Lyr Add: Linden Lea

Subject: Lyr Add: LINDEN LEA ^^
From: Barbara
Date: 21 Nov 98 - 11:08 PM

Here you go, guys, though, Graham, tell me again why it's so much more interesting to transcribe it??
Blessings,
Barbara
Tune, A and B to follow

LINDEN LEA
words: William Barnes
tune: Ralph Vaughn Williams

Within the woodland flow'ry gladed
By the oak tree's mossy root
The shining grass blade timber shaded
Now do quiver on the foot
And birds do whistle overhead
And water's bubbling in its bed
And there for me the apple tree
Do lean down low, in Linden Lea.

When leaves that lately were a-springing
Now do fade within the copse
And painted birds do hush their singing
High upon the timber tops,
And brown leaved fruit is turning red,
In cloudless sunshine overhead,
With root for me the apple tree
Do lean down low, in Linden Lea.

Let other folk make money faster
In the air of dark roomed towns.
I do not dread a peevish master
Though no man may heed my frowns
For I be free to go abroad
Or take again my homeward road
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low, in Linden Lea.

To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low, in Linden Lea.
^^

---

Messages from multiple threads combined. Messages below are from a new thread.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: Linden lee lyrics?
From:
Date: 10 May 99 - 05:37 PM

Can anyone help my wife find the lyrics to this trad. song includes the line" let other folk make money faster in the air of dark roomed towns"

Subject: Lyr Add: LINDEN LEA
From:
Date: 10 May 99 - 09:45 PM

LINDEN LEA

Within the woodlands, flow'ry gladed,
By the oak trees' mossy moot,
The shining grass blades, timber shaded,
Now do quiver underfoot;
And the birds do whistle overhead,
And the water's bubbling in its bed;
And there for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

When leaves, that lately were a-springing,
Now do fade within the copse,
And painted birds do hush their singing,
Up upon the timbertops;
And brown leav'd fruits a-turning red,
In cloudless sunshine overhead,
With fruit for me the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

Let other folk make money faster;
In the air of dark-room'd towns;
I don't dread a peevish master,
Tho' no man may heed my frowns.
I be free to go abroad,
Or take again my homeward road,
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

Words by W. Barnes. Music by R. Vaughan Williams

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 28-Apr-03.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From:
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 07:44 AM

Hi, just to let you know how much i appreciate the transcription of the song, LINDEN LEA. I have been trying to find it for sometime now, as I used to sing it at school some years ago.

THANKING YOU ONCE AGAIN JOSEPH

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 12:52 PM

It was added some time ago, in dialect. Whether it made it into the DT I don't know, but a search on the threads for Linden Lea would have found it.

LTS

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 12:59 PM

Try http://supersearch.mudcat.org/@Newssresults.cfm?query=Linden%20Lea&ForumSearch=1

Jon

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 02:02 PM

And thankyou, Joseph, for taking the trouble to search the site rather than just posting a request without looking first.  This place would work better if more people followed your example!

Malcolm

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: sophocleese
Date: 15 Apr 01 - 07:53 PM

Yes thank you Joseph. Your thanking brough the song back into the loop as it were and I sang it again. Its been years since I first learned it but I got the tune right and am having a lot of fun struggling to put chords to it. Ralph Vaughan Williams did it differently but he's dead so the hell with him. Did he actually compose the tune or did he find it?

Subject: LYR Corr: Linden Lea
From: Noreen
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 10:39 AM

Other threads discuss this song, but if these are the words harvested for the DT there are a couple of fairly important corrections:

v1, line4:
Now do quiver underfoot

v2, line7:
With fruit for me the apple tree

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 11:17 AM

Also mossy moot, not root. The original dialect poem was posted at ADD: Linden Lea in dialect

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: CraigS
Date: 27 Apr 03 - 08:07 PM

Where it says "with root" the man sings "in truth" - I've got the record!

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 02:31 PM

Then the man is wrong. I've got the book in front of me now, I've checked the lyrics and the dialect form posted is correct - I was very careful about that!

The man might have learned it phonetically, from a dodgy recording or a poorly dictioned singer. It's easily done, remember the snows of Mount Vesuvius?

LTS

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: MMario
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 02:35 PM

does that book have the dots as well?

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 03:02 PM

Various midis can be got at

Vaughan Williams - Linden Lea
The Classical MIDI Connection: George Pollen

and so on. See also thread MUS ADD: Linden Lea

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: MMario
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 03:04 PM

*grin* me bad

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Linden Lea
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Apr 03 - 06:49 PM

Sorry, no dots, it's the collected works of William Barnes. Much more than just Linden Lea in there.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,mick
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 04:30 PM

I found this site by searching for the words to "Linden Lea".
    I am now 67 years of age.I never say "years old"...age is all in the mind.
    I used to sing this beautiful song at school when I was 10.
    A memory that sticks in my mind is the teacher saying that in the days when it was written "Abroad" probably had a different meaning..instead of overseas,as it means today,it meant a much more local journey.
    I also remember reading in a flying magazine(in the 1950's) that a WW1 Irish fighter ace,Mick Mannock used to play Linden Lea on his violin when he returned from flying.
    I see it's a long time since this site was posted.Hope someone sees this.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 04:57 PM

The best rendering of this on record for me is the one by Dave Goulder on his CD "Stone Steam and Starlings" (with a whole bunch of other songs, mostly writtent by Dave).

Like most good folk records at any time, it is out of print, and unavailable from Amazon - but if you can find it anywhere I'd advise snap it up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Carol
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 05:01 PM

Dave Wenner and Annie Fentiman also did a lovely version

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 05:40 PM

'I be vree to go abroad' - in this case, yes, abroad means any journey away from home.

Home is also used differently in Dorset dialect - it's used to describe the immediate vicinity of, not just the actual dwelling place, it usually refers to the place where you were born and brought up.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 06:12 PM

Surely that's one way most of us use the word "home"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Joybell
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 06:28 PM

Hello Mick. My True-Love learned this song at school when he was about 10 too. He's 70 now so I guess it was around the same time you first sang it. True-Love grew up in Iowa.
There are many English songs that have lines like "abroad for pleasure as I was a-walking..."
Abroad in the broader sense, of course, leads to jokes like:
My mother sent me abroad for my education -- and she helped me a lot.
Sorry to bring down the discussion like this but True-Love learned this joke at school too and my mind wandered.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: rich-joy
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 07:24 PM

Beautiful chune! (Thanks, Ralph!)

I love Graham Moore, the great Dorset singer-songwriter, doing this one!

Cheers, R-J

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,LTS not even pretending, there's no-one else
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 02:29 AM

'Home' was always used (certainly by my family and we're Dorset born and bred for at least 250 years) to mean the house or village you grew up in, not just the house you are living in now. To me, growing up, home was the house I lived in, but during holidays and odd weekends, we'd go 'home', to the other village I grew up in, where the grandparents lived. When I tried to explain this to a London born friend, she couldn't grasp the concept of two 'homes'.

The house I live in is my home, but 'to go down home' will always mean returning to Dorset, and I still feel a great sense of familiarity and warmth whenever I cross the border. Seeing a Dorset artefact (like Saturday when I found an Old Comrades Association banner for the Devon and Dorset Regiment, in a church in Waterloo, London) always makes me feel that a part of my home is with me, rather than me being a part of this home.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 05:45 AM

Since this has surfaced again I will take the chance to plug Tim Laycock's "The Year Clock" on Forest Tracks records. Includes Linden Lea sung in dialect.
Happy Christmas All.
Andy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Mark Dowding
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 07:22 AM

Dave Goulder's CDs including "Stone Steam and Starlngs" can be foundHERE
on his site.

Cheers
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,mick...(lincoln)
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 06:43 PM

I posted on this site on 10/12/07.Stumbled on it by accident while searching for the words to"Linden Lea".
   I thought"there'll be no replies,the site hasn't been used since 2003".
   But just look... several postings.. the first one only 27 minutes after I posted..Almost like magic.
    I am now a fan of Dave Goulder.Have heard the video clips on the site...Brilliant!And thank you for the welcome,Joybell.
    I live in Lincoln,an agricultural area.The discussion about the old days meaning of"abroad" reminds me of something from about 5 years ago.
   I used to take my dog for walkies up a lane south of Lincoln.I often used to see a very old chap there with his dog.
   He told me of how he lived in a nearby village and never went out of that village or the very close surrounding area until his early teens,when the farmer he worked for took him on the "'oss 'n float"(horse and cart) to Lincoln market.The old chap said this was,to him a great,almost frightening adventure.I think this illustrates the difference between the present day and the past meanings of "abroad" as written in "Linden Lea".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Joybell
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 07:40 PM

True-Love tells me that in Boston in 1960 it was still an offense to "be abroad in the night-time". Just thought I'd add this.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 07:58 PM

And you'll note Dave Goulder can also show you how to build a dry-stone wall as well, as singing about stuff like that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,mick
Date: 12 Dec 07 - 08:05 PM

Please tell me ,Joybell,how is it that I post to a site that doesn't seem to have been used for years, yet there are lots of replies in such a short time?
It's almost weird.
I am now a great fan of Dave's.Must admit,in my utter ignorance,I had never heard of him!!(sorry).
   I'm partially deaf,(industrial injury),so that explains a lot of my ignorance in music.Music has to be good for me to bother.
   Have found this site so very intreresting.Thanks to all involved.
   Mick.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Joybell
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 03:15 PM

I know Mick. It seems to happen all the time here. Then someone's thought patterns send a thread off in all sorts of directions. I'm currently posting on the Grizzly Bear thread because out of the blue it popped up at a time when I was using this song in a play. I'm using Linen Lea in my next venture -- so I called in here. We've loved this song for a long time -- True-Love and I.
Thank you too -- for sharing your thoughts on this lovely song.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,mick
Date: 13 Dec 07 - 04:41 PM

Thanks for the reply,Joybell.
I should have realised..thoughts going out and attracting similar ones.After all,the Universe is like a big hall of mirrors isn't it?
What we send out comes back,although often in a very subtle,almost unrecogniseable form.Like living in a huge dream machine..ask and you shall have.
   You've probably come to the conclusion that I'm a bit potty by now.If I am,then OK,I rather like it.Fun!
   I'm off to North Wales for the New Year..spend a lot of time there.If ever there was a magic country,that's it.As the train crosses the border I always feel the atmosphere change.Pace of life seems to slow down.Only wish I was going for the Solstice.
   Further proof of being a bit potty..I do lots of cycling.In the Summer I often come home by the Riverside cycle track.I like to sit at dusk and watch the rabbits playing..No regrets over yesterday,no worries about tomorrow.If only humans could be like that.
   Well, I'm biking that route tomorrow.I shall scatter a few carrots and bits of greens for them!I suppose that definately makes me nuts.
   Have found this site so very interesting.All best wishes for Christmas to everyone
   PS..how do I find the Grizzly Bear thread?
    Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,brian
Date: 25 Feb 08 - 05:18 AM

The Yetties recorded Linden Lea in the early 80s as an accompanied poem spoken in the Dorset dialect.........to my mind possibly one of the most evocative tracks ever.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,RobertL
Date: 20 Aug 08 - 08:40 AM

Mr Vaughan Williams died 50 years ago and you may have noticed the BBC Proms is commemorating that fact. It's a little rough to say "the hell with him" when he wrote the tune of this "fakesong" that we all love so much. He was an atheist, by the way, so probably would not care where you sent him! ...and just what is a "moot" or is that point moot (root, foot, mound)? Please tell! Dorset born Tim Laycock has set other Barnes poems to music.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 01:07 AM

Moot in this context is 'meeting'(at the root)... where the oak trees' roots are seen in the grass beneath it.

I'm not sure if I object to the term 'fakesong' - it was written well over a hundred years ago, by an educated yet simple man who had a deep and heartfelt passion for his home county and its people. There are 'folk' songs doing the rounds now that were written far more recently and with much less altruistic motives.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,The Shikken
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 02:42 PM

Interesting to read this thread and realise that there are others like me who, for no particular reason, find their "hum" following a long forgotten melody, then the words trickle back, then they start wondering about all the other songs that they used to sing around about that time.
I was in junior school in a fenland town in the 60's, we had a series of song books that we could already see were ancient (the children in the black-and white picture on the front cover looked distinctly Blighton-esque and 40/50's clad) but which introduced us to many lovely songs and melodies that seem to have been lost in the mists. I live in South Africa now but now and then my soggy grey English upbringing comes back to me in those tunes and lyrics. I would love to find those song books again!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,Penticton Canada
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 11:59 PM

I recently enjoyed a performance by The Silver Ring Choir of Bath, England, here in BC. One of the songs they sang beautifully was Linden Lea. Like other guests I remembered it from school in the 50's and looked it up to read the verses I couldn't remember. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,{etitia Lee
Date: 03 Aug 09 - 06:18 PM

Was in Provence recently breakfasting beneath lime trees and we all felt a rendering of Linden Lea would be approriate but no-one could remember the words and now I have found them and will send them on. Thank you!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: Gulliver
Date: 08 Aug 09 - 09:09 PM

I uploaded this to YouTube recently at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HcNPBidFxs

It's sung by Thomas Allen. Can't remember where I obtained the lyrics from - definitely dialect.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,Neilkavin
Date: 15 Nov 09 - 09:40 AM

I sing Linden Lea regularly at my singing lessons, so It's not being forgotten!

Neil

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,Derek
Date: 26 Apr 15 - 11:17 AM

I am an eighty year old man, and a faint whisper of this song came back to me today,so, many, many thanks to whoever posted the words here, you have revived many happy memories.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Linden Lea
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 15 Aug 17 - 05:52 PM

From http://about.lyndenlea.info/poem.php

My Orcha'd in Lindèn Lea was written by Dorset writer & poet William Barnes (1801-1886). It was first published in 1859 in Hwomely Rhymes: A Second Collection of Poems in The Dorset Dialect, and was then entitled My Orchet in Linden Lea.

The second edition of this book, published in 1863 as Poems of Rural Life in The Dorset Dialect, Second Collection, saw the title amended with "Orchet" respelled "Orcha'd" and a grave accent added to the "e" in "Linden".

Some changes were also made to the poem itself, the two instances of the word "auver" in Verses 1 and 2 being replaced with the more conventional spelling of "over".

However, although I have used the later version of the title on this page, I have decided to remain loyal to the original text of the poem.

My Orcha'd in Lindèn Lea
William Barnes

'Ithin the woodlands, flow'ry gleäded,
By the woak tree's mossy moot,
The sheenèn grass-bleädes, timber sheäded,
Now do quiver under voot;
An' birds do whissle auver head,
An' water's bubblèn in its bed,
An' there vor me the apple tree
Do leän down low in Linden Lea.

When leaves that leätley wer a-springèn
Now do feäde 'ithin the copse,
An' païnted birds do hush their zingèn
Up upon the timber's tops;
An' brown-leav'd fruit's a-turnèn red,
In cloudless zunsheen, auver head,
Wi' fruit vor me, the apple tree
Do leän down low in Linden Lea.

Let other vo'k meäke money vaster
In the aïr o' dark-room'd towns,
I don't dread a peevish meäster;
Though noo man do heed my frowns,
I be free to goo abrode,
Or teäke ageän my hwomeward road
To where, vor me, the apple tree
Do leän down low in Linden Lea.

The majority of the poem can be understood without needing prior knowledge of the Dorset dialect. One word, however, deserves particular attention. Many will be familiar with the word moot in its various modern usages, and would be forgiven for thinking that "the woak tree's mossy moot" was some sort of woodland meeting place.

But this wasn't Barnes's intention at all. In the Dorset dialect, the word moot is actually taken to mean the bottom and roots of a felled tree - put simply, a tree-stump - a definition that fits much better with the natural tranquility evoked by Barnes's words.

Nevertheless, in 1868 it was deemed necessary to publish a "translation" of Barnes's work, entitled Poems of Rural Life in Common English. This book combined all three collections in the series into one volume, and it is interesting to note that it predated the combined volume in the Dorset dialect by eleven years.

As far as I know, the text of the "Common English" translation is not currently available online; however, I have provided one such translation of My Orcha'd in Lindèn Lea on the following page wherein I describe how, 42 years after it was written, the poem was Set To Music.

William Barnes's poem My Orcha'd In Lindèn Lea was set to music in 1901 by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). At the age of 29, Linden Lea was Vaughan Williams's first publication, marking the beginning of a long career that produced no less than nine symphonies, as well as countless other works.

It is written in the key of G major, and uses a "Common English" translation of Barnes's original Dorset dialect for the lyrics, the full text of which I have reproduced on this page.

Linden Lea
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Words by William Barnes

Within the woodlands, flow'ry gladed,
By the oak tree's mossy moot,
The shining grass-blades, timber-shaded,
Now do quiver underfoot;
And birds do whistle overhead,
And water's bubbling in its bed,
And there for me the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

When leaves that lately were a-springing
Now do fade within the copse,
And painted birds do hush their singing
Up upon the timber-tops;
And brown-leaved fruit's a-turning red,
In cloudless sunshine, overhead,
With fruit for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

Let other folk make money faster
In the air of dark-roomed towns,
I don't dread a peevish master;
Though no man may heed my frowns,
I be free to go abroad,
Or take again my homeward road
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea.

There are a couple of differences worth noting between the original poem and this translation:

In Verse 2, the fourth line in the translation reads "Up upon the timber-tops", whereas in the poem the line is "Up upon the timber's tops".

In Verse 3, again the fourth line in the translation reads "Though no man may heed my frowns", but in the poem the line is "Though noo man do heed my frowns".

From Wikipedia

[William] Barnes was ordained into the Church of England in 1847, taking a BD degree from St John's College, Cambridge, in 1851. He served curacies at Whitcombe Church in Whitcombe, Dorset, 1847–52, and again from 1862.

Between 1860–62 he held a curacy at Hooton Roberts in South Yorkshire. He became rector of St Peter's Church, Winterborne Came with Winterborne Farringdon, Dorset, from 1862 to his death.

From Wikipedia

[Hooton Roberts] was home to the Gatty family of Ecclesfield. Nicholas Comyn Gatty, son of the Rev. Reginald Gatty, was born in Bradfield, Sheffield, on 13 September 1874.

He was educated at Downing College, Cambridge and at the Royal College of Music which is where he met and became a lifelong friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, who from the 1900s spent many a summer vacation with the Gatty's at Hooton Roberts.

In September 1902, Williams composed the song Linden Lea sitting in the rectory gardens, where the walls were covered with ivy, and on the lawn were croquet hoops. Williams often played croquet at Hooton Roberts.

http://www.allmusic.com/composition/linden-lea-song-for-voice-orchestra-in-linden-lea-a-dorset-song-mc0002371849

Among his friends at Cambridge were the brothers Nicholas and Ivor Gatty, both musicians, who came from the quiet Yorkshire village of Hooton Roberts.

Vaughan Williams often visited the Gatty brothers there, and it was there that Linden Lea received its first performance on September 4, 1902.