Greensleeves

[Dave2002]

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?

How odd that this should crop up here. A few weeks ago i wanted to play something for St George's Day, and I decided to play this tune. Most renditions seem to at least stert off in a min or e min. I found that my "by ear" rendition tended to shift some notes to the major, but I did check with several printed sources and what I eventually played was as printed. I still have reservations though. I believe in following the written text if genuine, but it seems that there are still questions about this old tune.

[3rd Viennese School]

No, as a kid I used to live in Rochester.

In Kent.

3VS

[hackneyvi]

I went to see a French film, Love like poison, a few weeks ago. I didn't care for it too much but it was surprising for a French film in having an English/US music soundtrack and a very affecting recording of Greensleeves. Reminded by this thread, I find it's sung by Barbara Dane, a name I didn't know it.

Not available on Youtube but is on Spotify. I appreciate that it's not a mediaeval performance but, to me, that speaks all the more for the song that it's fully alive as music now, how many centuries after it's composition?