More school songs

I loved the songs we sang at junior school.

Pretty Polly Olive
The Ash Grove
My Grandfathers Clock
The Miller of Dee
Barbara Allen

I’m sure, given time, I’ll think of many more.

The songs I remember aren’t the classics, which probably says more about me than the quality of the songs.
She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes
John Brown’s Body
Stewball was a Racehorse

We sang
Men of Harlech
Pollywolly Doodle
Molly Malone
Land of the Silver birch

Or at least most of us did, I could never hold a tune singing,so I just mimed & sang them to the dog later.

I have been humming Sweet Polly Oliver for the last week!

Pretty Polly Oliver - NOT Olive!

The Drummer and the Cook
The Miller's Flowers
Blow the Wind Southerly

Where ere you walk is Handel, isn't it?
We sang The Trout too.
MariaNina 'O'er the ocean flies a merry fay'
Trotting to the fair
The three crows
And a fetching one about The Titanic. The chorus was jolly, I kid you not:
It was sad, mighty sad,
It was sad when that great ship went down
Husbands and Wives
Little children lost their lives
It was sa-ad when that great ship went down.
I'm sure there are more

Along with Nymphs and Shepherds and Sweet Polly Oliver, we sang

Sally Brown, she’s a bright mulatter,
Way, hey, a-roll and go!
She drinks rum and chews terbacker
Spend my money on Sally Brown!

Odd choice for a girls’ school! 😂

We sang about Sally Brown in primary school, merlot. I expect that's definitely off the programme these days!

The other one I recall was a lengthy saga about William Taylor, a bright lad who was about to be married to "a lady fair" but he got press-ganged and hauled off to the navy.
When she heard what had happened, the lady fair - an enterprising lass - disguised herself as a young man and joined the navy. She spent the next several years sailing the world and looking for William or news of his whereabouts.
Eventually, she found him, settled somewhere in the Caribbean I think and married to another woman. By the time he'd served his time in the navy, William thought the lady fair would have got tired of waiting for him and found herself a new love.
So far as I remember, it all ended in tragedy. The lady fair stabbed and killed poor William and then herself.
There were loads of 4-line verses of this tosh, about 15 I think and when I was 9 or 10 we had to learn all of them and sing them beautifully at a schools music festival. It was awful - could have put us all off music for life!

We also had

The Oak and the Ash
Campdown Races
Oh Soldier Soldier

and a variety of sea shanties such as Spanish Lady and Blow the Man Down.

Sweet Lass Of Richmond Hill.

The Flower Of Killarney.

The Minstrel Boy.

I loved Mairi's Wedding.
Blow the Wind Southerly
And the one which begins
Jacky Boy, Master,
Sing thee Well
Very well. Which was sung on an episode of Larkrise when they were harvestin.g

And Lieutenant Keejay??

We learned the traditional songs of the the four countries which make up the United Kingdom. That doesn't seem to happen now.

Sally Brown she's a Bright Mullata!!!

‘Soldier, soldier won’t you marry me with your musket pipe and drum?
Oh no sweet maid I cannot marry you for I have no coat to put on.
So up she went to her grandfather’s chest and brought him a coat of the very very best and the soldier put it on’

This is just one of many songs we sang at school, not sure if this is the first verse, nor if the words are correct so you’ll have to excuse me for any mistakes.
I think I will be singing this one all day now.

HelterSkelter1

I loved Mairi's Wedding.
Blow the Wind Southerly
And the one which begins
Jacky Boy, Master,
Sing thee Well
Very well. Which was sung on an episode of Larkrise when they were harvestin.g

Hey, down, ho, down, very, very down
Among the leaves so green, oh!

That’ll be in my head all day now.

HelterSkelter1

And Lieutenant Keejay??

Oh yes.
I thought it was only me who knew that.
Oh Kijé was a hussar bold
A hussar bold was he.
He fought so bravely for the Czar
The pride of the cavalry.

We also sang
A keeper would a hunting go, and under his coat he carried a bow
All for to shoot at a merry little doe, among the leaves so green-o.
With the chorus Jacky Boy, mentioned already.
Lots of those already mentioned and also Mariannina.
Sweet Kitty Clover
My favourites included
The hag is astride, this night for to ride, the devil and she together.
Spin, spin my dear daughter
Whenever I hear a train go by
Cosher Bailey,
Old Zip Coon.

We listened to the radio every week.
A man called William Appleby introduced programmes of songs for schools. Rhythm and Melody or Singing Together.
There were books of words and music to accompany the broadcasts.

Oh, this thread is bringing back memories! Haven't heard Marianina for years!

I used to enjoy singing 'Summer is Icumen in' in a round.

watermeadow

I missed the thread about Schubert’s The Trout but wonder if we all sang the same songs at school? At age ten we sang such nonsense as Drink to Me Only, With Thine Eyes, Where E’re You Walk (lovely Schubert music but ridiculous translation)
Nymphs and Shepherds and Greensleeves.
All traditional old songs but incomprehensible to children.

Where e’re You Walk is by Handel.

I loved all these songs and didn’t find them incomprehensible at all. I think it is very, very sad that children no longer learn them. They are part of our history, every bit as much as Dickens or Shakespeare.

I remember the school choir singing "Early One Morning".

Magenta8

We listened to the radio every week.
A man called William Appleby introduced programmes of songs for schools. Rhythm and Melody or Singing Together.
There were books of words and music to accompany the broadcasts.

We listened to the same programmes.

One of the songs was about ‘handsome John Brown’.

‘In the town there lives a butcher,
And his name is handsome John Brown’.

Funny what you remember, always wished HJB was our butcher.