Greensleeves (Old English Air)

The famous melody and words for the English folksong, "Greensleeves" were written around 1580. Many scholars now believe that the text may well have been written by King Henry VIII for Anne Boleyn, but this has never been proven. Most of us are acquainted with the first verse of words, but probably don't know the rest - and there are LOTS more! (See first comment for the complete text.)

This arrangement was made by J. Stuart Archer (1866-1954), and was published by Paxton in 1945. I've recently done a number of works by Archer, and will be doing more. Thanks to one of our members, "adrianw", I have some new biographical details which I will share.

This arrangement is a very clever and effective blending of the tudor and modern (at the time) periods. Like many of Archer's works, it sets forth a technical issue to be solved - in this case, finger substitution in chords and in rhythm. This accompaniment, with the chords in a "HEAVY - light" pattern "replicate the effect" of a harp or guitar being strummed.

The dark colors of the Hereford reeds are very beautiful here. I've been as smooth as I could be, but the closely recorded, and somewhat "baroquey" sound of the Choir ALWAYS makes you sound less legato than you are.

Both the score and MIDI are included below.

More Archer coming soon... ;-)