| Author | Topic: Add: The Sweet Nightingale (Additional versions) | |
| dmcg | Posted - 07 Jun 08 - 09:21 am | |
Version A How delightful it is in the time of the spring When the birds are around us, so delightful they sing, When the leaves on the trees and the blossom does appear, And so happy are we when the summer draws near, Then so happy are we when the summer draws near. When Phoebus draws near on the side of the lime, When out upon us the the summer does shine, When the little birds all around us they do warble their breast, And the cuckoo she doth join her notes with the rest, And the cuckoo she sing her notes with the rest. How delightful it is, to walk with your love Talking sweet prattling tales in the dimst of the grove Where the flowers smell sweet and so does the fields. What a pleasure and delight when the summer draws near, What a pleasure and delight when the summer draws near. It's not your fine cities nor your lofty high towers Would ever be compared with our sweet shady bowers ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... Version B Hark, hark my dear heart, Don't you hear the sweet lark, Don't you hear the sweet nightingale sing? And to hear my fond tale And the sweet nightingale As she sings in the meadows below, below, below, below, below, As she sings in the meadows below. Pretty Nancy don't fail. Shall I carry your pail, Shall I carry your pail to the cow? And hear my fond tale (etc) Pray leave me alone For I've hands of my own, I've hands of my own, that I'll vow. I won't hear your false tale, (etc) Now this couple agreed And were married with speed, And married with speed, I declare, And they're not afraid to walk in the shade, Or to walk in those meadows below. Version C My sweeheart come along. Don't you hear the fond song, The sweet notes of the nightingale flow? Don't you hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale As she sings in valleys below, As she sings in the valleys below. Version D (No lyrics provided) Version E Come all you fond hearts, Don't you know the sweet lark, Don't you know the sweet nightingale sing? For I'll tell you a tale of a sweet nightingale That sings in those valleys below, below, below, below, That sings in those valleys below. Version F O Nancy my heart, don't you hear the sweet lark, Don't you hear the sweet nightingale sing? Don't you hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale, How she sings in those valleys below, below, How she sings in those valleys below. Source: Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, ed Maud Karpeles , Oxford University Press, 1974 Notes: A: Richard Marley (58) at Chibbet's Ford, Somerset, 20 August 1907 B: Mr Thomas (Junior) at Cannington, Somerset, 8 August 1906 C: John Edbrook at Bishop's Nympton, Devonshire, 11 January 1904 D: James Thomas (89) at Cannington, Somerset, 20 April 1906 E: Charles Sherborne (44) at Ascott under Wychwood, Oxfordshire, 15 September 1914 F: George Noble (82) at Ross Workhouse, Herefordshire, 2 September 1921 | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 07 Jun 08 - 09:24 am | |
See also the earlier thread. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 07 Jun 08 - 04:35 pm | |
This rather illustrates the danger of linking songs found in oral currency on the strength of their (often purely notional) titles and some similarities of subject matter. None of these belong to the Roud 356 ('By the Green Grove / Birds in the Spring' - occasionally 'Sweet Nightingale') group at all! Examples B, C, E and F are Roud 371 ('Sweet Nightingale'), while A is completely unrelated to them; though Roud does classify this one under number 356 (the tune is a little similar), I don't think it really ought to be there. The final couplet seems naggingly familiar for some reason, but at the moment I can't place it. From the single verse noted with example D (not printed by Karpeles) it would appear that that one belongs to Roud 1582 ('Sheep Shearing') which, though not to be confused with Roud 812 ('Rosebud in June / Sheep Shearing') does sometimes have a few lines in common with it. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 07 Jun 08 - 11:13 pm | |
Thanks very much for that, Malcolm. I've taken the reference to Roud 356 out for the moment and I'll have a think about the best way to represent the right numbers. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 08 Jun 08 - 08:20 am | |
My approach in future is going to be - unless advised otherwise! - to create each version as a separate database entry unless there is a particular reason otherwise, but to put them all in the same thread. That way, the database accurately reflects the Roud numbers, relationships to other songs, etc, and the thread contains the fact that Sharp published them all under one heading. One difficulty in this approach is how we name songs in the database. I don't like the idea of the index showing six songs all just called 'Sweet Nightingale'. If I called them 'Sweet Nightingale (A)', 'Sweet Nightingale (B)' etc it would work fine until we had a second collection which had its own completely different A,B, etc. On the other hand 'Sweet Nightingale (Cecil Sharp Collection A)' seems too verbose and 'Sweet Nightingale (CSC-A)' too obscure. ==== We already have the ability to link songs together by theme, and so forth. I think we could very easily extend this to have something like 'publication group' as another type of link, or even have a special link type for 'Cecil Sharp Collections group' and others as they arise. As I understand it, this involves no code changes, just another entry in a database table. This idea would enable us to keep all the information in the database, rather than have part of it only in the threads. | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 08 Jun 08 - 01:06 pm | |
We could expand on "related songs" or make a book a keyword. Both of these only require new database entries. I think "related songs" would require a small amount of coding if new new enrries are to be added by a web interface. Alternatively, we could creating some type of book index. I don't mind which method is preferred. One thing though... I have problems with Eclipse (the software I use for coding) at the moment and I'm waiting for the next version of OpenSuse (release scheduled for June 19th) before I rebuild my development set up. I would of course fix an urgent problem if one cropped up but I don't want to do other coding until this is done. | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 08 Jun 08 - 01:34 pm | |
Dave, have you anything against having one database entry per Roud number? That would reduce the number of titles. | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 08 Jun 08 - 05:01 pm | |
Only that it works the opposite way round to what I am used to: I normally start with the song and add the Roud number at the end. Since there is a way of searching on Roud number, I could fairly easily start with the song, work out the Roud from the VWML then check to see if we already had the entry before I started transcribing it. | ||