Annotation:Leaves so Green
X:1 T:Leaves so Green, The M:C L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Andante" B:P.M. Haverty – One Hundred Irish Airs vol. 3 (1859, No. 261, p. 129) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Eb (Be)|[G2e2]B2 {Bd}c2 (BG)|F3E C2 (EF)|(G2 BG) (FECE)|[E4G,4] z2 (BA)| G2 F2 (GA B2)|e2f2g2(ed)|e2 (fe) (dB){d}(c>B)|B4 z2|| (BA)|G2F2 (GA) B2|e2f2 g2(e>d)|(e2fe) dB{d}c>B|B6 (Be)| E2B2 {Bd}c2 (BG)|F3E C2 EF|(G2B)G (FECE)|[G,6E6]||
LEAVES SO GREEN. Irish, Air (4/4 time). F Major (Joyce): E Flat Major (Haverty, O'Neill). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (O'Neill): AB (Haverty). Fr. John Quinn finds the tune to be a variant of "Jackets Green (The)." Sam Henry collected a song called "The Leaves so Green" from Dan MacAleese of Gormacrane, Kilrea, in September, 1937. The melody to MacAleese's song (as printed in Henry's Songs of the People) is in 3/4 time and is different than the one printed by Haverty, Joyce and O'Neill, yet the words could be sung to either. It begins:
When life has left the senseless clay,
By all but thee forgot,
O bear me, dearest, far away
To some green lonely spot,
Where non with careless steps shall tread
The grass upon my grave,
But gently o'er my narrow bed
The leaves so green may wave.
