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04 Jan 00 - 07:18 PM (#158034) Subject: The Text and tune don't fit From: riasgt@surfree.com The lyrics of the song AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE TO THE OFFICERS AND TROOPS AT BOSTON, are supposedly sung to the tune of the Irish Washerwoman, but the lyrics are short by at least 4 measures. Can anyone shed some light on this? Am I missing something? -David |
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04 Jan 00 - 09:30 PM (#158106) Subject: RE: Help: The Text and tune don't fit From: Abby Sale The last two lines of each verse vary considerably from Washerwoman. It's well done by Committee of Correspondence on _The Amer. Revolution in Song & Ballad_, Folkways, 1975. Or, you could phone me and I'll croak it for you.
It's a rousing good song and I sing it each year on 4/18, the anniversary of the rout of Lexington/Concord. It's also good on Paul Revere's birthday, 1/1, since his sneaky spy network supplied the intelligence that they'd be attacking and the locals could be ready for them. Let me know if you find out what a "pum" is. I've done a good bit of checking to not find out. |
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04 Jan 00 - 10:47 PM (#158173) Subject: RE: Help: The Text and tune don't fit From: Bruce O. When was the song taken to have been written? The Wash Woman (the description of Irish as source of the tune soon became part of the title) was composed about 1785 and printed by Henry Mountain in Dublin (from Breandan Breathnach). It was't known in 1776.
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03 Jul 02 - 10:01 AM (#741401) Subject: Lyr Add: THE IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE TO THE OFFICERS... From: Mikey joe THE IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE TO THE OFFICERS AND TROOPS AT BOSTON
By my faith but I think ye're all makers of bulls,
And what have you got now with all your designing,
Can anyone tell me (a) the tune to which this is sung and (b) the history behind it. Thanks in advance Mike
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03 Jul 02 - 10:19 AM (#741415) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: Noreen AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE TO THE OFFICERS AND TROOPS AT BOSTON (in the Digital Tradition) with links to previous discussions, and the MIDI of the tune. |
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03 Jul 02 - 10:20 AM (#741416) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: MMario I could have sworn 'Irish washerwoman' was somewhere in the DT but I can't find it today...so here is a link to midis found at JC's tune finder I cannot find any details on the song - it purports to be an open letter written by an Irishman to the officers and soldiers quartered in Boston during the opening of the Revolutiony War in the US. |
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03 Jul 02 - 10:24 AM (#741419) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: Noreen The link from the DT is solely to the following thread: Help: The Text and tune don't fit which makes the point I was about to make! These two threads could be combined, Joe!) Good idea, Noreen! -Joe Offer-
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03 Jul 02 - 10:36 AM (#741428) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: masato sakurai AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE TO THE OFFICERS AND TROOPS AT BOSTON is in the DT, with midi. This song (text only; title is "The Irishman's Epistle"; the word "bums" is deleted) is in Frank Moore, Songs and Ballads of the American Revolution (1855; reprinted by Kennikat Press, 1964, pp. 92-94), which says on the song:
"This happy production of "Paddy," must have been very popular with "the rebels," as there were four different editions of it published as broadsides, a short time after its first appearance, in the Pennsylvania Magazine. The version subjoined, was printed in May, 1775, and differs slightly in language from that contained in the periodical."--Moore, p. 92.
The lyrics (without music) are also printed in Edward Arthur Dolph, Sound Off!: Soldier Songs (Cosmopolitan Book Corporation, 1929, p. 495). ~Masato |
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03 Jul 02 - 11:20 AM (#741455) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: masato sakurai Also in Oscar Brand, Songs of '76: A Folksinger's History of the Revolution (Evans, 1972, p. 53), with a different tune (that is, not "Irish Washerwoman") and minor textual differences ("feet" instead of the first "bums"). Note says "New music and edited text © 1972 Oscar Brand."
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03 Jul 02 - 11:21 AM (#741456) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: masato sakurai The title of the Brand version is "To the Troops in Boston." |
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03 Jul 02 - 11:23 AM (#741457) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: MMario so - does anyone have the dots to a tune for this that is NOT irish washerwoman - and NOT Brand's new tune? |
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03 Jul 02 - 01:33 PM (#741575) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: masato sakurai According to Gary Lynn Fergusson's Song Finder (Greenwood), "Irishman's Epistle to the Officers and Troops at Boston" is in Carolyn Robinson, Songbook of the American Revolution (NEO Press, 1974), with words & music; and "Irishman's Epistle" is in Irwin Silber, Songs of Independence (Stackpole Books, 1973), with words & music. ~Masato |
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03 Jul 02 - 01:42 PM (#741586) Subject: RE: Review: AN IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE From: masato sakurai P.S. I don't have either of them. |
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16 Mar 10 - 09:25 PM (#2865701) Subject: Lyr Add: THE IRISHMAN'S EPISTLE TO THE OFFICERS... From: Jim Dixon Here' how the "song" (or poem?) appears in The London Magazine or Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer, Volume 44 (London: R. Baldwin, November, 1775), page 599: [No tune is given.] From the SOUTH CAROLINA GAZETTE. The IRISHMAN'S Epistle to the Officers and Troops at Boston. By my faith, but I think ye're all makers of bulls, With your brains in your breeches, your guts in your skulls, Get home with your muskets, and put up your swords, And look in your books for the meaning of words. Ye see now, my honies, how much your mistaken, For Concord by Discord can never be beaten. How brave you went out with your muskets all bright, And thought to befrighten the folks with the sight; But when you got there, how they powder'd your pums*, And all the way home how they pepper'd your bums, And is it not, honies, a comical farce, To be proud in the face, and be shot in the ——? How came you to think now, they did not know how, To be after their firelocks as smartly as you? Why ye see now, my honies, 'tis nothing at all, But to pull at the trigger, and pop goes the ball. And what have you got now with all your designing, But a town** without victuals to sit down and dine in; And to look on the ground like a parcel of noodles, And sing, how the yankies have beaten the doodles. I'm sure if you're wise you'll make peace for a dinner, For fighting and fasting will soon make ye thinner. PADDY. * Heads. ** Boston. |
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17 Mar 10 - 05:06 AM (#2865836) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Irishman's Epistle to the Officers... From: MartinRyan Hadn't noticed this one, first time round. It looks to be two lines short of a good fit to a two part jig (3 x 8 line verses) but fits neatly to, say, Tatterjack Walsh until you run out of words at the end! Regards |
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08 Jul 15 - 08:03 PM (#3722165) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Irishman's Epistle to the Officers... From: Abby Sale MMario: Remind me to sing a verse at the Getaway. |
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09 Jul 15 - 12:40 AM (#3722188) Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Irishman's Epistle to the Officers... From: Seamus Kennedy If singing it to the Washerwoman, the last 2 lines of each verse can be sung to the first and fourth lines of the verse. And the short 3rd verse can be sung to the B part of the Washerwoman. |