| Author | Topic: Add: Apple Tree Wassail | |
| CapriUni | Posted - 25 Dec 04 - 07:41 pm | |
Hi-ho, all! This is one of my favorite carols, but though I've found the lyrics of a couple of versions (one in Mudcat's DT), I can't find a score or midi or abc notation for the tune anywhere! Jon sent me over here... he thought one of you lovely people might know. Thank you in Advance, Ann | ||
| Jon Freeman | Posted - 25 Dec 04 - 08:03 pm | |
Actually it was Pip who sugessted here. Anyway, I have tried searching google. I've found a couple of references to it being available in printed sheet music but that's all. Jon | ||
| CapriUni | Posted - 25 Dec 04 - 08:27 pm | |
Sorry, Pip. I'm a bit fuzzy headed, after staying up far too late last night. And yeah, those are the same results I got... :-/ Surely, someone can come up with an abc notation! After all, as I noted in my journal, if any creatures can appreciate the solstice, it's the Green People who live by photo synthesis! Brucie posted a link in the Annexe about the Apple Wassail, and it has *a* tune playing in the background, but I can't find a way to download it, or see the dots... and it's a tune with a lot of flourishes, so it's hard for me to match the printed words with it. Ah, Well! Hats full and Caps full! Bushels full and Baskets Full! (And a little pile under the stairs)! | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 25 Dec 04 - 08:34 pm | |
There are a good few possibilities, and the tunes vary. Quote the words you know, and I'll see if I can find the right tune for them. | ||
| CapriUni | Posted - 26 Dec 04 - 12:43 am | |
Malcolm, thank you ever so much. Here is the "first" version I know, taken from the DT, and for which, in particular, I am looking for the tune: Apple Tree Wassail Oh apple tree, we'll wassail thee And hoping thou wilt bear For the Lord does know where we may go To be merry another year To grow well and to bear well And so merrily let us be Let every man drink up his glass And a health to the old apple tree Brave boys, and a health to the old apple tree recorded on Nowell Sing We Clear | ||
| masato sakurai | Posted - 26 Dec 04 - 01:17 am | |
May or may not be the one. X:1 T:Apple Tree Wassail M:3/4 L:1/4 B:Roy Palmer, Everyman's Book of English Country Songs, p. 217 N:Sung by C. Ash (b. 1845), Crowcombe, Somerset; collected Cecil Sharp, 15.9.1908 (Karpeles, no. 373 M, pp. 529-30). K:G D|(F E) F|(G A) G|F D F|E2 E| w:Down in_ the lane_ there sits an old fox, A- F G A|B A G| F A A |D2|] w:mouch-ing and lick-ing his dir-ty old chops. w:[munch-ing?] 2 Shall we go catch him, my boys if we can? Ten thousand to one if we catch him or none. 3 Catch him or none, catch him or none, Ten thousand to one if we catch him or none. 4 Wassail, wassail all over the town, Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown. 5 The great dog of Langport has burnt off his tail, And this is the night we go singing wassail. 6 I will go home to old mother Joan And tell her to put on a big marrow bone. 7 Boil it and boil it and skim off the scum, And we will have porridge when we do go home. See also The Watersons' Apple-Tree Wassail (notes & lyrics). | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 26 Dec 04 - 02:40 am | |
Roud 209, with a great many examples listed. This one is presumably that noted by Cecil Sharp from William Crockford at Bratten, Somerset, 12 September 1906. It appeared in Folk Songs from Somerset (5), in (I suspect; I haven't seen it) a slightly edited form. Here it is as it appears in Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, II, 528: Old apple tree, we'll wassail thee And hoping thou wilt bear. The Lord does know where we shall be To be merry another year. To blow well and to bear well And so merry let us be. Let every man drink up his cup And health to the old apple tree. (Spoken) Apples now, hat-fulls, three bushel bag-fulls, tallets ole-fulls, barn's floor-fulls, little heap under the stairs. Hip Hip Hooroo (3 times) X:1 T:Wassail Song T:Appletree Wassail S:William Crockford at Bratten, Somerset, 12 September 1906 Z:Noted by Cecil Sharp B:Maud Karpeles, Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs, II, 528 N:Roud 209 L:1/8 Q:1/4=100 M:6/8 K:G D|G2 G (FE)D|c2 c (AB)c| w:Old ap-ple tree,_ we'll was-sail thee_ And B2 G A2 F|G3-G2 D|G2 G F2 D| w:ho-ping thou wilt bear._ The Lord does know where c2 c ABc|BBG A2 F| w:we shall be To be mer-ry an-o-ther G3-G2 (B/c/)|d3 dcB| w:year._ To_ blow well and to c3 cBA|B2 c d2 B| w:bear well And so mer-ry let us A3-A2 D|GGG (FE)D| w:be._ Let e-ve-ry man_ drink c2 c (AB)c|BGG AAF|G3-G2|] w:up his cup_ And health to the old ap-ple tree._ The text appears on a number of websites, but none that I've seen has had the courtesy to acknowledge either Mr Crockford, who sang it, or Cecil Sharp, who collected and published it. | ||
| CapriUni | Posted - 26 Dec 04 - 04:01 am | |
Masato: Thank you! That wasn't the song I was thinking of, but it looks like a glorious song, nonetheless. And I am not one to sniff at a Wassail song, particularly at this time of year. (I'm guessing that the 'Skim off the scum' line might refer to the pulp of roasted apples that was left to float on the Wassail bowl, topped with toasted bread, but that's just a guess). Malcolm: Yes, that looks like the one I was thinking of! Now, I shall set my mind to learning both songs by Twelfth Night, so I can sing them in the trees' honor. I know that, traditionally, it was a men's custom, and I can't get myself bodily to the orchards to sing in person... but maybe the trees' spirits will feel me singing anyway... | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 26 Dec 04 - 06:46 pm | |
The scum is, prosaically, the result of boiling the marrow bone mentioned in the previous verse. Makes a decent stock, though. | ||
| CapriUni | Posted - 26 Dec 04 - 08:46 pm | |
Oh, of course, Malcom... that's what I get for posting late at night, way past by bedtime... Hmmm.... stock. Maybe I shall make soup for dinner tonight! | ||