Annotation:Oh! 'Tis Love!

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X: 1 T: C'EST L'AMOUR.--O! 'TIS LOVE. O: French air. Q: "With spirit." %R: air, jig B: W. Hamilton "Universal Tune-Book" Vol. 2 Glasgow 1846 p.4 #4 (and p.5 #1) S: http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/itma.dl.printmaterial/book_pdfs/hamiltonvol2web.pdf Z: 2016 John Chambers <jc:trillian.mit.edu> M: 6/8 L: 1/8 F:http://www.john-chambers.us/~jc/music/book/Hamilton/HUTB2/20044_Cest_lAmour_O_Tis_Love.abc K: Bb %%slurgraces yes %%graceslurs yes % - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [|\ F2F F2F | F2F F2F | B2B {c}BAB | (=B3 c2)z | F2F F2F | F2F F2F | c2c cdc | B2z H|] FGA |\ B2B BcB | B2A AB=B | c2c cdc | B2z FGA | B2B BcB | B2A AB=B | c2c cdc | B2z |] z2F |\ e3 cde | d3 dcB | A2A AGA | B3- B2F | e3 cde | d3 dcB | A2A AGA | Bdc BA"^D.C."G |] % - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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OH! 'TIS LOVE. AKA - "C'est l'Amour," "Oh! 'Tis Love! 'Tis Love!" AKA and see "Bayadere Sett Figure 3, "Man with the Red Cloak (The)." French, English; Air (6/8 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABB'C. An early 1820's English adaptation by G.W. Reeve of a French song, to the air "C'est l'Amour," for the musical farce I Will Have a Wife, words by J.R. Planché. The song [Roud Number: V932] appears in several song collections and songsters of mid-1820's and 1830's. The following lyric was printed in Wiseheart's Harmonist, and Sentimental Singer's Album (1830):

Oh! 'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love,
From woman's bright eye glancing,
Oh! 'tis love, 'tis love, 'tis love,
Every heart entrancing.
Love yields the sweetest dearest pleasure,
Love doubles every other charm,
Love makes the miser yield his treasure,
Love e'en the stoic's heart can charm,
What claims the monarch's duty,
What soothes the peasant's pain,
What melts the haughty beauty,
And conquers her disdain.

Geoff Woolfe states the piece derived from an aria in Carl Maria von Weber's (1786-1826) opera Der Freischütz (1821). As with many such selections from popular operas and stage musicals, "Oh 'Tis Love" also found its way into quadrille sets as a vehicle for dancing (c.f. Thomas Tegg's 3rd set of quadrilles ).

In 1865, Lewis Carroll immortalised this song by using the translation of the opening line in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, where in “The Mock Turtle’s Story”, he has the Duchess famously say: “ ’Tis so said, and the moral of that is, ‘Oh, ’tis love, ’tis love, that makes the world go round’".

Francis O’Neill has imported the air into his collection of Irish airs in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland (1903) as “Fear na Fallainge Deirge” ("The Man With the Red Cloak"), given to him by James O’Neill. This title may have been invented by James, as no well-known song of this title exists. The phrase was widely used in Irish grammars, following its use by Charles Vallancey (A Grammar of Iberno-Celtic, or Irish Language,(Dublin, 1781).

"Oh 'Tis Love" can also be found in the 1850 music manuscript collection of shoemaker and fiddler William Winters (West Bagborough, Somerset, southwest England), the Thomas Kiernan 1840s music manuscript, Co Longford, the Stephen Grier 1880s collection, Co Leitrim and the c. 1829 collection of C.J. Fox, Beverley, east Yorkshire.

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