The Wife Of Ushers Well
   HOME
*





The Wife Of Ushers Well
"The Wife of Usher's Well" is a traditional ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad 79 and number 196 in the Roud Folk Song Index. An incomplete version appeared in Sir Walter Scott's "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border" (1802). It is composed of three fragments. They were notated from an old woman in West Lothian. The Scottish tune is quite different from the English tune, and America produced yet another tune. William Motherwell also printed a version in "Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern" (1827). Cecil Sharp collected songs from Britain but had to go the Appalachian Mountains to locate this ballad. He found 8 versions and 9 fragments. In the first half of the twentieth century many more versions were collected in America. The ballad concerns a woman from Usher's Well, who sends her three sons away, to school in some versions, and a few weeks after learns that they had died. The woman grieves bitterly for the loss of her children, cursing the winds and sea. :"I wish the wind may never ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or ''ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America. Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating eight and six syllable lines. Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is often used for any love song, particularly the sentimental ballad of pop or roc ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


All Around My Hat (album)
''All Around My Hat'' is a 1975 album by Steeleye Span, their eighth and highest-charting; it reached number 7 on the UK Albums Chart, and stayed on the chart for six months. It was produced by Mike Batt, who also produced their follow-up album '' Rocket Cottage''. It briefly made the band a household name in the UK. In the United States it became the band's first album to chart, reaching number 143. The title track was edited to just over three minutes long for single release and became their highest-charting single, reaching No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart, with " Black Jack Davy" as its B-side. In 1976 an edited version of a second track from the album, " Hard Times of Old England", was issued as a single, but did not chart. The song "Dance with Me" is a version of a Scandinavian ballad, " Herr Olof och Älvorna". The album cover and back was designed by John O'Connor, a friend of the band's guitarist Tim Hart, using an anamorphic projection that distorted the facial featu ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads''. The tunes of most of the ballads were collected and published by Bertrand Harris Bronson in and around the 1960s. History Age and source of the ballads The ballads vary in age; for instance, the manuscript of "Judas" dates to the thirteenth century and a version of " A Gest of Robyn Hode" was printed in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The majority of the ballads, however, date to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although some are claimed to have very ancient influences, only a handful can be definitively traced to before 1600. Moreover, few of the tunes collected are as old as the words. Nevertheless, Child's collection was far more comprehensive than any previous coll ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Helen Longworth
Helen Longworth (born 11 December 1976 in Preston, Lancashire) is a British actress. She has appeared in many radio plays including playing the character of Zofia in six series of ''On Mardle Fen'', Susie Dean in ''The Good Companions'' and Marina in ''Pericles''. Also in '' A Song For Edmond Shakespeare'' (2005) and '' The Pattern of Painful Adventures'' (2008), both fictional treatments of the life of William Shakespeare. Her TV appearances include ''Hollyoaks'', '' Heartbeat'', ''Emmerdale'', " Coronation Street" and " Doctors". Longworth has appeared as a lead vocalist with rock band ''Heroes of She''. She previously played the recurring character of Hannah Riley, an agricultural student who worked with pigs, in the radio show, ''The Archers'', aired on BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, come ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Jules Horne
__NOTOC__ Jules Horne (born 1963) is a Scottish playwright, radio dramatist and fiction writer. Jules Horne was born in Hawick, Scotland, and lived in Bonn, Bern and Reading before returning to the Scottish Borders. Following a German degree at Oxford, she worked in Germany and Switzerland as a translator, editor and BBC radio journalist. She returned to the UK in 2000 to write full-time. Jules was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Bursary in 2001 and the National Library of Scotland Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award in 2002. Her first full-length play, '' Gorgeous Avatar'', was performed by the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh in 2006, and in Japanese at AI Hall, Itami, Osaka in 2007, and by Heidelberg University's Schauspielgruppe Anglistik in 2008. Plays for radio include '' Left at the Lights'' ( BBC Radio Scotland), ''Inner Critic'' ( BBC 7), '' A Place in the Rain'' (BBC Radio 4), Overdue South ( BBC Radio Scotland), '' Life: An Audio Tour'' (BBC Radio 4), ''Small Blue Thi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Arts Council England
Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. The arts funding system in England underwent considerable reorganisation in 2002 when all of the regional arts boards were subsumed into Arts Council England and became regional offices of the national organisation. Arts Council England is a government-funded body dedicated to promoting the performing, visual and literary arts in England. Since 1994, Arts Council England has been responsible for distributing lottery funding. This investment has helped to transform the building stock of arts organisations and to create much additional high-quality arts activity. On 1 October 2011 the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council was subsumed into the Arts Council in England and they assumed the re ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Runa (band)
Runa is a Celtic music group. They combine the traditional music of Ireland and Scotland with modern music such as folk and jazz. The band members are based in Philadelphia, Nashville, and Chicago - they come from Ireland, USA and Canada. Their influences include Mary Black, The Chieftains The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous wi ..., U2, Solas, Karen Casey, Loreena McKennitt, Wolfstone, Nickel Creek, Sarah McLaughlin, Enya, Moya Brennan, Kate Rusby, Dervish, Gerry O'Beirne, Clannad, Natalie MacMaster, and Amos Lee. Members Discography * ''Jealousy'' (2009) * ''Stretched on your Grave'' (2011) * ''Somewhere along the Road'' (2012) * ''Current Affairs'' (2014) * ''Ten: The Errant Night'' (2019) * ''The Tide of Winter (2020) Awards and honours * They have won several awards ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Broadside (album)
''Broadside'' is the fourth full album by Bellowhead, released on 15 October 2012. The album was recorded over several weeks at Rockfield Studios in March 2012. Initially around 25 tracks were arranged for the album, of these 14 tracks were recorded (all of which became commercially available). Like their previous album, ''Hedonism'', it was produced by John Leckie. All of the tracks, bar one, on ''Broadside'' are traditional folk songs, many being written several hundred years ago; they have all been given a new arrangement by the band. The album title refers both to the nautical meaning of firepower and to broadside ballads, an early form of printed song. The album entered the UK official album charts at number 16, unprecedented for an independently released folk album. It also went to number 1 in the UK independent album charts. Singles The track, "10,000 Miles Away", was released as the lead single in late September and was playlisted on BBC Radio 2 for several weeks in O ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Bellowhead
Bellowhead is an English contemporary folk band, active from 2004 to 2016, reforming in 2020. The eleven-piece act played traditional dance tunes, folk songs and shanties, with arrangements drawing inspiration from a wide range of musical styles and influences. The band included percussion and a four-piece brass section. Bellowhead's bandmembers played more than 20 instruments among them, whilst all performers provided vocals. Their third album, ''Hedonism'' (2010), is the highest selling independently released folk album of all time, having sold over 60,000 copies and earning the band a silver disk. The band parted after their final gig at Oxford Town Hall in May 2016. In 2020, the band reformed for a reunion concert and, as of 2022, are undertaking a reunion tour, visiting Portsmouth, Oxford, Leicester, Cambridge, London, Brighton, Southend-on-Sea, Ipswich, Bath, Plymouth, Cardiff, Birmingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Harrogate, Liverpool, Sheffield and Manchester. ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Fairest Floo'er
''Fairest Floo'er'' is the third studio album by Scottish folk musician Karine Polwart, released on 10 December 2007. ''Fairest Floo'er'' is one of two albums that Polwart recorded in 2007 during a break from live performances; Polwart was pregnant with her first child whilst recording. Unlike her other solo albums, ''Fairest Floo'er'' mostly comprises traditional songs. It also differs from her other albums in its sparse instrumentation; instead of a full band, Karine is backed only by her brother Steven Polwart on guitar, and on two tracks by Kim Edgar on piano. The final song, "Can't Weld a Body", listed as a "preview track" on the track listing, is the only original song on the album and was composed for the "Ballad of the Big Ships" episode of BBC Radio's 2006 Radio Ballads series. Track listing All songs Traditional, arranged by Karine Polwart, except "Can't Weld a Body" composed by Polwart. #" Dowie Dens of Yarrow" – 6:01 #"Thou Hast Left Me Ever Jamie" – 3:00 #" ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Karine Polwart
Karine Polwart ( ) (born 23 December 1970) is a Scottish singer-songwriter. She writes and performs music with a strong folk and roots feel, her songs dealing with a variety of issues from alcoholism to genocide. She has been most recognised for her solo career, winning three awards at the BBC Folk Awards in 2005, and was previously a member of Malinky and Battlefield Band. Polwart is currently a member of The Burns Unit, and collaborated with The Fruit Tree Foundation on its debut album, ''First Edition''. Biography Early life and career Polwart grew up in the small Stirlingshire town of Banknock and had an interest in music from an early age. She has described her whole family as being interested in music and one of her brothers, Steven, is also a professional musician who plays guitar in the Karine Polwart band, whilst her sister Kerry is developing her own musical career with the group The Poems. Despite an active musical career from a young age, including forming her own ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Folksongs
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers, music that is played on traditional instruments, music about cultural or national identity, music that changes between generations (folk process), music associated with a people's folklore, or music performed by custom over a long period of time. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. The term originated in the 19th century, but folk music extends beyond that. Starting in the mid-20th century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the (second) folk revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is sometimes called contemporary folk music or folk re ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]