11.3.06

llwyn onn

wedi cael y pleser rhyfedda yn whare fersiwn mixolydian o'r alaw hon wthnos yma unwaith eto.
node abc wedi'u casglu o'r wahannol casgliade ar y we

X:1
T:Cease Your Funning [1]
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:Sharp – English Folk-Song (1907)
N:There have been some claims that “Cease Your Funning” was derived (‘stolen’) from the Welsh tune “The Ash Grove,” despite the fact that the latter first appeared in print in the Bardic Museum of 1802. As above, it clearly derives from “Constant Billy,” and the claim for Welsh provenance has no merit, according to Kidson (Groves). Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), Vol. 2, 1859; pgs. 119?120. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 61. Sharp (English Folk-Song), 1907; pg. 113.
AKA and see "Lofty Mountains," "Constant Billy." English, Air (6/8 time). The song appears in John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1729) and The Fashionable Lady (1730). Chappell reminds us that the tune is, as are all the tunes in Gay's famous work, older than the opera. Kidson (1922) dates the tune to the late 17th century where he finds it on half?sheet music attached to the song "Constant Billy."  In fact, the air appears as "Constant Billy" in the third volume of Playford's Dancing Master. Sharp (1907) explores the relationship between “Constant Billy” and “Cease Your Funning,” and points out that Gay was not a musician himself and employed the services of a German, Pepusch, by name, to note down and arrange the airs which Gay sang to him. “It needs but a cursory examination of this opera to see that the airs are anything but faithful transcriptions of genuine peasant-tunes…” and concludes that Gay or Pepusch, or both, were guilty of alterations or ‘improvements.’ “The rhythm of the fine old melody ‘Constant Billy’ is changed that it might fit the metre of the new words of ‘Cease Your Funning’, and the tune adorned with a dominant modulation at the middle cadence.”
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:B
B2f dB2|e2c AF2|d2B GE2|cFA B3|B2f dB2|e2c AF2|d2B GEG|cFA B3:|
||B2b b2f|B2g g2e|A2f fBA|Gf =e f3|B2f dB2|e2c AF2|d2B GEG|cFA B3||

X:2
T:Constant Billy
M:6/8
L:1/8
S:Adderbury
K:A
E|A2e cBA F2E|1 EFG A2:|2 EFG A3||cde f3|
Bcd e3|cde f3|Bcd e2 (3e/f/g/|a2e cBA F2E|EFG A2||

X:1
T:Ash Grove
R:Waltz
C:Trad.
M:3/4
N: The untitled tune for John Gay's "Cease your funning" in 'The Beggar's Opera', 1728, is "Constant Billy" in vol. III of 'The Dancing Master', 2nd edit., c 1726. However, it is in Eb lydian, rather than G major. Welsh title, Llwyn Onn. Tune first published in Edward Jonesís "The Bardic Museum", 1802. With words, in Bardd Alawís "Welsh Melodies with appropriate English Words", 1809.Much later, patriotic words were written by the poet Talhaiarn (1810-1869), "Gogoniant i Gymru", literally "Glory to Wales", translated by the poet himself as "All hail to thee, Cambria, the land of my fathers". The tune maybe lends itself to poignant words, although as always parodies have appeared,e.g. [in the West of Scotland] "In yonder green valley there lived a wee Tally, and the hair on her dicky-di-do hung down to her knee" or so. ("Tally" = "Italian", a common slang term, quite affectionate; a "tally shop" is one typically kept by Italians, such as one selling fish and chips, ice cream, etc.). The tune just appeared out of the blue, and its origin is unknown, though a connection has been made with an 18th-century tune, "Cease Your Funning", which likewise appeared out of nowhere in "The Beggarís Opera" of 1728. "Llwyn Onn" has always been a favourite song with penillion singers.
The air is considered by some to be an early 18th century melody from Wales, perhaps because it is attributed to that country in Gow’s Strathspey Reels (book 4, pg. 24), where it appears as "Sir Watkin William Wynn." In fact the earliest Welsh printing is not until Jones’s Bardic Museum (1802), where it is given that it was named after ‘Mr. Jones’s mansion near Wrexham’. It appears under different guises in period publications and can be found in Gay’s Beggar’s Opera (1729) and in the repertoire of Irish harper Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738). “The Ash Grove” was used as a vehicle for English morris dancing, and various words were set to it, bawdy and otherwise. One set begins:
L:1/8
K:D
|:"A"A|"D"d2f2ag|f2d2d2|"G"e2gfed|"A"c2A2A2|"D"d2fedc|"G"B2G2B2|"D"A2d2"
A"c2|"D"d4:||:efg||"D"a2fgab|a2g2f2|"A7"g2efga|g2f2e2|"D"f2defg|"Bm"f2e2
d2|"A"c2a2^"E"g2|"A"a4A|"D"d2f2ag|f2d2d2|"G"e2gfed|"A"c2A2A2|"D"d2fedc|"
G"B2G2B2|"D"A2d2"A"c2|"D"d4:||