Thursday 18 August 2011
Tune of the Day: Green Bushes
Traditional English song
This Mixolydian-mode song is a very English-sounding one. It dates from the 1760s, though it remained popular until the early years of the 20th century.
The melody is featured in the second movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams's English Folk Song Suite, in Percy Grainger's Green Bushes (Passacaglia on an English Folksong), and in George Butterworth's The Banks of Green Willow. It is also very similar to the melody of the “Lost Lady Found” movement of Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posy, and to “The Cutty Wren”.