Greensleeves

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The melody for Greensleeves has been passed down to us in different forms: Dorian mode and Aeolian/minor, as well as the rather attractive hybrid version in the Vaughan Williams Fantasia.

I become slightly tetchy when I see minor mode versions in beginner tutors and hymn books, for the Dorian is surely the way it was intended.

Other folk songs in the Dorian mode include "Scarborough Fair" and "What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor?" Any other suggestions?

[Richard Tarleton]

AFAIK its first appearance in print was in William Ballet's lute book c. 1572, in tablature obviously not in stave. Will have a skelly at the guitar transcriptions I have when I get home...

[Richard Tarleton]

Aeolian I think - 2 versions. Also an odd arrangement by Cutting which I can't quite work out. Where could I find it in Dorian mode, I'm curious now

[nersner]

AFAIK its first appearance in print was in William Ballet's lute book c. 1572, in tablature obviously not in stave. Will have a skelly at the guitar transcriptions I have when I get home...

Sorry to drift off topic but where does "skelly" come from? I presume it means look and in Hull we'd "have a skeg" but I can't think of the (probably blindingly obvious) origin.

[Richard Tarleton]

No idea I'm afraid - possibly N Ireland, I spent a number of years there......

[Pianorak]

Sorry to drift off topic but where does "skelly" come from? I presume it means look and in Hull we'd "have a skeg" but I can't think of the (probably blindingly obvious) origin.

From: MSN encarta:

Northern England: squint: to look at somebody or something sideways or in a squinting way.
Northern England: glance: a brief glance
[Late 18th c. Old Norse Skjelga.<skjalgr "wry, oblique"]

HTH

[greenilex]

Scallywag? One who looks at one sideways and may not be honest?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Aeolian I think - 2 versions. Also an odd arrangement by Cutting which I can't quite work out. Where could I find it in Dorian mode, I'm curious now

That would surprise me, in view of VW's version being more or less Dorian, but with amended cadences in the middle and at the end.
Incidentally, Greensleeves is one of the most remarkable cut-and-paste melodies - constructed from 4 x 2-bar phrases in the following sequence - ABACDBDC.

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks alpen - further study needed.
Love the new avatar by the way

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Thanks alpen - further study needed.
Love the new avatar by the way

Thanks RT. Personally, I'm a bit embarassed about the avatar; it's a bit CFMish.
But I'll be interested in any new light you can cast upon Greensleeves.

[3rd Viennese School]

Our Icecream van used to play Greensleeves.

oh, hang on, no it didn't, it played match of the day.

3VS

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Our Icecream van used to play Greensleeves.

oh, hang on, no it didn't, it played match of the day.

3VS

Yes, but it probably played it in the Aeolian mode, rather than the Dorian (Greensleeves, that is - not Match of the Day).

[3rd Viennese School]

which ones the aeolian mode? Dorian mode is used on Sibelious symphony no.6.
Modes are just white notes starting and ending with the same note, in the days before they invented flats and sharps.
3VS

[visualnickmos]

Our Icecream van used to play Greensleeves.

oh, hang on, no it didn't, it played match of the day.

3VS

3rdVS (msg 110)
If you lived in Gillingham, Kent by any chance, we probably heard the very same ice-cream van....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

which ones the aeolian mode? Dorian mode is used on Sibelious symphony no.6.
Modes are just white notes starting and ending with the same note, in the days before they invented flats and sharps.
3VS

Taking note 4 of Greensleeves, if it then rises by a semitone, it's aeolian, but if i rises by a tone, it's dorian.
Notes 15 and 18 are a semitone flatter in the dorian.