Jenny Pluck Pears: A Song History

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"Jenny Pluck Pears" goes back to the first edition of John Playford's The English Dancing Master, which came out in 1651.[1] Cecil Sharp observed that the book was entered at Stationers' Hall in the year before its printed date, and his heading for the dance gives the first edition as 1650 and calls it a round for six, in six parts.[2] Later editions kept the tune up to the 1690 printing, which was issued by Henry Playford, John's son.[1] Sharp noted how the melody changed across editions: it began as a Dorian air, was printed in the minor in the second edition and had become major by the fourth.[2] Its first strain is in compound time (6/4 or 6/8), and its second in triple time (3/2 or 3/4).[1]

Painting of villagers dancing and feasting outside a country inn beside a bare tree

Johannes Lingelbach, Peasants Dancing, oil on canvas, 1651. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Painted in the year Playford first printed the dance, but otherwise unconnected to it.

Sharp included the dance in Part II of his Country Dance Book (the revised 1913 edition is consulted here), and he placed its tune first in Set 3 of his Country Dance Tunes, published by Novello.[2][3] The tune soon reached records as well: on 7 March 1916 the Victor Military Band recorded Sharp's arrangement in Camden, New Jersey, and it was released as Victor 18007.[4] The Traditional Tune Archive records the alternate title "Welcome Home," along with later recordings by groups such as the Baltimore Consort and Leveret.[1]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Jenny Pluck Pears".
  2. Library of Dance (HathiTrust scan): Cecil J. Sharp, "The Country Dance Book, Part II" (2nd ed., Novello, 1913).
  3. IMSLP: "Country Dance Tunes (Sharp, Cecil)".
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix B-17283. Jenny pluck pears / Victor Military Band".