"Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron" is an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
folk song
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...
about a man admiring the girl he loves as she goes through daily stages of washing and ironing clothes. It is classified as Round number 869. The earliest date in the
Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...
catalogue is 1904, as collected in
Somerset
( en, All The People of Somerset)
, locator_map =
, coordinates =
, region = South West England
, established_date = Ancient
, established_by =
, preceded_by =
, origin =
, lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset
, lord_ ...
and arranged by
Cecil Sharp
Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...
. A later entry for 1908 gives the source as Jane Gulliford from Somerset. The Fresno State University gives a slightly different title, "Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron", with a date of 1909.
Lyrics
'Twas on a
Tuesday , Wednesday , Thursday , Friday , Saturday , Sunday morning
When I beheld my darling:
She looked so neat and charming
In every high degree;
She looked so neat and nimble, O,
A-hanging , A-starching , A-ironing , A-folding , A-airing , A-wearing of her linen, O,
''Refrain''
Dashing away with the smoothing iron,
Dashing away with the smoothing iron,
She stole my heart away.
[Text and music in Cecil J. Sharp]
''A Selection of Collected Folk Songs''
/ref>
Adaptations
The musical comedy duo Flanders and Swann
Flanders and Swann were a British comedy duo. Lyricist, actor and singer Michael Flanders (1922–1975) and composer and pianist Donald Swann (1923–1994) collaborated in writing and performing comic songs. They first worked together in a scho ...
quoted the first 7/8 syllables of each verse, verbatim and notewise, at the beginning of each verse of ''The Gas Man Cometh'', the first track on ''At The Drop of Another Hat'' (1963).John Rutter
John Milford Rutter (born 24 September 1945) is an English composer, conductor, editor, arranger, and record producer, mainly of choral music.
Biography
Born on 24 September 1945 in London, the son of an industrial chemist and his wife, Rutte ...
for the fourth movement of his ''Suite for Strings'' (1973) under the title ''Dashing Away''.
See also
* "Monday's Child
"Monday's Child" is one of many fortune-telling songs, popular as nursery rhymes for children. It is supposed to tell a child's character or future from their day of birth and to help young children remember the seven days of the week. As with ma ...
", a traditional English rhyme mentioning the days of the week
* " Solomon Grundy", an English nursery rhyme mentioning the days of the week
References
External links
The lyrics with the musical notes to Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron
English folk songs
19th-century songs
Songwriter unknown
Year of song unknown
{{folk-song-stub