Annotation:Nutting Girl (The)
X: 1 T:The Nutting Girl, Bampton M:4/4 L:1/8 R:Hornpipe A:Bampton P:A.AB(CB)2 K:G P:A BA|G2GA BAGB|d2(3cdc A2GF|G2Bc d2g2|d4 d3 B| cdec A2Bc|BcdB G2AB|c2(3AcA F2D2|G4 G2 || P:B BA|G2g2 gefg|(3fgfd2 d2Bc|d2ef (3gagfe|f4 f3 e| d2g2 g3 f|e2d2 d3 B|A2B2 c2d2|efgf dBcA| G2GA BAGB|d2(3cdc A2GF|G2Bc d2g2|d4 d3 B| cdec A2Bc|BcdB G2AB|c2(3AcA F2D2|G4 G2 || P:C [M:2/4]B3A|[M:4/4]G4 G3A|B3A G3B|d4 c4|A4 F4|G4 B3c|d4 g4|d4 d4| [M:2/4]d2B2|[M:4/4]cdec A2Bc|BcdB G2AB|c2(3AcA F2D2|G4 G2 ||
NUTTING GIRL, THE. AKA – "Nutting Time," "Nutting We Will Go (A-)." AKA and see "Jack the Jolly Ploughboy," "Jolly Plowboy (1) (The)," "To Rodney We will go." English; Air, Morris Dance Tune (4/4 or 2/2 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB, AC, AC (Mallinson–Bampton): AABABABABA (Staton Harcourt): AABCBCB (Bacon–Bampton & Fieldtown): AABCBC. (Barnes): AAAABAAABCCCB (Bacon–Ducklington). An English folk song [Roud 509] and one of the most famous morris dance tunes, collected from the villages of Bampton, Ducklington, Fieldtown (Leafield, Oxfordshire), Rollo Woods (the 'C' part is a variation of the Bampton version), and Stanton Harcourt (Oxfordshire); all in England's Cotswolds. Several sets of words were married to the tune, which has been used over and over in the tradition and is quite old (see note for "annotation:Jack the Jolly Ploughboy" for more on this extended song/tune family). One of the most popular of the 'Nutting' song variants begins:
Now come all you jovial fellows, come listen to my song,
It is a little ditty and it won't detail you long;
It's of a fair young damel, and she lived down in Kent,
Arose one summer's morning, and she a-nutting went.
Chorus:
With my fal-lal to my ral-tal-lal,
Whack-fol-the-dear-ol-day;
And what few nuts that poor girl had,
She threw them all away.
It's of a brisk young farmer, was ploughing of his land,
He called unto his horses, to bid them gently stand;
As he sit down upon his plough, all for a song to sing,
His voice was so melodious, it made the valleys ring.
See also the similar Irish 6/8 air "Low Backed Car (1)." See also a version collected in Pennsylvania called "The Tune the Old Cow Died Of," from an old song (in popular local usage the foregoing phrase denoted any extremely bad piece of music).
