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NOTES |
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wo. I. II. in. These three songs are from MSS. in the British Museum, of the early part of the sixteenth century. The tonality of No. in. is, to the modern ear, somewhat vague; but n. has little, and i. nothing, to mark its antiquity. The modulation into the dominant, at the beginning of bar 8, of the last, is thoroughly modern, iv Mr. Chappell has called attention to the fact that this, like many other undoubtedly English tunes, has found its way into more than one collection of Welsh airs. V. " Any song intended to arouse in the morning—even a love-song—was formerly called a hunt's-up." So, in French, we have Aubade (music to be performed a I'aube duj'our), and in German, Morgenmusik. vi. vn. From Deuteromelia and Melismata, the 2nd and 3rd vin. ix. Collections, Pammelia being the TSt, of " Pleasant Roundelayes, Delightful Catches, Freemen's Songs" &c. published in the beginning of the seventeenth century, by Thomas Ravenscroft. Many of these were, even then, ancient. No. ix. is, without doubt, the precursor of the well-known "A frog he would a wooing go." x. xv. xvn. The traditions of the stage have preserved these xx. xxii. tunes to Shakespear's Songs. The majority were, xxiv. in all likelihood, ancient even in the poet's time. XI. xiii. Episodes of the well-known Beggar s Daughter oj Bethnal Green, in Percy's Reliqucs. XII. The vocal compositions of John Dowland, " the friend of Shakespear," often incorrectly called Madrigals, are, for the most part. Songs, with an accompaniment forthe lute (on which Dowland was a skilful performer), or for three other voices. Though a contemporary ot the great English madrigal writers, Dowland was not one of them. His compositions. like those of his contemporary Ford, belong rather to the school of which, in England, Henry Lawes (Milton's friend and fellow-labourer) was the most distinguished master, xvii. One of the tunes to which Chevy Chase and The Children in the Wood were sung; also a song in Tfie Beggar s Opera. xvm. I have omitted a few verses from this ballad to bring it within practicable length. xix. A good example of a plagal melody, i.e. a melody included between the 5th above and the 4th below the tonic, and often ending, like this, on one of the former notes. |
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