Annotation:Rose Aileen

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X:1 T:Rose Aileen M:6/8 L:1/8 C:Thomas Haynes Bayly B:Saunders - New and Scientific Self-Instructing School B:for the Violin (Providence, Rhode Island, 1847, No. 30, p. 28) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D A|d2 d (de).f|g2B B2B|A2A (AB).G|{G}F3 z2A| d2d (de).f|g2B B2B|A2A (AB).c|d3 z2:| |:d|(ec).A A2A|A2{c}B A2A|d2d f2a|e3 z2A| (de).f (fg)a|(ga)b (af).d|e2e a2a|d3 z2:||



ROSE AILEEN. English, Air (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Composed by the prolific English composer and lyricist Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), who wrote a variety of songs, hymns and short pieces that were extremely popular in pre-Victorian and early Victorian times. "Rose Aileen" was published in his collection "The Wreath"The melody appears in George Saunders’ (“Professor of Music and Dancing”) violin tutor New and Scientific Self-Instructing School for the Violin (Providence, Rhode Island, 1847, No. 30, p. 28. Several of Saunders’ melodies, including “Rose Aileen,” were entered into the 1859 music manuscript copybook of American musician M.E. Eames (probably resident in Philadelphia). Bayly's song ("Rose of Aileen") was published in his The Wreath, a collection of ballads (1830), and goes:

It is not long since last we met, and you are still the same,
Yet, oh! I saw you knew me not, until I told my name;
You mourn the change, and well you know how deep my grief has been,
For you were with me when I won the love or Rose Aileen.

I grieve to think my looks betray the anguish of my heart,
In death I'd proudly still deny that I had felt the dart:
Assuming smiles, amid the gay I fain would still be seen,
I would not have the world believe I sigh for Rose Aileen.

Yet do no heed my selfish boast, a motive far more pure
Would make me struggle to conceal the anguish I endure;
I'd rather mourn in solitude, unpitied and unseen,
Than that my gloom should seem to chide the smiles of Rose Aileen.


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