Annotation:Jeannet and Jeannot

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JEANNET AND JEANNOT. English, Country Dance Tune and March (cut time). D Major (Turner ms.): G Major (Barber). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABCA. "Jeannot and Jeannot" can be found in the c. 1842-1852 music manuscript collection of Sussex musician Michael Turner. The third strain is a quotation from the French "La Marseillaise."

A drawing by John Brandard depicting Jeannette and Jeannot farewelling each other.

"Jeannette and Jeannot; or, The Conscript's Departure" [Roud No. 391] was a popular 1847 song printed on broadsides and included in period songsters. It is an anti-war songs of sorts, with the singer lamenting her lover's imminent departure to be a soldier, and her wish that she had the power to end war. The words were by Charles Jefferys to a tune by British theatre orchestra violinist and composer Charles W. Glover.

You are going far away,
Far away from poor Jeannette,
There is no one left to love me now,
And you, too, may forget;
But my heart will be with you,
Wherever you may go,
Can you look me in the face,
And say the name....Jeannot?

However, Glover's tune is different than the one Michael Turner entered in his music manuscript collection. Glover incorporated the title song into ‘The Jeannette and Jeannot Quadrille’, a dance music routine, and Edward Stirling (1807-1894) produced ‘Jeannette and Jeannot’, a musical drama in two acts, also known as ‘The village pride’. Perhaps Turner's melody reflects another piece from either longer work.

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Barber (Nick Barber's English Choice), 2002; No 8, p. 8. Anne Loughran & Vic Gammon (A Sussex Tune Book), 1982; No. 29, p. 11.

Recorded sources : - DCPCD0203, Nick & Mary Barber with Huw Jones - "Bonnie Kate."

See also listing at :
Read about Michael Turner at Musical Traditions [1]

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