Red Spirit
repertoire
Round Robin
A selection of music on the theme of birds
There was a little snow white bird
A traditional Dutch song translated by Maud Karpeles published in 1956.
En mai
The air of a song by Colin Muset, a thirteenth century trouvère, whose words mean “In May when the nightingales sing clear in the green bushes then I shall make myself a flageolet of willow to play the music of love”.
Chirping of the Nightingale
From ‘The English Dancing Master’ published by John Playford in 1651.
The Nightingale
A madrigal by Thomas Weelkes published in his ‘Ayres or Phantasticke Spirites’ in 1608.
The Cuckoo’s a Fine Bird
The words collected by poet and fiddler John Clare (1793-1864) matched by Dave Townsend to the tune The Garden Gate from Clare’s manuscript collection and arranged by him.
The Pretty Cuckoo
A jig from ‘O’Neill’s Music of Ireland’ published in 1903.
The Cookow
From ‘The Dancing Master’ published by Henry Playford in 1703.
Cuckoo
A dance-song from Meredith Monk of the USA via Helen Chadwick.
Gwcw fach
The tune and first verse Welsh traditional, the second and third verses by Robert Bryan published in 1905.
Kukushka
A traditional Russian song translated by D. Millar Craig published in 1937.
The Lark in the Morning
A song collected in Essex in 1904 by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This arrangement is based on his version for piano and voice.
The Skylark
Or The Lark in the Clear Air, from ‘O’Neill’s Music of Ireland’. This arrangement is based on Phyllis Tate’s 1949 version for piano and voice.
Ah! Robin
A poem by Sir Thomas Wyatt set by William Cornyshe in about 1523 and sung by Feste in Twelfth Night.
My Robin is to the greenwood gone
Or Bonny Sweet Robin, from the British Library’s manuscript collection and sung by Ophelia in Hamlet.
Mad Robin
From ‘The Dancing Master’ published by John Playford in 1687.
Well rung Tom boy
A catch by Henry Purcell also ascribed to ‘Mr Miller’ first published by John Playford in 1686 in ‘The second book of the Pleasant Musical Companion’. It was collected by Alfred Williams “in the line of the Thames from Standlake to Kempsford” and published in his 1923 book ‘Folk Songs of the Upper Thames’.
Talent m’est pris
A fourteenth century round originating in Avignon whose words mean “I am seized by a desire to sing like the cuckoo; pretty weather has come”.
Cuckoo
A catch by Edmund Nelham from ‘The Musical Companion’ published by John Playford in 1652.
The Lancashire Cuckold
or The Country Parish-Clark betray’d by a Conjurer’s Inchanted Chamber-pot. The tune was composed by Henry Purcell for John Dryden’s play of 1690 ‘Amphitryon; or The Two Sosias’ and re-used by him for Elkanah Settle’s lyric If love’s a sweet passion in ‘The Fairy Queen’ of 1692. The following year it was published in ‘Apollo’s Banquet’ and subsequently about three dozen ballads, including this one, were written to the tune and it was used in five ballad operas.
Cuckold come out of the Amrey
A traditional tune from Northumbria: an amrey is an armoire or cupboard.
Cuckolds all a row
From ‘The English Dancing Master’ published by John Playford in 1651.
Hunting the Hare
A Morris variant of Room for Cuckolds from ‘Musicks Recreation on the Lyra-Viol’ published in 1652.
Of all the birds
A song from ‘Deuteromelia’ published by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1609 and collected by Alfred Williams in the early twentieth century from Mrs Bond of Quenington, on the Thames near Fairford.
The Phenix
From ‘The Dancing Master’ published by John Playford in 1670.
Birds a-building
A measure from Dave Townsend’s ‘English Dance Music’ Vol. 1.
The Grey Hawk
A song collected by H.E.D. Hammond c.1905 from Roberts Barrett of Piddletown (now Puddletown) in Dorset. Its origins are in the seventeenth century broadside ballad Bonny brave bird or The Twitcher.
The King of Rome
A song written by Dave Sudbury of Derby in the 1980s.
The Mallard
A jig from Dave Townsend’s ‘English Dance Music’ Vol. 1.
The Cock and the Hen
A jig from ‘O’Neill’s Music of Ireland’ published in 1903.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
A song by Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin & Jack Strachey published in 1940.
The Cherping of the Larke
From ‘The English Dancing Master’ published by John Playford in 1651.
The Rising of the Lark
Or Codiad yr hedydd, by eighteenth century bard David Owen (“Dafydd y Garreg Wen”).
Skylark
A song by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael published in 1941.
The Peacock’s Fancy
A tune by or celebrating John Peacock (c.1754-1817), a smallpiper of note and a member of the Newcastle Town Waits, from ‘Northumbrian Minstrelsy’ published by J. Collingwood Bruce and John Stokoe in 1882.
The Peacock Follows the Hen
Or Mad Moll, from ‘The Dancing Master’ published by Henry Playford in 1698, or Cuddle me cuddy, from the William Vickers manuscript of 1770, and known in Northumberland with the words A’ the neet ower an’ ower An a’ the neet ower agyen A’ the neet ower an’ ower The peacock followed the hen.
There were three ravens
A song from ‘Melismata’ published by Thomas Ravenscroft in 1611.
Blackbird
A song by Paul McCartney from the white album of 1968 ‘The Beatles’.
Serenade to a Cuckoo
A tune by Roland Kirk from his 1964 album ‘I Talk with the Spirits’.
Cuckoo’s Nest
From the singing of fiddler Pete Cooper, the text from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library matched by George Deacon to a tune from the manuscript collection of poet and fiddler John Clare (1793-1864), the arrangement from Dave Townsend’s ‘The Village Band Book’ Vol. 1.
Nyth y Gôg
Or Cookoo’s Nest, a hornpipe from the manuscript collection of mid-19th century bard Thomas Llewelyn (“Llewelyn Alaw”) in the National Library of Wales.
Contact:
caroline@redspirit.org.uk charles@redspirit.org.uk gill@redspirit.org.uk
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