And now, something to get your teeth into
One of my first posts was this arrangement for ukulele of the traditional song 'All in a garden green'. I didn't realise it then, but John Dowland beat me to it by about 400 years. Had I known, I wouldn't have dared.
Actually, Mr D just used the first few notes as a basis for his genius flights of fancy, and then he was flying.
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| Our garden green in July |
I'm afraid to say that this isn't the easiest piece that I have transcribed, especially when you know that Dowland wrote for the 7-course lute and used the very low diapaison. This arrangement is notated following Poulson & Lam's (1995) transcription for keyboard. I'm so glad that I didn't have to do it from the MS.
Despite the challenges in performance the piece has many memorable passages – real ear-worms.
I include
(a) The original song,
(b) A simplified version of the first statement including the melodic line, with simplified versions of the other voices sufficient to make a playable piece.
(c) The full arrangement is as complete a transcription as I can fit onto the ukulele. Bars 35 – 38 are challenging, with rapid scale fragments, but I have yet to find a way to simplify them. The subsequent bars are equally rapid, but in a repetitive format which makes them not too difficult. (The notation format I used is not academically correct but, I think, easier to read.)
LYRICS
(from https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/BT0083.pdf)
All in a garden green / Two lovers sat at ease,
As they could scarce be seen / Among the leafy trees.
They long had loved y-fore, / And no longer than truly,
In the time of the year / In the time of the year
Cometh ‘twixt May and July.
Quoth he, ‘Most lovely maid, / My troth shall aye endure;
And be thou not afraid, / But rest thee still secure.
That I will love thee long / As life in me shall last;
Now I am young and strong, / Now I am young and strong
And when my youth is past’.
She listed to his song, / And heard it with a smile.
And, innocent as she was young, / She dreamed not of guile.
Nor guile he meant, I ween, / Since he was true as steel,
As was thereafter seen / As was thereafter seen
When she made him her weal.
The arrangement is available for free download in the following formats:
Good luck!
