Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 1

Ancient Songs, Ballads, & Dance Tunes, Sheet Music & Lyrics - online book

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	FROM HENRY VII. TO MARY.                                             57
	" An! THE SIGHS THAT COME FRO' MY HEART."
	This little love-song is the first in MSS. Eeg. Append. 58., of the time of Henry VIII., and the air is both elegant and expressive.. The cadence, or flourish at the end, is characteristic of the period, and there is a pretty attempt at musical expression on the words, " fro' my love depart."
	Ah ! the sighs that come from my heart, They grieve me passing sore, Sith I must fro' my love depart, Farewell, my joye, for evermore. Oft to me, with her goodly face, She was wont to cast an eye : And now absence to me in place? Alas! for woe I die, I die !	I was wont her to behold, And take in armea twain ; And now, with sighes manifold, Farewell my joy ! and welcome pain ! Ah ! me think that should I yet, As would to God that I might! There would no joys compare with it Unto my heart, to make it light.
	" Western wind, when wilt thou blow ? " This is .also taken from MSS. Reg. Append. 58, time of Henry VIII. As the tune appears to be in the ancient Dorian mode, it has been harmonized in that mode, to preserve its peculiarity of character. The -writer of a quarto volume on ancient Scotish melodies has asserted that all the ancient English music in Ritson's, or other collections, is of a heavy drawling character. An assertion so at variance with fact must either have proceeded from narrow-minded prejudice, or from his not having understood ancient musical notation. That he could not discriminate between Scotch and English music is evinced by the fact of his having appropriated some of the best known English compositions as ancient Scotish melodies."
	■ This writer also cites the authority of Giraldus Cam-brensis, who lays nothing of the kind; and in the same	sentence, appropriates what Giraldus says in favour of Irish music to Scotcii.