Hello! Ask me (almost) anything about traditional music.
Annotation:Lusty Gallant
X:1 T:B298- Lusty Gallant Q:1/4=120 L:1/8 M:4/4 F:http://jc.tzo.net/~jc/music/abc/mirror/mudcat.org/olson/BM2.ABC K:Cm E2|E2FG A2=AB|c2G2c2G2|=E2FGG2FE|DCD2=E4:| |:E2DEF2F2|G2=A2B2B2|=A2G2F2E2|DCD2C4:|]
LUSTY GALLANT. AKA and see "Captain Ward." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 or 4/4 time). E Minor (Raven): D Dorian (Chappell). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Chappell): AABB (Raven). The air appears in William Ballet's Lute Book, and although Chappell (1859) does not find any ballad by that name, it was mentioned as a dance tune as early as 1577, and Chappell believes it to have been written on or before the year 1566. A labeled setting is in the Dallis Lute Book (1583-85), a c. 1605 ms. at Dublin's Trinity College (408/2), and, without title, in the Marsh Lute Book (c. 1595). The first strain was also quoted in the "Now foot it Tom" part of A Round of Three Country Dances in One from the Lant Roll (1580) and Thomas Ravenscroft's Pammellia (1609). It was an immensely popular tune, notes Chappell, and a great many ballads were written to it. A century later it was still in currency and appeared in Playford's Dancing Master.
Chappell prints both duple and triple time versions. Words (from A Handful of Pleasant Delites) set to the 6/8 version begin:
Fain would I have a pretty thing,
To give unto my lady;
I name no thing,
And mean no thing
But as pretty a thing as may be.
Twenty journeys would I make,
And twenty days would hie me;
To make adventure for her sake,
To set some matter by me.
Some do long for pretty knacks,
And some for strange devices;
God send me what my lady lacks,
I care not what the price is.
See also P.W. Joyce's Irish version of the song, as "Strike Up Ye Lusty Gallants," a very different take on the theme.
