Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail

Subject: Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail
From: CapriUni
Date: 27 Dec 04 - 03:16 PM

The lyrics have been in the Digitrad for a while; but try as I might, I couldn't find a tune or midi of it anywhere. Then, in the midst of my search Mudcat took a Christmas Break.

So I asked in the Folkinfo forum, here: Add: Apple Tree Wassail.

As usual, 'Catters Masato Sakurai and Malcolm Douglas came through with treasures of music and info.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 Dec 04 - 03:50 PM

Pasting in case of link difficulties at some point:

via Malcolm Douglas:

Roud 209, with a great many examples listed. This one is presumably that noted by Cecil Sharp from William Crockford at Bratten, Somerset, 12 September 1906. It appeared in Folk Songs from Somerset (5), in (I suspect; I haven't seen it) a slightly edited form. Here it is as it appears in Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, II, 528:


Old apple tree, we'll wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear.
The Lord does know where we shall be
To be merry another year.
To blow well and to bear well
And so merry let us be.
Let every man drink up his cup
And health to the old apple tree.

(Spoken)
Apples now, hat-fulls, three bushel bag-fulls,
tallets ole-fulls, barn's floor-fulls, little heap under the stairs.
Hip Hip Hooroo (3 times)


X:1
T:Wassail Song
T:Appletree Wassail
S:William Crockford at Bratten, Somerset, 12 September 1906
Z:Noted by Cecil Sharp
B:Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, II, 528
N:Roud 209
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:6/8
K:G
D|G2 G (FE)D|c2 c (AB)c|
w:Old ap-ple tree,_ we'll was-sail thee_ And
B2 G A2 F|G3-G2 D|G2 G F2 D|
w:ho-ping thou wilt bear._ The Lord does know where
c2 c ABc|BBG A2 F|
w:we shall be To be mer-ry an-o-ther
G3-G2 (B/c/)|d3 dcB|
w:year._ To_ blow well and to
c3 cBA|B2 c d2 B|
w:bear well And so mer-ry let us
A3-A2 D|GGG (FE)D|
w:be._ Let e-ve-ry man_ drink
c2 c (AB)c|BGG AAF|G3-G2|]
w:up his cup_ And health to the old ap-ple tree._


The text appears on a number of websites, but none that I've seen has had the courtesy to acknowledge either Mr Crockford, who sang it, or Cecil Sharp, who collected and published it.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 Dec 04 - 03:52 PM

X:1
    T:Apple Tree Wassail
    M:3/4
    L:1/4
    B:Roy Palmer, Everyman's Book of English Country Songs, p. 217
    N:Sung by C. Ash (b. 1845), Crowcombe, Somerset; collected Cecil Sharp, 15.9.1908 (Karpeles, no. 373 M, pp. 529-30).
    K:G
    D|(F E) F|(G A) G|F D F|E2 E|
    w:Down in_ the lane_ there sits an old fox, A-
    F G A|B A G| F A A |D2|]
    w:mouch-ing and lick-ing his dir-ty old chops.
    w:[munch-ing?]

    2 Shall we go catch him, my boys if we can?
    Ten thousand to one if we catch him or none.

    3 Catch him or none, catch him or none,
    Ten thousand to one if we catch him or none.

    4 Wassail, wassail all over the town,
    Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown.

    5 The great dog of Langport has burnt off his tail,
    And this is the night we go singing wassail.

    6 I will go home to old mother Joan
    And tell her to put on a big marrow bone.

    7 Boil it and boil it and skim off the scum,
    And we will have porridge when we do go home.

See also The Watersons' Apple-Tree Wassail (notes & lyrics).

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 27 Dec 04 - 03:53 PM

Sorry, lost my top line on the second post, somehow: that version (and additional link) via Masato Sakurai.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: Apple Tree Wassail
From: CapriUni
Date: 27 Dec 04 - 04:00 PM

Thank you, Desert Dancer!

May your 2005 be filled with sweet apples and sweeter friendships!