> Tamsin Lewis wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone tell me where I can find the melody for the tune 'Hemp and
Flax'
> > which is given as the tune for the ballad 'Whipping Cheer', Printed in
> > London by HG c1612?
> > Many thanks
> > Tamsin Lewis
> The tune is not in C. M. Simpson's 'The British Broadside Ballad and Its
> Music'. It is unknown. HG is Henry Gosson.
>
> Bruce Olson
It seems that there is just perhaps a possibility, in a MS lute book which
was not available to Simpson: the "Margaret Board Lute Book" (c1620 and
1635), which from 1973 was in the private collection of the late Robert
Spencer but has been issued in facsimile (Musical Sources, vol. 9, Boethius
Press, Leeds, 1976). The book is part of the matter discussed in a doctoral
thesis by Julia Craig-McFeely, "English Lute Manuscripts and Scribes
1530-1630", which is available online at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/julia/ (as html) and at
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/julia/ (revised and expanded, in pdf
format).
The MS contains a piece called "hemp and flax or tedro", which is identified
(either by Craig-McFeely or by Spencer) as "The Hemp Dresser". If the tunes
are indeed the same, there is no shortage of examples of the latter. This is
one reference only, of course, but it might be worth while tracking down a
copy of the facsimile, at any rate.
Malcolm Douglas
---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.410 / Virus Database: 231 - Release Date: 31/10/02
|