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08 Nov 09 - 12:36 PM (#2762164) Subject: RE: PermaThread™ Unanswered Requests From: collieflower Looking for a song called The Morris Dances, or something like it, from an old (40s) Silver Burdett/Ginn school music book. Lyrics begin with: " Fiddlers are tuning, timing it clean, while the Morris dancers tread the green. Stepping together, maidens and men all a sway dance in the May again". I'm issing one line of the lyrics and it's driving me crazy! |
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21 May 23 - 09:43 PM (#4172778) Subject: ADD: The Morris Dancers From: Joe Offer Marian Gade sang this at the Mudcat Singaround last week. From her email: Learned in c.1943-44 from Christine Mills, Principal of Mt. Rainier Elementary School, Mt. Rainier, MD. I have discovered in recent years that many of the songs she taught us were English folk tunes, some a version of Child Ballads (Raggle-taggle Gypsies, Oh; Strawberry Fair...) I think there may have ben a second verse, but this is what sticks in my memory: THE MORRIS DANCERS Fiddlers are tuning, timing it clean, While the Morris Dancers tread the green. Stepping together, maiden and men, All a-sway dance in the May again. [tune changes here] Blossoms of the pear tree Deck anew the bare tree. Spring is a-brining leaf and flower. Now it's toe, now it's hee, Now all together, wheel, While the folk attest who dances best. Marian Gade Anybody know anything more about this song? What's the melody? |
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21 May 23 - 09:50 PM (#4172779) Subject: RE: Origins: The Morris Dancers From: Joe Offer From this message, I gather that the melody is "English Country Garden."
Thread #1006 Message #3075
Are you thinking of the tune Percy Grainger made out of "The Vicar of Bray"? Used to be played, along with the Shepherd's Hay (Hey?) by pit musicians between the acts on Broadway theatres (in the days when there were pit musicians at non-musicals). |