Annotation:Will You Come to the Bower?

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WILL YOU COME TO THE BOWER? AKA and see "Vandalls of Hammerwich (1)." English, Air (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody appears in several early 19th century publications and musicians' manuscript collections in England and America, while the song can be found on broadside issues and in songsters. The song was written by Thomas Moore and proved popular; it was soon parodied and there are several variant texts. One, a “homecoming” protest song for the exiles of Ireland, is often confused for Moore's original. The broadside words begin:

Will you come to the bow'r I've shaded for you,
Your bed shall be flow'rs all spangled with dew,
Will you come to the bow'r I've shaded for you,
Your bed shall be flow'rs all spangled with dew.
Will you, will you, will you, will you, come to the bow'r,
Will you, will you, will you, will you, come to the bow'r.

The tune was used for the morris dance Vandalls of Hammerwich, and is sometimes called by that name.

Source for notated version: the 1823-26 music ms. of papermaker and musician Joshua Gibbons (1778-1871, of Tealby, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire Wolds) [Sumner].

Printed sources: Paff (The Gentleman's Amusement No. 1), New York, 1812; p. 3. Riley (Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 2), New York, 1817; p. 78. Sumner (Lincolnshire Collections, vol. 1: The Joshua Gibbons Manuscript), 1997; No. 181, p. 95

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