ROSE OF ALLENDALE, THE. English, Air (whole time). C Major (Howe/Accordeon): D Major (Howe/Companion, Sumner/Gibbons). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The provenance of the song "Rose of Allendale" [Roud 1218] is sometimes credited to Ireland or Scotland, but the air and song is associated with north of England where Allendale is a town in Northumberland, north-east England. Rather than a traditional piece, it is a composed parlor song by Charles Jeffreys, set to music by Sidney Nelson in the first half of the 19th century. Dating the piece is uncertain: it was printed in England in Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine in 1833, and was included in New York music publisher Edward Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 4, dated 1826. The first stanza and chorus (in the Copper Family's version) go:
The morn was fair, the sky was clear, no breath came over the sea, When Mary left her highland cot and wandered forth with me. Though flowers decked the mountain side and fragrance filled the vale, By far the sweetest flower there was the Rose of Allendale.
Chorus: Sweet Rose of Allendale, sweet Rose of Allendale, By far the sweetest flower there was the Rose of Allendale.
Additional notes Source for notated version : - the 1823-26 music mss of papermaker and musician Joshua Gibbons (1778-1871, of Tealby, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire Wolds) [Sumner].
Printed sources : - Howe (Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon), 1843; p. 14. Howe (Second Part of the Musician's Companion), 1843; p. 4. Edward Riley (Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 4), 1826; p. 94. Sumner (Lincolnshire Collections, vol. 1: The Joshua Gibbons Manuscript), 1997; p. 25.
Recorded sources : - Dara Records DARA, Mary Black - "Rose of Allendale" (1982).
See also listing at : Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index; An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Hear a version of the song by Andy Turner [2]
