Ambleside Folksongs

We've been concentrating on Australian folksongs recently, and will continue to do so, but I decided to also include three Year 8 suggestions from Ambleside Online (AO) for my two older boys who are studying Renaissance & Reformation history using the AO curriculum.

Barbara Allen:



The Death of Queen Jane - lovely scenes on the video:



This information was included with the video on youtube:

'The Death of Queen Jane' discusses the death of Jane Seymour, wife to Henry VIII, (but never actually crowned as Queen) who gave birth to Edward VI of England on October 12th, 1537. Jane Seymour died twelve days later. Edward died aged 15. It is possible that Seymour was the only one of his wives whom Henry seriously loved and his delight at being given a male heir was destroyed by the death of Jane. The mysterious verse concerning building a castle seems to have no part of the rest of the narrative; nonetheless, it does appear in at least one other version of the song. The video was filmed at Dun Guaire Castle,Kinvara, Co. Galway, Ireland. The castle is open for visitors.

Sylvia Crawford: musical arrangement, keyboards, fiddles, wire-strung mediaeval harp, finger cymbals
Fred Johnston: vocals, guitar, bowed psaltery.

Three Mariners



This is the website for The One-Man Renaissance Band. He has other songs from the same time period that you may find useful.

And last, but certainly not least, a version of Click Go the Shears, the Aussie folksong suggested at AO for June 2012.



I must have had a fetish for the ukele - if you check over in my music post you'll see this instrument used in a classical music piece.