Annotation:Woods so Wild (The)
X:1 T:Shall I go Walk in the Woods so Wild? M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air B:Chappel - Popular Music of the Olden Time (1858) K:Gmin BBB B2F|G2F D3|EFG A2G|c2B (AG)F| B2B B2F|G2F D2B|A2G F2D|E2C C3||
WOODS SO WILD, THE. AKA - "Shall I go Walk in the Woods so WIld?" "Woods soe Wilde (The)." AKA and see "Greenwood," "Huntsman (The)." English, Air (3/4 time). G Mixolydian or G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The air, based on the Tudor-era folk tune "Will Yow Walke the Woods soe Wylde," was set three times by the English composer wikipedia:William_Byrd, and Chappell (1859) gives an alternate ending by another famous composer, Orlando Gibbons. The tune’s words have long been lost, save for the short refrain: “Shall I go walk the wood so wild, wandering, wandering, here and there.” The melody and variation sets appear in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (1610-1625), Lady Neville's Virginal Book, William Ballet's Lute Book, Pammelia (1609), and John Playford's English Dancing Master (1650, through edition of 1690, as "Greenwood" and "The Huntsman"). David Cashman explains:
The renaissance English composer William Byrd (1543-1623) wrote a set of fourteen variations on a melody entitled The Woods so Wild[1]. It is believed that this work is based upon a popular improvisatory technique, which Byrd adapted to his needs. Unusually, additional to the melody upon which the variations are based, Byrd uses a ground. This technique of using a ground as well as song upon which to improvise is atypical of the genre. The ground adopted is problematic, as it involves a monotonous alternation of a tonic and supertonic, necessitating strong and interesting harmonic writing. Byrd provides this with a shift to mixolydian mode and writes with the lightest touch possible.
The tune is set in the Lydian or Mixolydian mode, depending upon where one hears the tonic.
- ↑ "The Woods Soe Wilde" was set for the virginal by the English composer wikipedia:William_Byrd (c. 1540-1623) in My Lady Nevell's Book (1590).