| Author | Topic: Add: A wassail, a wassail throughout all this town | |
| Ed | Posted - 03 Jan 03 - 06:41 pm | |
A wassail, a wassail throughout all this town! [Gower Wassail] A-wassail, a-wassail throughout all this town Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown Our wassail is made of the good ale and true Some nutmeg and ginger, the best we could brew Chorus: Fol the dol, fol the doldy dol, fol the doldy dol, fol the doldy dee Fol dairol lol the daddy, sing tooral aye do! Our wassail is made of an elderberry bough And so my good neighbors we'll drink unto thou Besides all on earth, you have apples in store Pray let us come in for it's cold by the door We hope that your apple trees prosper and bear So that we may have cider when we call next year And where you have one barrel I hope you'll have ten So that we can have cider when we call again There's a master and a mistress sitting down by the fire While we poor wassaillers do wait in the mire So you, pretty maid, with your silver headed pin Please open the door and let us come in We know by the moon that we are not too soon We know by the sky that we are not too high We know by the stars that we are not too far And we know by the ground that we are within sound Here's we jolly wassail boys growing weary and cold Drop a bit of silver into our old bowl And, if we're alive for another new year Perhaps we may call and see who does live here Source: Keyte H and Parrott A (1992) The New Oxford Book of Carols Oxford: Oxford University Press Notes: Keyte and Parrott note: This little-known wassail is printed (a tone higher) in A.L.Lloyd's book Folk Song in England (1967). It was recorded from 'grand old Phil Tanner, before he died in a Gower [Wales] workhouse in 1947'. The strongly implied harmonies may reflect a dance or dance-song origin. The words of the refain are a home-grown equivalent of 'Fa-la-la'. Database entry is here | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 07 Jan 03 - 02:54 am | |
Roud 209. Phil Tanner died in 1950, not 1947 (he recorded a number of songs for the BBC in 1949, after all!) He was born in Llangennith in West Gower, Glamorgan, in February 1862, and died in the Eventide Home at Penmaen; no longer a workhouse, though doubtless it had been earlier in its history. See FolkWales for more details: Phil Tanner, 1862-1950. | ||
| masato sakurai | Posted - 07 Jan 03 - 04:01 am | |
From notes to English Customs and Traditions (Saydisc Records CD-SDL 425): THE GOWER WASSAIL Sung by Charlie Bate (learned from Phil Tanner of Gower, S. Wales), rec. by Peter Kennedy 1954 A-wassail, a-wassail throughout all this town Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown Our wassail is made of good ale and cake Of nutmeg and ginger the best we can bake Al-dal-di-dal-di-dal-dal-di-dal-di-dal-dal-di-dal-di-dee Sing: the der-ol fol-di-da-di sing too-ral-li-do Our wassail is made of the elderberry bough Although my good neighbour I'll drink unto thou Besides all on earth we have apples in store Pray let us come in for it's cold by the door We know by the moon that we are not too soon And we know by the sky that we are not too high We know by the star that we are not too far And we know by the ground that we are within sound Now master and mistress I know you will give Unto our jolly wassail as long as we live And if we do live till another new year We'll call in again just to see who lives here Notes by Peter Kennedy: The Gower Peninsula is like an English pocket near Swansea in South Wales. One of the all-time great English folk-singers, Phil Tanner, was a Welshman and sang many of the classic songs and ballads. Mainly working as a hedge-cutter, he was also in demand bidding for weddings, providing mouth music for step-dancing and, after Christmas, led the men going round the orchards wassailing. He was first discovered after the First World War when he performed for out-of-work miners at their summer camp in Gower. His nephew assigned the rights of this unique wassail, so that Folktracks could produce a documentary cassette, "The Great Man of Gower" with commentary by his original discoverers, F.A. Bracey & Penny Palmer. At the camps, Tanner always declined a piano accompaniment, though he could hold his own well with one, here Charlie Bate, our Padstow Wassailer and renowned Hobby Horse Mayor compromises using his old much-used piano accordin for the chorus. | ||
| ceri matho | Posted - 16 Mar 07 - 05:51 pm | |
The tune Phil Tanner uses is a version of a Harp tune called "Calennig" dating to at least the eighteenth century. Which is older, I don't know but I understand that most west country English tunes are substantially different to Tanners(?) | ||
| youngcomposer09 (guest) |
Posted - 18 Oct 09 - 12:12 pm | |
I thought Phil sung it as "good ale and cake...the best we can bake". | ||