Author Topic: Add: Christmas Song


dmcg

Posted - 31 Dec 08 - 09:06 am

The trees are all bare, not a leaf to be seen
And the meadows their beauty have lost.    
Now winter has come and 'tis cold for man and beast
And the streams they are all fast bound down with frost.

'Twas down in the farmyard where oxen feed on straw
They send forth their breath like the steam.
Sweet Betsy the milkmaid now quickly she must go
For flakes of ice she finds a-floating on her cream.

'Tis now all the small birds to the barn-door fly for food
And gently they rest on the spray
A-down the plantation the hares do search for food
And lift their footsteps sure for fear the do betray.

Now Christmas is come and our song is almost done
For we soon shall have the turning of the year.
So fill up your glasses and let your health go round
For I wish you all a joyful New Year. 



Source:


Notes:



Malcolm Douglas
Posted - 05 Jan 09 - 04:06 am

Presumably this is the Copper Family set? If copied from the notation in A Song for Every Season, there is a fermata missing from the second note in bar 14.

Originally a poem written by Thomas Brerewood of Horton, Cheshire (d. 1748); part, I think, of a set of four called 'The Seasons'. A setting by 'Mr Lockhart' appears in Joseph Ritson, A Select Collection of English Songs: With Their Original Airs: and a Historical Essay on the Origin and Progress of National Song. London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 3nd edn, 1813, vol III p 153: http://books.google.com/books?id=u-UVAAAAYAAJ

The words are in volume I, page 232 (song LIV), titled 'Winter': http:/books.google.com/books?id=6a4iAAAAMAAJ

The text appears as 'Winter' in The Universal Songster. London: Jones and Co., III, 1834, 163-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=jGQLAAAAYAAJ

At Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads as The Timid Hare

Lockhart's tune doesn't appear to be related to the one used by the Coppers or by George Townsend.



dmcg

Posted - 07 Jan 09 - 07:11 pm

Yes, you are right, it is from Bob Copper's "A Song for Every Season".  I had omitted the femata and have now put it in place.


Mr Happy

(guest)
Posted - 14 Jan 09 - 12:25 pm

I didn't know what the term meant [poss not alone] so here's what it is:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fermata



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