| Author |
Topic: Greensleeves |
Joe Delaronde
From:
Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada
|
Posted 29 Nov 2002 4:49 pm |
|
What is the origin of the song, Greensleeves? When was, What Child Is This, used with Greensleeves, or which came first?
I played it as, What Child Is This, at a Christmas pageant last night. Just before the door prize was drawn, towards the end of the show, I was asked to play it again. Got the biggest hand in 50 years of playing. Man that makes one feel good.
Joe |
|
|
 |
Paul Graupp
From:
Macon Ga USA
|
Posted 29 Nov 2002 5:37 pm
|
|
Joe: I can't answer your question but I'll add to it. We put on a Christmas CD for the grandson. He listens to music all night long but this time I got a surprize. I usually lull him to sleep with the alphabet song but when it came up the other night, it was; What Child Is This. As I was humming it to him, I realized I was humming my old favorite by Buddy Emmons; Greensleeves !
And yes, he went right to sleep.......
Regards, Paul  |
|
|
|
Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
|
Posted 29 Nov 2002 5:59 pm
|
|
| I think Webb Pierce wrote it. |
|
|
|
George Kimery
From:
Limestone, TN, USA
|
Posted 29 Nov 2002 6:28 pm
|
|
| I thought it was a very old Irish song! Was Webb Pierce Irish, maybe? |
|
|
|
Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
|
Posted 29 Nov 2002 7:57 pm
|
|
Well, the song "Greensleeves" certainly came first...that melody goes back many hundreds of years! The words of the song "What Child Is This?" were written in the 19th century (about the time of the Civil War) to go with that melody. I think the words of "Danny Boy" were written for the old traditional (English?) tune "Londonderry Air", in a similar fashion.
Many people have taken old (public domain) songs, made their own arrangements, and added their own words. Hence, new songs are "born again". |
|
|
|
Ricky0ne1
From:
West Peoria, IL, USA
|
Posted 29 Nov 2002 9:43 pm
|
|
Howdy,
This has always been a favorite song of mine... still play it on classical
around this time of year.. Greensleeves is thought by some to have been written
by King Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn around 1580.. some say it was a common old ditty to a beloved local town whore.. who knows?
Rick |
|
|
|
Joe Delaronde
From:
Selkirk, Manitoba, Canada
|
Posted 29 Nov 2002 9:51 pm
|
|
Up here in Canada, 'tis the season for greensleeves (parka sleeves).
Forgive me! I had to do it.
Joe |
|
|
|
Anne Marie O Keeffe
From:
Co.Waterford,Ireland.
|
Posted 30 Nov 2002 4:33 am
|
|
| I was once told that it is believed that Henry the Eighth wrote Greensleeves in honour of some lady that he had his eye on. |
|
|
|
Paul Graupp
From:
Macon Ga USA
|
Posted 30 Nov 2002 7:02 am
|
|
His eye was it ??  |
|
|
|
LeRoy Sawyer
From:
Walton, NY 13856
|
Posted 30 Nov 2002 8:10 am
|
|
What Child Is This?
(Words by William Chatterton Dix; Music Traditional)
“Greensleeves,” the tune to which “What Child Is This?” is sung has a long history. It was apparently first licensed or registered in 1580 to a Richard Jones (with a set of lyrics that were not in the least religious. Nor even very respectable), but it is probably older still. Some theories have it that Henry VIII wrote the song. In any event, Henry’s daughter Queen Elizabeth I is said to have danced to it. Shakespeare mentioned it by name twice in The Merry Wives of Windsor; traitors were hanged as hired bands of musicians played its strains in lugubrious tempo. Almost three centuries later, about 1865, William Chatterton Dix published “The Manger Throne.” Three stanzas were later culled from that poem and fitted to “Greensleeves,” thus creating “What Child Is This,” one of our loveliest carols.
Roy, Happy Holidays |
|
|
|
Anne Marie O Keeffe
From:
Co.Waterford,Ireland.
|
Posted 30 Nov 2002 8:15 am
|
|
Yea Paul, his eye  Well if we are to keep it within the bounds of respectability we have to say that anyway!![This message was edited by Anne Marie O Keeffe on 30 November 2002 at 09:41 AM.] |
|
|
|
Allan Thompson
From:
Scotland.
|
Posted 30 Nov 2002 1:27 pm
|
|
| Greensleeves eh, maybe somebody should give them a handkerchief. |
|
|
|
Bob Blair
From:
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
|
Posted 30 Nov 2002 1:59 pm
|
|
| Talk about a "hit". Hundreds of years later, people are STILL humming it. I first heard that tune when I was a kid - they used it (with yet another set of lyrics) in the movie "How the West Was Won". Only saw that movie once, and don't remember a darn thing about it all these years later, except I never forgot that tune, which I later learned was Greensleeves. I would rather not believe that it was really written by Henry VIII, but at least the bloodthirsty old hypocrite isn't collecting any royalties! |
|
|
|
Paul Graupp
From:
Macon Ga USA
|
|
|
|
