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The Morning Star

Idbury Hill

Job Jenkins

Barrel of Pork, The

Keyte, Higford

I Went to Market

Wassail Song (Randwick)

Hunt, William Edmund

Wassail Song (Maisemore)

William Arthur Newman

The Cuckoo

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Performer: Brazil, Danny
Place Collected: Staverton
Date collected: 1978 (5 May)
Collector: Davies, Gwilym
Roud Number: 413

A song of huge popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, in many various forms with many various tunes, but curiously little found in Ireland. As it is a song composed of floating verses, no two versions are the same. Printed versions go back almost 250 years and possibly the song was old then. It has served in its time as a tender song of unrequited love and also a showcase for rollicking old time banjo.

Notes by Gwilym Davies 5 May 2015

Media & Downloads

Hear the song/tune as collected (mp3 stream):

See the song/tune as collected (PDF file)
Hear the song/tune (midi file)
Version to sing (PDF file)
Hear a version to sing (midi file)

Hear a modern recording (mp3 stream):

Song/tune as collected (abc file)
Version to sing (abc file)
Arrangement for choir
Arrangement for choir hear the soprano part
Arrangement for choir hear the alto part
Arrangement for choir hear the tenor part
Arrangement for choir hear the bass part
Arrangement for choir hear the four parts