Folk Song: The Oak and the Ash
In this wistful English ballad, a country-maid who had gone to London now longs to return to the northern home where flourishes “the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree.” The following is one of several versions known as “The North Country Maid.” One of the earliest of these would have her hail from Dalby Forest in the northern Yorkshire moors (today a popular location for cyclists). The oak and the ash still flourish there, as do cherry, birch, larch, and Scots pine.
The north-country versions of the song are sung to the tune “Quodling’s Delight,” which has been traced as far back as 1608, and is perhaps older. (This tune appears in the fourth movement of Granville Bantock’s “Old English Suite,” and in the third movement of Gordan Jacobs’ chamber piece “Three Elizabethan Fancies.”)
The Oak and the Ash (“The North Country Maid”)
A north country maid up to London had strayed,
Although with her nature it did not agree.
So she wept and she sighed, and bitterly she cried,
“O! I wish once again in the north I could be.
“O! the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree,
“They all grow green in the north country.
“While sadly I roam I regret my dear home
“Where the lads and young lasses are making the hay,
“Where the birds sweetly sing and the merry bells do ring,
“And the maidens and meadows are pleasant and gay.
“O! the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree,
“They all grow green in the north country.
“No doubt, if I please, I could marry with ease;
“Where maidens are fair, many lovers will come.
“But he that I wed must be north-country bred
“And carry me back to my own country.
“O! the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree,
“They all grow green in the north country.”
I always find interesting when researching folk songs the many variations in the lyrics (a consequence of the dynamic oral tradition). The full version of this song extends the maid’s reminiscences of her home, and her resolve to marry only “a lad that is North Countrie bred.”
The chorus that gives the song its name is attributed to Martin Parker, a prolific English writer of ballads whose work was often borrowed. Others (and especially the Scots) appropriated these two lines in numerous poems and songs. While the oak and the ash seem to be permanent fixtures, the third “bonnie” tree might be an ivy, elum (elm), rowan, willow, or birken (birch).
Why Sing Folk Songs?
“Folk songs help us to be more fully human. We love knowing these songs. It makes us ready and able to join in the fun, to take our part in the cultural tradition to which we belong, to reach across generations with ease, to just get some merry air in our stale lungs now and then.” (Lynn Bruce)
Charlotte Mason included folk songs (and dances) in her broad curriculum. Ambleside Online has an excellent article by Lynn Bruce on teaching folk songs to children of the digital age—”Folk Songs, Unplugged.” “Our objective,” she writes, “is participation, not perfection... Folk music provides the unique playground where music can be about process, not about product.”
Painting: Haymaking (July). Pieter Bruegel the Elder.
Friday, November 25, 2011