Parson's Farewell: A Song History

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"Parson's Farewell" first appeared in print under that title in 1651, in the first edition of John Playford's The English Dancing Master, a collection of 105 English country dances, each with its tune and its instructions, issued in London.[1][2] Playford set it as a dance "for four," and Robert Keller's index of the series follows it through the eighth edition of 1690, with the title printed as "Parsons Farewell," "Parsons Farewel" and, in 1686 and 1690, "Parson's Farewel."[1][3][4] The melody is older than the book: the Traditional Tune Archive, citing Sam Bayard, points to a version called "Ostend" in the Skene Manuscript of about 1615, and it lists continental settings treated as a bourrée, among them "La Bourée" in Michael Praetorius's Terpsichore of 1612.[1] No source consulted here identifies the parson of the title; in 1938 Evelyn Wells offered only a hedged guess that the composer Robert Parsons, who drowned in the River Trent in the sixteenth century, might have written the tune, or that the title might refer to a ballad about him.[1]

Etching of London rooftops and the Thames seen from Arundel House, with figures on a terrace in the foreground

Wenceslaus Hollar, London from Arundel House, etching, 1643. London in 1643, a few years before Playford published the tune there; it has no connection to the tune.

Cecil Sharp published his reading of the dance in Part II of The Country Dance Book; in the revised edition of 1913 it is a dance for two couples in three parts, built from advances and retreats, sideways slips, turns with the opposite dancer and, in the last part, a hey.[5] Sharp reproduced the tune from the 1665 edition and pointed out how it differed from the first edition's: the second strain was a bar shorter, and the seventh degree of the scale had been sharpened.[5] Among the recordings listed by the Traditional Tune Archive are versions by the Baltimore Consort, by Hesperus on Early American Roots (1997), and by Bellowhead on Hedonism (2010).[1] For dulcimer players, Mark Gilston's arrangement is in English Country Dance Tunes, Volume 1, a licensed download of 24 tunes, where it keeps company with "Drive The Cold Winter Away" and "Upon A Summer's Day."[6]

Our book that contains the song "Parson's Farewell"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Parson's Farewell (The)".
  2. Country Dance and Song Society: "The Dancing Master, 1651–1728: An Illustrated Compendium – Introduction" (Robert M. Keller).
  3. Country Dance and Song Society: "The Dancing Master, 1651–1728: Title Index – P".
  4. Country Dance and Song Society: "The Dancing Master, 1651–1728: Parson's Farewel".
  5. Library of Dance: "Cecil J. Sharp, The Country Dance Book, Part II (2nd ed., 1913)".
  6. Mark Gilston: "English Country Dance Tunes, Volume 1".
  7. Image: Wenceslaus Hollar, London from Arundel House, etching, 1643. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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