Annotation:Rogero
X:1 % T:Rogero M:C| L:1/8 S:Chappell – Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G G2A2|B4 B4 c4 c4|B6 c2 B4 d4|c4 B4 A4 G4|F6 G2 F4 F2G2| A4 A4 G4 F2E2|F3E F2G2 F4 B4|A4G4G4F4|G8||
ROGERO. AKA and see "Arise and Awake." English, Country Dance Tune (4/4 or cut time). C Major (Merryweather): G Major (Chappell). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. This melody dates to the late 16th century. Merryweather (1989) says it was derived from an Italian air called "Aria di Ruggiero," which consisted of a ground bass upon which descants were improvised. Chappell (1859) states that "Rogero" seems to have been a proverbial name for a young gallant, and this is perhaps the origins of the old slang verb 'to roger' (her), or to fornicate. Simpson’s British Broadside Ballads and Their Music (1966) gives: “'The Ruggiero air was one of a number of sixteenth century Italian ground basses upon which a singer could extemporize a descant when chanting epic poetry. the appearance of Ariosto's Orlando Fuioso in 1532 apparently gave new impetus to the practice, and the Ruggiero formula, named from Cantos 44 beginning Ruggier, quad semre fui, tal esser voglio, was perhaps the most widely used in instrumental pieces the air is occasionally found in the superius, [top line], but it is properly a series of bass notes with their implied harmonies, upon which melody can be freely invented. The ballad tune 'Rogero' is not the original Italian formula, but is a descant erected upon the Ruggiero bass with which it harmonizes. A good version of the tune, set for cittern, is in Cambridge University MS Dd.4.23. fol.23.” "Rogero" became popular in Elizabethan England and Merryweather finds it appearing in English arrangements around 1580, often as the vehicle for ballads. It is mentioned in several works of literature in the latter sixteenth century, set for instruments as well as voice, the tune appears in William Ballet's Lute Book of 1594, a lute MS in the University of Cambridge Library, and T. Dallis' Pupil's Lute Book (1583). The tune name is alluded to in play Have you Saffron-Walden (1596), along with "Pepper's Black (1)/Pepper is Black," "Green Sleeves," and "Peg a Ramsay/Ramsey." The English composer William Byrd arranged it for keyboard.