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Annotation:Lull Me Beyond Thee
X: 1 T:Lull Me Beyond Thee.. (p)1651.PLFD.056 M:6/4 L:1/4 Q:3/4=70 S:Playford, Dancing Master,1st Ed.,1651. O:England H:1651. Z:Chris Partington. K:F A2 A f>ef| g>fg a3| A2 A f>ed| ^c3 d3:| |:f2 f g>fg| a>ba g2 c| f2 f g>fg|a3 g3| a>ba g>fe| f>ed a3| A2 A f>ed| ^c3 d3:|
LULL(E) ME BEYOND THEE. AKA and see "Northern Turtle," "Oil of Barley," "Cold and Raw," "Craigieburn Wood." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 or 6/4 time). D Minor (Barnes, Sharp, Williamson): G Dorian (Chappell). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB (Barnes, Sharp): AABC (Chappell): AABB (Williamson). The air was first published by John Playford in his English Dancing Master [1] in editions from 1650 through 1690 (1st through the 8th). Williamson (1976) states the tune is a variant to an earlier tune called "Oil of Barley" or "Cold and Raw," which was printed by Thomas d'Urfey in 1686, and that D'Urfey believed the tune to be Scots in origin. The English collector Chappell (1859) remarks that the air appears to have been known at first only as "a new Northern tune," but elsewhere he states that tunes so called were English rather than Scots, and that 'northern' refers not to Scotland but to the northern counties of England. Later the Scots national poet, Robert Burns, fashioned a song on this tune entitled "Craigieburn Wood," although the tune is somewhat distanced from the Playford original. Burns noted that his was based on an older song, and at first retained the old chorus "Beyond Thee, dearie," etc., although this was discarded later. Researcher Anne Gilchrist remarks:
A fragment of an older and finer version is printed in Songs from David Herd's Manuscripts, edited by Dr. Hans Hecht. It begins:
O my bonnie, bonnie May
Will ye not rue upon me?
A sound, sound sleep I'll never get
Untill I lie ayon thee.[1]
- ↑ Anne G. Gilchrist, "Some Additional Notes on the Traditional History of Certain Ballad-Tunes in the Dancing Master", Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. 3, No. 4, Dec., 1939, p. 278).
