play

I don't think I will be adding this to my repertoire any time soon.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: hey ho to the greenwood
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 04 Mar 04 - 06:49 PM

It's wonderfully fun to sing! It is also in the lovely book, A Revels Garland of Song .
It should be played almost twice as fast as your midi, Joe.

Allison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: hey ho to the greenwood
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 04 Mar 04 - 07:28 PM

Thanks, everyone. I printed the GIF file.

(Joe, I found most of your links, but they don't have the words.)

Two observations:

The music will come more naturally if you deem the first note a pick-up note and move the other bar lines accordingly.

It would probably be best to play the parts on instruments which sound radically different, such as whistle, string bass and banjo. This way, the ear can keep track of what's going on.

And now it's time for supper...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: hey ho to the greenwood
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Mar 04 - 09:10 PM

Hey hoe, to the greene is in Pammelia. Mvsicks Miscellanie. (1609)

Hey, ho, to the greene wood now let us go,
sing hey-y and ho!
And there shall we find both buck and Doe,
sing hey-y and ho!
The Hart, the Hind, and the little pretty Roe,
sing hey-y and ho!

And the audio.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: hey ho to the greenwood
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Mar 04 - 09:43 PM

I seeped up the MIDI on this one, but I'm still not totally pleased with the results.
I've sometimes wondered what I should do with MIDI files that play too slow. Sometimes, I put a tempo indicator in the file to speed it up, but usually I just enter the tune as I find it and hope the receiver with adjust accordingly.
Do you think I should pay more attention to adjusting MIDI speeds?
-Joe Offer-