Ancestral Ties: Folksongs of Ireland, Scotland & England
This collection of folksongs is a record of my journey of exploration through the music of my forebears. These wonderful songs have stood the test of time. I am sure that the universal themes, stories and emotions contained within these songs account for their popularity throughout the centuries.
Many of the songs presented on this recording are available due to the efforts of individual collectors and arrangers The arrangers were of two philosophies regarding folksongs. The first group toiled to arrange accompaniments in as close to the original style as possible, whereas adherents of the second preferred to view the original melody as a leaping off point to take the song in new directions. It is my pleasure to include examples of both categories here.
Five Irish songs which were both collected and arranged by Herbert Hughes (1882-1937) open this programme. The first of these, I Know Where I’m Goin’, is sung by a well-to-do young lady whose lover is from a lower class. Family disapproval of this challenge to the social order could result in dire consequences, such as disinheritance or even shunning. The prospect of social and economic isolation no doubt is the cause of the lady’s vacillations between following her heart and not knowing who she will marry. Hughes reinforces her uncertainty by ending the song with an open or inconclusive cadence. The brief but delightful I Have a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue, is a fragment of a polka and tells the story of a young woman who dreams of dancing for her beloved who has gone to sea. She has a pensive moment when she considers the possibility that he may not return, for life aboard ship can be dangerous, but then she resolves to carry on. She Moved through the Fair is an adaptation of an old County Donigal ballad, again on the topic of mismatched love. Hughes’ version has a rather mysterious ending and could be interpreted as a parting song as we are left to wonder if the beloved’s return is a reality, a dream or a spectral visit. The Parish of Gartan in County Donegal is the source of The Gartan Mother’s Lullaby. The gentle verses by Seosamh MacCathmhaoil (1879-1944) are full of images of Irish mythological figures. Hughes’ perky, good-humoured arrangement of the The Stuttering Lovers brings to life the young couple so full of the joys of life and love. Some things never change and I think it is safe to say that most people have had a stuttering, tongue-tied few moments when emotions were running high.
Arrangements of three poems by Helen Hopekirk (1856-1945) take us to Scotland. The first poem to be presented is Robert Burns’ (1759-1796) Oh, my love is like a red, red rose set to an old Scottish tune. This song of parting declares a love so strong it will endure through the ages and over vast distances. The second song, John Anderson, my jo, John, also penned by Burns is an arrangement of an ancient tune used in pre-Reformation times as a Roman Catholic church melody. The lyrics reminisce about a woman’s life with her “jo” or sweetheart. She gently teases John about aging, notably his hair loss, and sings of her expectation to spend eternity next to him buried at the bottom of the hill. The third of Helen Hopekirk’s arrangements selected for inclusion here is The Laird o’ Cockpen. This ballad by Lady Caroline Nairne (1766-1845) is a comical tale of clumsy wooing by a pompous laird who cannot imagine how any woman could resist his magnificence.
The following three songs originated in the Hebrides and were collected and arranged by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser (1857-1930). An Eriskay Love Lilt and An Island Sheiling Song are beautiful lyrical songs of tender and passionate romantic love. The Skye Water-Kelpie’s Lullaby is rather more unusual as it tells the sad story of a lovesick kelpie (a terrible, feared spirit said to haunt the fords and ferries at night). In the song the kelpie, having taken the form of a man, has fallen in love and married a woman named Morag. After some time has passed, she discovers her husband’s true nature and flees in horror, literally leaving him holding the baby. The kelpie alternately sings tenderly to the crying baby and imploringly to Morag to return to the loch.
Ca’ the yowes returns us to the work of Scotland’s national poet, Robert Burns. This traditional romantic poem, steeped in pastoral activities and sensual natural symbolism is given an unconventional accompaniment with bold, rolling chords by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976). By comparison, Roger Quilter’s (1855-1953) setting of Burns’ Ye banks and braes is delicate in its depiction of a woman seduced (pulling a rose is symbolic of sexual deflowering), cast off and suffering the bitterness and pain of refection.
We begin this English song group with Cecil J. Sharp’s (1859-1924) arrangement of My Boy Willie, a rather unusual tale of courtship between a young man and a septuagenarian in Somerset.
After this little ditty we have five sensitive song settings by Benjamin Britten. O Waly, Waly, another Somerset song collected by Sharp, and Early one morning poignantly tell of lovers callously forsaken. Following this is a riddle song, I will give my love an apple. In the first verse the lover describes in an affectionate but rather smug manner, several mysterious gifts which he will bestow upon his beloved. In verse two he reveals the unexpected nature of the gifts with a flourish. For She’s like the swallow Britten creates a fluid accompaniment which flows like a river through this cautionary tale of seduction, pregnancy (plucking flowers represents sexual activity and a full apron symbolizes pregnancy) and abandonment by a false lover. This song has the distinction of being an English love song which migrated to Newfoundland and subsequently ceased to exist elsewhere. The version presented here is a combination of several antecedent verses collected by Cecil J. Sharp in Cambridgeshire and another verse (the repeated “She’s like the swallow” verse) which could have been composed in Newfoundland. The song was “discovered” in Newfoundland by the collector Maud Karpeles (1885-1976) and carried back to England where Britten saw it and composed this arrangement. It is definitely a trans-Atlantic love song of the highest order. The last of Britten’s English songs in this collection is Greensleeves. The tune dates back to Tudor times (it was mentioned in a document dated 1580). Greensleeves has long been attributed to King Henry VIII, although scholars continue to debate the point. Long ago “Greensleeves” referred to a woman who lost her virtue in the fields and thus had grass-stained clothing.
Another very old, possibly Tudor, tune is O Death, rock me asleep. The subject matter no doubt caused the attribution to Ann Boleyn and I simply could not resist pairing it with Greensleeves. The steady beat marking the unrelenting passage of time underscores the emotions which swing from resignation to dreadful anticipation of death’s arrival. By contrast, a vivacious young lady extols the skills and virtues of her fine young man in Newcastle’s anthem, The Keel Row. W.G. Whittaker’s (1876-1944) arrangement does justice to this vigorous folk dance tune.
Thomas Moore’s (1779-1852) dreamlike Oft in the stilly night is a nostalgic review of an individual life, full of sad longing for events and friends long gone. Benjamin Britten’s polyrhythmic structure (setting the melody and the accompaniment in different time signatures) accentuates the textual sentiment that something is slightly off-kilter. With Rich and rare Moore espouses a patriotic faith in the honesty and goodness of his countrymen. Britten has juxtaposed the lyrical old melody “The summer is coming” against an unorthodox syncopated rhythm in the accompaniment. W.B. Yeats’ (1865-1939) poem of youthful folly and regret is set to the Irish air “The Maids of Mourne Shorne”. Britten’s arrangement of this, The Salley Gardens, first performed in 1941, was one of his first folksong arrangements.
Our programme concludes with a traditional drinking song, The Parting Glass. We are offered philosophical reflections on a life well lived and good wishes for the future.