| Author | Topic: Finding a song. (My love's an arbutus) | |
| Pip Freeman | Posted - 17 Oct 02 - 09:51 am | |
My mother used to sing a lovely song for me and I haven't heard it since then, can you track it down for me please? I'd be interested in the history of the song. Thank you. My love's an arbutus. | ||
| Watson | Posted - 17 Oct 02 - 10:59 am | |
I've never heard of it, but I found this entry on the poetry library web site. It says it's a song written by Alfred Perceval Graves and set to music by Charles Villiers Stanford | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 17 Oct 02 - 04:40 pm | |
It was quite popular at the time, and appeared in The New National Song Book (1906), among other anthologies. Stanford set Graves' lyric, but the tune was a traditional one. I'll post it here later. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 17 Oct 02 - 05:43 pm | |
My Love's an Arbutus My love's an arbutus By the borders of Lene, So slender and shapely In her girdle of green; And I measure the pleasure Of her eye's sapphire sheen, By the blue skies that sparkle Thro' that soft branching screen. But tho' ruddy the berry And snowy the flow'r, That brighten together The arbutus bow'r, Perfuming and blooming Through sunshine and show'r, Give me her bright lips And her laugh's pearly dower. Alas, fruit and blossom Shall lie dead on the lea, And Time's jealous fingers Dim your young charms, Machree; But unranging, unchanging, You'll still cling to me, Like the ever-green leaf To the arbutus tree. Lyric by Alfred Percival Graves. The melody was taken from the Stanford-Petrie Collection, where it appears as I rise in the morning with my heart full of woe: a Cavan air. Also known as The Coola Shore. Here is the tune as published in The New National Songbook (1906). The note-values have been lengthened and smoothened rather from the set in Petrie. X:1 T:My Love's an Arbutus C:Lyric by A.P. Graves. Tune traditional (Cavan): I rise in the morning with my heart full of woe/ The Coola Shore. Z:Stanford-Petrie 507 B:The New National Song Book, Charles Villiers Stanford & Geoffrey Shaw, 1906. F:/songs L:1/8 Q:200 M:3/4 K:G (GA)|(Bc) d2 A2|(GA) B2 AB|(GE) D2 D2|D4 w:My_ love's_ an ar-bu_tus By the bor_ders of Lene, (GE)|D2 D2 (EG)|A2 A2 Bc|d2 c2 B2|A4 w:So_ slen-der and_ shape-ly In her gir-dle of green; GE|D2 D2 (EG)|A2 A2 Bc|(dB) (ed) (cB)|A4 w:And I mea-sure the_ plea-sure Of her eye's_ sap_phire_ sheen, GA|(Bc) d2 A2|(GA) B2 AB|(GE) D2 D2|HD4| w:By the blue_ skies that spar_kle Thro' that soft_ branch-ing screen. A fairly close relative of the tune seems to have wound up in America attached to Pretty Saro. Database entry is here. Edited By Malcolm Douglas - 10/17/2002 6:05:45 PM | ||
| Pip Freeman | Posted - 17 Oct 02 - 10:47 pm | |
Thank you Watson and thank you Malcolm. I was quite thrilled to see the full version of the song after all these years, happy memories. I can now play it on the piano and sing along! | ||