For some reason tonight I remembered a round I learned somewhere. The words I learned were:
Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose
When will I see thee wed?
I will marry at thy will,
Sire, at thy will.
That was the whole thing. Somehow it always seemed romantic to me, like a medieval lady talking to the king. And the name Rose was extra romantic, because the smell of roses in boxes or drawers always feels to me like some English country house pot pourri.
I googled it and found a number of versions, none exactly like mine. Here is one with four verses, and the woman singing does a 16-part (!) round.
Rose, Rose, Rose, Rose,
Will I ever see thee wed?
I will marry at thy will,
Sire, at thy will.
Ding dong ding dong,
Wedding bells on an April morn,
Carve thy name on a moss covered stone,
On a moss covered stone.
Lay low, nobody home.
Meat nor drink nor money have I none,
Still we will be very merry,
Lay lay low.
Ding dong, ding dong,
Funeral bells on a November morn.
Rose, my Rose, is dead and gone,
Is dead and gone.
I also knew another song to the same tune, which I taught to little Sunday scholars to sing in a round:
Love, love, love, love:
Christians this is thy call.
Love thy neighbor as thyself,
For God is love.
So I googled that one, too, and didn't find exactly the version I knew, but this lovely song.
Love, love, love, love:
The gospel in a word is love.
Love your neighbor as your brother --
Love, love, love.
Peace, peace, peace, peace:
The gospel in a word is peace.
Peace that passes understanding --
Peace, peace, peace.
Joy, joy, joy, joy:
The gospel in a word is joy.
Joy that fills to overflowing --
Joy, joy, joy.
Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ:
The gospel in a word is Christ.
Love him, serve him, and adore him --
Jesus Christ.
2 comments:
there are some other rounds that can be partnered with this tune, which is what it's called when you can layer two or more songs becuse they have the same harmonic structure.
i would sing them for you, but blog comments are not great for audio recordings.
but the rounds i like to layer are called "our poor bird", "red are strawberries" and "i won't be my father's jack".
i have not searched them but i would guess they;re google-able.
if you can't find them you can catch up to me by email and i'll make you some audio files.
Thanks. :-)
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