Annotation:Pretty Polly Oliver

Back to Pretty Polly Oliver

---

PRETTY POLLY OLIVER. English, Air (3/4 time). E Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. This 17th century air, from Playford’s Dancing Master, is the vehicle for broadside ballads [Roud #367] with several variant sets of lyrics. Walker (1924) mentions it by name as one of the better Playford pieces, “a model of graceful melodic curve.” "Polly Oliver" is one of the better-known songs that tell of women disguising themselves as male sailors or soldiers to follow their men to war.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. 2), 1859; p. 181.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
See the entry at Mainly Norfolk [1]

---