Daughters Three- Williamson (VA) 1932 Davis BB, 1935 Wilkinson B
[My title, none given in Bronson 1959, No. 56, Wilkinson B. Davis gives the title as "The Two Sisters," More Traditional Ballads, 1960, version BB. Bronson gives a single stanza with music from the notebook of William Wilkinson who worked with Kyle Davis Jr. in the 30s writing musical transcriptions for folk songs and ballads. Bronson did not see Davis' book which came out a year later.
Davis's full version below, with notes.
R. Matteson 2014]
[Daughters Three]- Bronson 56, Wilkinson MSS., 1935-36, p. 14(B). Sung by Mrs. Kit Williamson, Evington, Va., October 19, 1935. m D (inflected III)
[music upcoming]
There was an old man in our town,
Bow down,
There was an old man in our town,
And there it's been to me.
There was an old man in our town,
And he had daughters one, two, three.
That'll be true, true to my love to you.
---------------
Davis, More Traditional Ballads, 1960
BB. "The Two Sisters." Phonograph record (aluminum) made by A. K. Davis, Jr. Sung by Mrs. Kit Williamson of Yellow Branch, Va. Campbell County. August 4, 1932. Text transcibed by P. C. Worthington. Tune noted by Winston Wilkinson. "Beautiful tune" (E. C. Mead). Independently collected by Miss Juliet Fauntleroy, of Altavista, Va. Sung by Mrs. Williamson March 15, 1934. Tune noted by Mrs. Paul Cheatham, of Lynchburg, Va. Two stanzas.
Though Mrs. Chetham's notation is corroborative, only the Wilkinson transcription from the record is presented here. Mrs. Williamson's beautiful voice and fine folk style, with strict timing, make her presentation of this excellent tune a most appealing performance. The musical variants are worth noting (in both senses!) Mrs. Williamson here (and elsewhere) makes effective use of a subtle variety of ornamentation known as a "glottal catch" or sometimes a slur to a falsetto note above-an embellishment which not even Mr. Wilkinson's careful notation has been able to reproduce.
In subsequent stanzas or omission of lines there are minor variations such as the addition or omission of an "O," the change of an "and" to an "oh" or a "so," etc., but those minor variations hardly justify the printing of the repetitions in full. The singer, of course, given value to these repetitions.
1 There was an old man in our town,
Bow down
There was an old man in our town,
And there it's been to me,
There was an old man in our town,
And he had daughters one, two, three.
That'll be true, true, true to my love, to you.
2. There was a young man went courting there,
And he took choice of the youngest fair.
3. "Sister, O sister, let's we walk out,
And view them brooks[1] on the water's bay."
4. As they was walking down the water's bay,
The eldest pushed the youngest in.
5. "Sister, O sister, just loan me your hand,
And you may have my house and land.
6. Sister, O sister, just loan me your glove,
And you shall have my own true love."
7. "I'll neither loan you my hand nor my glove,
But I will marry your own true love."
8. So down she sank and away she swam,
She swum into a miller's mill dam.[2]
9. "Miller, O miller, yon swims a swan,
There comes a maiden on."[3]
10. The miller he got his fishing hook,
And fish-ed the maiden from the brook.
1. "Brooks" is indistinct and might be "ducks."
2. The last words of this line are indistinct ; they might be "miller's dam" or "miller's dam."
3. This line is uncertain.