PREFACE. WHATEVER may be esteemed the value of the present work, it
is the outcome of much pleasant labour. The compilers wish has been
to at least temporarily rescue from oblivion some few of the old
airs, which, passing from mouth to mouth for generations, are fast
disappearing before the modern effusions of the music hall and
concert room. He believes that inany of the airs here noted down
are excellent specimens of mebdy, and as such, are worthy of
preservation that they have a peculiar quaintness, a sweetness, and
a tenderness of expression, absent in the music of the present day,
which it is impossible to successfully imitate. He has endeavoured
to set down the airs as far as musical notes will permit with the
utmost fidelity, scrupulously avoiding any attempt at arrangement
or emendation, for, however desirable it might be in some instances
to amend the airs from corruptions which have crept in, the Editor
has considered that he would be scarcely justified in tampering
with them, as such an attempt at revisal would greatly detract from
the antiquarian value of the whole. It is possible that some
musical reader may find much to criticise in the technical
arrangement of the melodies. The Editor certainly does not claim
that they are absolutely perfect, but he would merely remind such
reader of the fact so well-known to persons who have attempted the
feat, that very great difficulty attends the notation of irregular
old melodies from untutored singers. An endeavour to be
scrupulously exact in attempting to put the airs before the reader
as the Editor has heard them sung, may have led hiin into some
technical errors, but he trusts that these are not serious and will
be pardoned. With regard to the printing of the airs pure and
simple and without harmony, an extract from the preface of John
Hullahs Song Book applies so exactly to the present case that it
may be quoted The presentation of these songs without accompaniment
has been dictated, not merely by want of space but by the desire to
present them in their original forms for, in almost every case, the
tune is the on original part of the music of a national song, the
addition even of a bass having been generally made by a later
hand-not always guided by a sympathetic spirit. To the above may be
added that the traditional airs forming the present volume have
perhaps never been harmonized. They have either been sung by a
single singer or by parties of singers in unison, or performed on
such a simple instrument as the flute or fiddle. Is it, then,
desirable to put such old wine into new bottles Where it is,
however, deemed desirable to add harmony for the purpose of playing
them on the piano, it will be in general found that a thin bass
will be more in the character of the old harmonies, put to songs
which were printed and issued when these traditional airs were most
popular. The Editor has here to thank the many kind friends who
have interested themselves in the work, and to the contributors of
airs and songs his warmest acknowledgments are offered. Chief among
the contributors to be thanked are Mr. Benjamin Holgate, of
Headingley, and Mr. Charles Lolley, of Leeds, to both of whose
retentive memories of songs heard in earlier years much of the
contents of this book is due. Mr. Holgates remembrances are of the
songs once popular in and around Leeds, and Mr. Lolleys are of
those in the district of Howden, in the East Riding of Yorkshire.
Mr. Lolley has, besides, while this work has been in progress,
taken a great deal of trouble in collecting airs for it from other
parts of the East Riding...
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