Lillibullero: Difference between revisions

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== Background ==

Henry Purcell composed the melody of "Lillibulero" for a [[march (music)|march]] in [[1686]]. The melody is found in the [[quickstep]], which is the second half of the piece. There is no extant manuscript of this 1686 march. It was first published that year in ''The Delightful Companion'', [[John Playford|John Playford's]] [[Method (music)|method book]] for [[Recorder_(musical_instrument)|recorder]]. Writing over 200 years later, [[William_Chappell_(writer)|William Chappell]] surmised that Purcell's tune deserves nine-tenths of the credit for the popularity of the song.<ref name="Grove">Chappell, William. "[https://books.google.com/books?id=01v0AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA730#v=onepage&q&f=false Purcell]", [[The_New_Grove_Dictionary_of_Music_and_Musicians#Grove's_Dictionary_of_Music_and_Musicians|Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Volume 2]]. 1900.</ref>{{rp|729}}

 

Also in 1686, [[Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton|Lord Thomas Wharton]] composed lyrics for Purcell's tune. The rakish Wharton was satirizing [[James II of England|King James II's]] appointment of [[Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell]] as [[Lord Deputy of Ireland]]. Wharton's conceit is a sarcastic conversation between two Irishmen about the imminent arrival of the Catholic Talbot, and its dire implications for the Protestants.<ref name="Mac" />{{rp|169}} "Lillibullero" was the watchword used by Irish Papists during the [[Irish Rebellion of 1641]].<ref name="Percy">Percy, Thomas. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=dhBNAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA358#v=onepage&q&f=falseReliques of Ancient English Poetry]'', Vol. 2. 1765.</ref>{{rp|358}}

 

The song initially made very little impression on the public. However, when James II began transferring Irish regiments to England in [[1688]], [[Broadside_(printing)|broadsides]] of the lyrics were printed, and "Lillibullero" became immensely popular by October.<ref name="Crump">Crump, Galbraith M. [ed], ''Poems on Affairs of State, Augustan Satirical Verse, 1660-1714'' Vol IV, 1685-1688. Yale, New Haven and London, 1968.</ref>{{rp|310}} It spread as a popular street song in English towns, and especially inside English barracks to mock the arriving Irish regiments.<ref name="Mac">Macaulay, Thomas Babington. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=cT8YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA169#v=onepage&q&f=false History of England], Vol. 3.'' 1869.</ref><ref name="Burnet">Burnet, Gilbert. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=W2ZZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA792#v=onepage&q&f=false Bishop Burnet's History of His Own time]'', Volume 1. 1724.</ref>{{rp|792}}

 

 

Wharton boasted that he had "sung a deluded Prince out of three kingdoms".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=S8dbAAAAcAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=a%20true%20relation%20intended%20riot%20queen's%20birthday&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false A true relation of the several facts and circumstances of the intended riot and tumult on Queen Elizabeth's birthday], 1711. 5.</ref> Many alternate versions cropped up during these tumultuous days. By 17 November an anti-Dutch parody of the original, "A New Song Upon the Hogen Mogens" was in circulation, drawing on popular animosity against the Dutch, who had been the national enemy for a generation, in order to counter the appeal of the original.<ref name="Crump" />{{rp|314}}

:And he will cut every Englishman's throat ''(Refrain)''

 

:The law's on their side and the devil knows what ''(Refrain)''

 

:We'll hang [[Magna Carta]] and themselves on a rope ''(Refrain)''

 

:And with his brave lads he's coming aboard ''(Refrain)''

 

:That they will have no Protestant heir ''(Refrain)''

 

:The heretics jear us and mauke me mad. ''(Refrain)''

 

:Poo', what impidence is in dish age? ''(Refrain)''

 

It is also thought that "Lilli" is a familiar form of William, and that bullero comes from the Irish "Buaill Léir ó", which gives: "William defeated all that remained".

 

 

===The Beggar's Opera===

 

 

 

===Protestant Boys===

 

There are two versions of "Protestant Boys", both sung to the tune of "Lillibullero". They begin as follows:

{{Col-break}}

:'''Version 2'''

:Why thus assembled, ye Protestant Boys?

:Call us to share of festivity's joys?

:Oh, no! 'tis the cause,

:That calls loyal Protestants now to unite;

:And Orange and Blue,

{{Col-end}}

 

The historian Blackner relates that a person of the name Gunthorpe, who within memory of persons then living [1815] kept the PunchBowl public house in Peck Lane Nottingham, sent a barrel of ale of his own brewing as a present to his brother, an officer in the navy, who in return composed this poetic epistle. It appears to have been a popular song around the end of the 18th century and was one which [[Oliver Goldsmith|Goldsmith]] enjoyed especially when sung by one of the comic singers who frequented one of his haunts in London.

 

{{Col-begin}}

{{Col-break}}

:Was a natural son, pray attend to my tale

:And they that thus chatter, mistake quite the matter

 

::Nottingham Ale, boys, Nottingham Ale

:To pay it due honours, not likely to fail

:He swore that on earth 'twas the town of his birth

 

{{Col-break}}

The 19th century nursery rhyme ''There Was An Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket'', published in the collection [[Mother Goose]],<ref>http://www.nurseryrhymesonline.com/old_woman_tossed_up_in_a_basket_illustrated_by_ww_denslow-9851.php</ref> is sung to the tune of "Lillibulero".<ref>http://tigerlilyworkshop.com/Wordpp/Lilibur.html</ref>

 

===Broadcasting===

 

 

A well-regarded argument for the persistence of Lillibullero as a signature tune of the BBC World Service was that its powerful and simple structure was an effective means of identifying the broadcaster. The engineers who selected it were unaware of its origins, though a BBC World Service history states that the choice of interval theme at the time was that of "the transmission engineers who found it particularly audible through short wave mush, and anyway [the BBC] knew it as a tune for the old English song "There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket, 20 times as high as the moon". Another likely reason for the particular choice of this tune during [[World War II]] is that its beginning bars sound the '[[V_sign#Second_World_War:_V_for_Victory_campaign|Victory V]]' rhythm (dit dit dit dah, repeated) i.e. the letter V in Morse code, which was used in various forms by the BBC in its home and foreign services."."<ref>See https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-david-cox-1265281.html for an obituary of its BBC composer David Cox.</ref>

One of the scoundrels in [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[Treasure Island]]'' (Chapter XVI) whistles the tune, whose title is mentioned four times.<ref>Stevenson, Robert Louis. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=V-JDAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=treasure%20island&pg=RA1-PA125#v=onepage&q&f=false Treasure Island]''. New York: Current Literature Publishing, 1910. 125.</ref>

 

 

[[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[The Baroque Cycle|Baroque Cycle]]'' also makes mention of Lillibulero's use as anti-Catholic propaganda.

 

The basic melody of "Lillibulero" appears to have been adapted by [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] for the theme of the first movement of his [[Piano_Sonata_No._11_(Mozart)|Piano Sonata No. 11]] in A major, K. 331 (1783). Since then, other composers have written variations on the Mozartean theme in which the relationship to Lillibulero is made even clearer, for example, [[Max Reger]]'s [[Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart]], Op. 132 (1914).

 

==External links==

 

{{Henry Purcell|state=collapsed}}

{{authority control}}

 

[[Category:Ballads]]

[[Category:Irish songs]]