English Folksong "The Beggar" -old 2008 audio w/ arrangement sheet

[Matthew Heumann]

Cecil Sharp first published this folk song in 1916, calling it, and its earlier renditions from comic-dramas of the 1500s, the "First English Drinking Song of Any Merit". This is my arrangement for English Concertina. Some words may differ between the old audio and the printed arrangement, a change they refer to as "the Folk Process".

 

 

 

Edited January 16 by Matthew Heumann
correction

[David Barnert]

We do a Morris dance to this tune. One “we” devised ourselves (“we” in quotes because it was in the early 1980s, and I didn’t join the team until 1986). We call it “I’d Rather be a Beggar than a King.” It’s in the Beverwyck tradition, Beverwyck being the name the Dutch called what the English later called Albany.

 

Edited to add:

 

BTW, Matt: No e at the end of Cecil Sharp’s name.

 

Edited January 16 by David Barnert