The Conscript's Departure: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"The Conscript's Departure" is the alternative title of "Jeannette and Jeannot," a song with music by Charles W. Glover and words by Charles Jefferys.[1][2] The Traditional Tune Archive dates the song to the late 1840s and notes that Glover, a London-born violinist and composer, was the elder brother of the songwriter Stephen Glover.[3] In the Traditional Ballad Index's summary, the singer is a woman whose lover is leaving for the army; she worries that he will forget her and longs to bring war to an end.[4] The title carried over into other works, among them Glover's own Jeannette and Jeannot Quadrille and a two-act musical drama of the same name by Edward Stirling.[5]

Lithograph of two young conscripts with ribbons in their caps setting off on foot as two women and a boy look on

Célestin Nanteuil, Two Conscripts, lithograph on chine collé, ca. 1830–70. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

American publishers took the song up: the Library of Congress holds an 1850 Philadelphia edition from A. Fiot arranged with guitar accompaniment, and the Levy Sheet Music Collection at Johns Hopkins has an undated Baltimore edition from F. D. Benteen that pairs "The Conscript's Departure" with Jeannot's answer and "The Soldier's Return."[2][1] It also passed into oral tradition: the Ballad Index, which gives its Roud number as 391, cites a version titled "Genette and Genoe" in Huntington's whalemen collection.[4] In England, Alfred Williams noted it from a Mrs. Russell of Tetbury between 1913 and 1916, and GlosTrad notes that the song caught on in the United States and appeared in several American song collections, while English collectors have found it only a few times.[6] The melody circulated among fiddlers too, and the Tune Archive reports it in a manuscript that came into the hands of the south Ulster curate and fiddler Luke Donnellan.[3]

Aubrey Atwater includes it in Song By Song, Vol. II, her book of dulcimer tablature for traditional songs, where it is listed as "The Conscript's Departure" with "Jeannette And Jeannot" as a second title, in DGD tuning.[7]

Our book that contains the song "The Conscript's Departure"

Sources

  1. Levy Sheet Music Collection, Johns Hopkins University: "Jeannette & Jeannot. Includes (1) The Conscript's Departure; (2) Cheer Up My Own Jeannette. Jeannot's Answer. (3) The Soldier's Return".
  2. Library of Congress: "Jeanette and Jeannot, or, The conscript's departure".
  3. Traditional Tune Archive: "Jeannette and Jeannot".
  4. Traditional Ballad Index: "Jeanette and Jeannot".
  5. Traditional Tune Archive: "Jeannet and Jeannot".
  6. GlosTrad: "Jeanette".
  7. Aubrey Atwater: "Song By Song, Vol. II".
  8. Image: Célestin Nanteuil, Two Conscripts, lithograph on chine collé, ca. 1830–70. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song