Shepherd’s Hey reel

I feel a great emotional attachment to this tune as it is one of the first I learnt. It is also possibly *the* daggiest tune I know. I dedicate this tune to Mr. Will Harmon. When I play this tune, all these wonderful memories of school dinner times come flooding back - the sounds of kids’ voices echoing down the corridor, the clonking and sawing sounds of my mandolin teacher making an Appalachian dulcimer in the woodwork room, the squawky voice of the horrible dinner lady, the swearing of the lads playing football against the art room windows, the… the… the… oh I’m overcome.

Try it in the mellow key of F, it’s quite charming.

Hahaha! Look at the recordings it’s picked up.

T:Shepherd’s Hey (Dow’s Undagnified Mix)
|:BcdB cg~g2|BcdB AD~D2|BcdB cgge|fdcA BGGA:|
|:BAGB cAAd|BAGB AD~D2|BAGB cdeg|fdcA BGGA:|

Great tune, Mark. One of my all-time favourites. Livens up any session - I think the occasional English tune adds a little spice to the proceedings. I believe it’s been arranged and recorded a lot by orchestras, not least being the arrangement by Percy Grainger, who was responsible for saving so much folk music for posterity.
Trevor

Trevor, you are a man of taste, what can I say. Do you like my Undagnified Mix? I’ve overdone it a bit actually - the extra twiddly bits detract from the raw power of the tune I think.

Like oh my god it’s in 2 tunebooks already! As in, not mine or Trev’s.

Jeremy I know this looks like it should be in 2/4 but it’s not, it’s a reel, a Morris reel, a cool reel.

Why are dinner ladies always so horrible? I just had a flashback to when I was 8 years old. I was sitting in the school canteen eating my dinner and this girl (3 years below me I think) suddenly vomited on her plate. That grossed everyone out. How relieved we were when the dinner lady went to help the poor girl. Or so we thought. What she actually did was to order her to eat up her vomit off the plate - every last little chunk of it. For everyone in that room on that day, that one act transformed it from being just a gross incident at the dinner table to being a full on urban-myth-style recurring nightmare day we never forgot. And what made it even worse was this: the dinner lady was the girl’s own grandmother!

Will, try this (I’m actually serious!). Start with basic Shepherd’s Hey once thru’, then play my reel version, then go into Baltimore Salute (or Lansdowne Lass, whatever you call it, the one in G). LOL!

X: 1
T: Shepherd’s Hey
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
N: Harmon’s setting; goes well after the Concertina Reel
K: Gmaj
|BcdB c2 dc|BcdB ADFA|BcdB (3cdc Bc|dBAF DGGA:|
|:BAGB c2 dc|BAGB ADFA|BcdB cABc|dBAF DGGA:|

LOL! Now all you have to do is get yourself to like the Concertina Reel enough to want to play it :-P

oooh, heeeeey, we’re playing this in String ensemble.. Hmmm, I shall definitely play this more often XD XD

Dave Swarbrick thinks it could be an English version of "The Keel Row".

Nah. :-)

There are words sung to this tune:
"One can whistle, two can play, three can dance the Shepherd’s Hey"

Trevor

Another set of words for this tune, when it is know as "Lads-a-Bunchum" (whatever that may mean!) are:
"Oh dear mother, what a fool I be;
Here are six young fellows come a-courting me.
Three are blind and the others can’t see;
Oh dear mother, what a fool I be!"

Trevor

I’m sorry, Mark. This is a simple tune, right enough - and English to the core. But there’s something deliciously delicate about it. It may win in the roast beef steaks, but for dagginess, I’m afraid the Winster Gallop has it - it just… breaks wind in a public place.

A number of versions of this tune were collected in villages and towns in the West of England, extending into the Midlands; in particular the counties of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, and Warwickshire. These versions show the subtle differences in an apparently simple tune as it is played over a wide area. I suspect many of the differences arise from differences in the dances from area to area.

"A:" in the ABC refers to the area in which the tune was collected.
The metre (unless otherwise indicated) is M:4/4 or M:2/2
The standard note length is L:1/8

A:Adderbury
K:F
A2c2 B4 | A2c2 G4 | A2c2 B2AB | c2C2 F4 :|
|: A2F2 B4 | A2F2 G4 | A2c2 B2AB | c2C2 F4 :||
"variation"
F | ABcA B2B2 | ABcA G2C2 | ABcA B2AB | c2C2 F4 :|
|: A2F2 B4 | A2F2 G4 | A2c2 B2AB | c2C2 F4 :||

A:Ascot-under-Wychwood
K:G
B2d2 c2c2 | BcdB A2A2 | BcdB ccBc | d2A2 G4 :|
|: A | B2G2 c3A | B2G2 A4 | BcdB cBcA | d2A2 G3 :||

T:Shepherd’s Aye
A:Badby, Bidford
K:G
G | BcdB c2(3cdc | BcdB A2D2 | BcdB c2Bc | d2D2 G3A :|
|: B2G2 c3A | B2G2 A3A | BcdB c2Bc | d2D2 G3A :||

A:Bampton
K:G
D | GBdB c2c2 | BcdB A2A2 | GBdB c2Bc | d2D2 G4 :|
|: B | d2B2 c3d/c/ | B2G2 A4 | GBdB c2Bc | d2ef g2a/g/f/e |
d2B2 c3d/c/ | B2G2 A4 | GBdB c2Bc | d2D2 G3 ||

T:Shepherd’s Aid
A:Bidford
K:G
C | B>cd>B c2c2 | B>cd>B A2A2 | B>cd>B c2Bc | d2D2 G3A :|
|: B2G2 c3A | B2G2 A4 | B>cd>B c2Bc | d2D2 G3 :||
"variation"
T:Shepherd’s Hay
K:D
FGAF G2G2 | FGAF E2E2 | etc

A:Bledington
K:F
A>Bc>A B2B2 | A>Bc>A G2G2 | A>Bc>A B2A>B | c2C2 F4 :|
|: A2F2 B4 | A2F2 G4 | A>Bc>A B2B>G | c2C2 F4 :|
|: A4F4 | B4B4 | A4F4 | G4G4 | A>Bc>A B2B>G | c2C2 F4 :||

A:Brachley
K:G
c>de>c c2c2 | B>cd>B A4 | c>de>c c2B>c | d2D2 G4 :|
|: B2G2 c4 | B2G2 A4 | B>cd>B c2B>c | d2D2 G4 :||

A:Bucknell
N: no repeats in this version
K:G
BddB e2B2 | BddB A4 | d2B2 AGGA | B2A2 G4 ||
D2A2 B2G2 | d2A2 B4 | d2B2 AGGA | B2A2 G4 |
B2G2 c4 | B2G2 A4 | B2AB c2Bc | d2A2 G4 ||

A:Bucknell
N: no repeats in this version
K:G
B>de>B d2d2 | B>de>B A4 | c2 (3BcB A2e2 | d2D2 G4 ||
A | B2e2 d4 | B2d2 A4 | c2 (3BcB A2e2 | d2D2 G4 ||

A:Bucknell
N: no repeats in this version
K:F
A>Bc>A B2B2 | A>Bc>A G4 | A>Bc>A B2AB | c2C2 F4 ||
A2F2 G4 | A2F2 G4 | A2c2 B2d2 | c2C2 F4 ||

A:Headington
K:G
A | B>cd>B c2d>c | B>cd>B A2D2 | B>cd>B c2B>c | d2F2 G3 :|
|: A | B2G2 c3A | B2G2 A4 | B>cd>B c2B>c | d2f2 G3 :||

A:Ilmington
K:G
A | BcdB c2(3cdc | BcdB A2D2 | BcdB c2 Bc | 1 d2 D2 G3A :| 2 d2D2 G3 |
|: A | B2G2 c3A | B2G2 A3A | BcdB c2 Bc |d2 D2 G> :||

A:Leafield
K:G
G | BcdB c2c2 | B2d2 A4 | BcdB c2Bc | d2D2 G3 :|
|: B2B2 c4 | B2B2 A4 | B2AB c2Bc | d2D2 G4 :||

A:Leafield
N: a handerchief dance
K:G
M:2/2
B>c | d>cB>c d2e>f | g>ag>f e2B>c | d>cB>c d2e>f |
M:3/2
g>ag>f e6 :||: zd |
M:2/2
C2 (3ccc B>AG>B | d>c (3Bcd c>B (3Abc | B>AG2 A>Bc>d |
M:3/2
e>fg>f e6 :||

A:Lichfield
N: no repeats in this version
K:G
B2d2 c2c2 | BcdB A2A2 | BcdB ccBc | d2A2 G3 ||
A | B2G2 c3A | B2G2 A4 | BcdB cBcA | d2A2 G4 ||

A:Longborough
N: no repeats in this version
K:G
B2d2 cBc2 | B2d2 A4 | Bcd2 cBc2 | d2D2 G4 ||
B2G2 c3A | B2G2 A4 | Bcd2 {d}c2Bc | d2D2 G4 ||

A:Wheatley
K:G
A | BdeB d2d2 | BdeB A2G2 | GBB(3B/c/B/ A2e2 | d2D2 G3 :|
|: A | B2e2 d4 | b2e2 A4 | c2(3BcB A2e2 | d2D2 G3 :||

The common source for the above versions of this tune is Lionel Bacon’s encyclopaedic "A Handbook of Morris Dances" (1974), a privately printed publication (and still obtainable in some music stores).

Trevor

Oh my. That’s a load of hay. :o)
Nicely done Trevor.

I think my hay fever is acting up again -
Ahchoo!

I have some recolection of dittys being improvised to this tune for skipping rope. Come on Dow, you take on end, Trevor the other, and the rest of us will run through and see how long we last, singin’ and skippin’ - ain’t it sweet…

Try Hobgoblin (stores in Bristol and London, UK) for the Lionel Bacon book.

If anyone wants to hear the Grainger arrangement of this and other tunes, a large scale project on, I think, Hyperion, has (nearly) recorded his complete works. The "Molly on the Shore" arrangement is particularly good.

Trevor,"Lads O’ Bunchum" is a different tune.

Jocklet, yes, I know there’s a different tune called "Lads O’Bunchum", but if my understanding of a paragraph in Lionel Bacon is correct, Shepherd’s Hey has also been known by this name - not the first time that two tunes have shared the same name, of course.

Trevor

Yes,but you couldn’t sing the words you posted to the tune of "Sheperd’s Hey". Wrong rythym.

Cas Meurig has included this on her album "Crwth" played, not surprisingly, on the Crwth. She tends to use it in her performances and demonstrations of the Crwth.