Lulle, Lullay

[Joshua Barnett]

Hi Folks. Long-time reader, not-so-much-poster, and I appreciate the depth of knowledge regularly being passed around here.

As it is the Christmas season, I was looking at the Coventry Carol and trying to figure out which tune from the shape-note tradition Joel Cohen believed was the reference for the tune recorded by John Jacob Niles back in the 1930s. Would anybody know offhand the tune?

Thanks and God Bless,

Joshua Rush Barnett 

[Wade Kotter]

Here's what Cohen says about this in the notes to "An American Christmas":

Lullay my tiny little child (Slow traveller)
source: Ingalls, The Christian Harmony
The Christmas-related text, substantially the same in both its early English versions, and an appalachian variant collected by John Jacob Niles, is here sung to the Coventry Carol melody, as that tune was transcribed and harmonized by Ingalls under the name Slow Traveller in 1805.

https://bostoncamerata.org/originalSite/cd/titles/amerxmas.htm

It's not clear to me whether Niles collected just the text or the text and a version of the tune. Anyway, here's the tune as published by Ingalls

https://archive.org/details/christianharmony00inga/page/63/mode/1up

The Christian Harmony is a round note collection, but many of the tunes from this collection appeared in later shape note collections. However, I can find no evidence that Ingalls' SLOW TRAVELLER ever appeared in a shape note tune book. I'll leave it to others to comment on Cohen's claim that SLOW TRAVELLER is a transcribed and harmonized version of the Coventry Carol.

Wade

Dr. Wade Kotter

Retired Librarian

Independent Hymnologist and Unrestrained Loud Treble

South Ogden, UT

"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord" 

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[Karen Willard]

Tom Malone retypeset Ingalls’ CH in 4-shape

Karen

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/fasola-discussions/261245304.1768028.1764985884934%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Wade Kotter]

Yes, I'm aware of that, but does that really make it part of the "shape-note tradition"? I just found some comments on this by Nikos Pappas posted back in 2011 which I've copied below. Unfortunately, the link to Niles' version doesn't work.

Nikos Pappas

Aug 1, 2011, 10:31:47 AM

to Berkley Moore, hu...@erols.com, ericw...@gmail.com, jbe...@spsp.net, lmar...@zoominternet.net, Wade Kotter, Fasola Discussions

These three tunes do share some characteristics.  Personally, I would not say that SLOW TRAVELLER is a variant of THE COVENTRY CAROL or Niles' LULLE LULLAY specifically because of these characteristics.  What they have in common is that the first and third phrases end on the seventh scale degree.  Also, LULLE LULLAY and SLOW TRAVELLER use an ABA'C form.  However, I do not think that this would qualify them as being related (see the link below for the scores of the COVENTRY CAROL and LULLE LULLAY).

Niles' LULLE LULLAY - http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/displaysong.php?songid=291

COVENTRY CAROL - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coventry_Carol.png#file

Let's take a look at the pre-1820 incipits for these tunes:

SLOW TRAVELLER (1805) -
111(d7)u12(3)4(3)2(1)d7      u21d7u125              54212(3)4(3)2(1)d7                           u43d57u21

COMMUNION (1810) -
5u11(d7)u1343(1)d7           u3(4)54(3)12(3)4       2(1)54(3)1343(1)d7                           u321(d7)57u1

LIBERTY HALL (ca. 1801) -
5u1d7u12(3)42(1)d7           u353(2)12(3)4           353(2)12(3)42(1)d7                           u321(d76)57u1

SINCERITY (1820) -
111(d7)u1343(1)d7              u354(3)13(4)5           354(3)1343(1)d7                               u311d57u1

Though the second phrase does differ between Ingalls' setting and the others, the first and third phrases are almost identical, especially in the latter half of the phrase.  SLOW TRAVELLER also resembles the fourth phrase of the other three settings.  Because of these similarities, I believe that they are related.

Now let's look at the COVENTRY CAROL and LULLE LULLAY

COVENTRY CAROL
11d7u1321d7                      u123421                    5432321d7                                          u1d7u1423

LULLE LULLAY
33(1)35(4)54(3)4d7(u1)      23(4)56(5)47              7u1(d7)u1d5(4)34(5)2d7(u1)              23(1)34(3)d7u1

Comparing these tunes with the earlier sources, I don't see that much of a connection here.  The LIBERTY HALL/COMMUNION/SINCERITY variants all use the same form: both an ABA'C or an ABB'C as seen with the first half of the third phrase basically replicating the melodic material of the first half of the second phrase, and the second half of the third phrase replicating the second half of the first phrase.  SLOW TRAVELLER deviates a bit from this form because of the way Ingalls set the second phrase, though it does provide an overall ascending shape as in the other variants.

COVENTRY CAROL differs from the pre-1820 variants in several distinct ways.  Its form is not the ABA'C/ABB'C form.  Rather, it's in an ABA'B' form.  Significantly, the final phrase echoes the second, but concludes with the Piccardy third.  Also, the second phrase does not ascend as in the pre-1820 sources.  LULLE LULLAY does not include any phrasal repetition like the other tunes.  What remains similar is the emphasis on the seventh scale degree at the ends of the first and third phrases.  Otherwise, it really shows no similarities between them.  Niles said he recorded this from an old lady.  She also happened to be a shape-note singer.  She could just as easily have set her own words to a pre-existing sacred tune, thus nullifying the "traditional" aspect of her performance.  This tune could have been her own modified variant of one of the book tunes and not a traditional melody that accompanied this text. 

Niles's attributions and sources are often confusing (sometimes deliberately I would argue).  Then there is also the problem of taking a recording from 1934 and applying it backwards to an 1805 source, to prove a connection.  Without a known name, source documentation, and other necessary information, this application seems impossible to state with authority.  Maybe I'm missing something here.

The Niles tune resembles more a S.M. tune by John Cole called CHESTER.  Though the meter is different, the melodic contour seems closer.

CHESTER - A minor
5u1(2)32(1)d7u1                23(4)56(5)45            55544332           23(2)14(3)21

CHESTER did make into at least one shape-note book, Freeman Lewis' Songs of Zion from 1824. FWIW.

Nikos Pappas, Lxgtn

Dr. Wade Kotter

Retired Librarian

Independent Hymnologist and Unrestrained Loud Treble

South Ogden, UT

"Make a Joyful Noise Unto the Lord" 

[Karen Willard]

No of course you're right, Wade. I was just thinking some might like to see the song in our familiar system. 😉

Karen

[Joshua Barnett]

Great information. And much appreciated. 

Josh