Sir Patrick Spence- McCauley (TN) 1937 Brown
[There are four excerpts: 1) Brown Collection Vol. 2; 1952; 2) Brown Collection music Vol. 4; 3) Southern Folklore Quarterly announcement and 4) Southern Folklore Quarterly December, 1937- text and music.
This is the second published US version of Sir Patrick Spens.
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
OLDER BALLADS MOSTLY BRITISH (Volume 2 and 4)
16. Sir Patrick Spens
(Child 58)
Until a few years ago it seemed that "the grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence" was extinct in American, as indeed also in British, tradition. But in 1937 Mr. John Powell, of Virginia, published in the first number of the Southern Folk-Lore Quarterly an admirable text, with tune, as sung for him by Mr. George Tucker, who learned it from his grandmother, as she had learned it from hers, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. And within the year the same journal presented another version, this time from the singing of Miss Clara J. McCauley, supervisor of music in the Knoxville schools, reported by Professor E. C. Kirkland of the University of Tennessee. This second version goes back, really, to North Carolina ; Miss McCauley learned it from her father's singing at their home near Chapel Hill. Professor Kirkland and the Quarterly have very kindly consented to our reproducing it here as part of the ballad lore of North Carolina.
'Sir Patrick Spence.' Recorded by E. C. Kirkland in August 1937, from the singing of Miss Clara J. McCauley.
The king he sits in Dumferling town,
A-drinking his blood-red wine,
'Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor
That ever sailed the brine.'
The king still sits in Dumferling town,
And a-sipping his red, red wine,
'Now where can I get a good sailor
To man this ship o' mine?'
Oh up then said a yellow-haired lad
Just by the king's left knee,
'Sir Patrick Spence is the best skipper
That ever sailed the sea.'
Oh up then spoke an old. old knight
Right nigh the king's right knee,
'Sir, you are the very, very best sailor
That ever sailed the sea.'
The king he wrote a good letter
And a-sealed it with his hand ;
And when Sir Patrick Spence got it
He was strolling on the sand.
Sir Patrick read the orders from the king
That made him laugh at first,
But as he read another sad line,
Sir Patrick feared the worst.
He took his ship to far Norway,
A-sailing o'er the sea.
To get a lovely maiden fair
And to fetch her back, said he.
They sailed and sailed for many a day
Upon the wild, wild sea,
But our good sailor Sir Patrick Spence
Was drowned in the deep.
So the king sits on in Dumferling town
A-drinking his blood-red wine,
'Oh, where can I get a good sailor
To sail this ship of mine?'
---------------------------------------
Sir Patrick Spens
(Child 58)
'Sir Patrick Spence.' Sung by Miss Clara J. McCauley. Recorded by Professor E. C. Kirkland at Sewanee, Tenn., August 1937.
Scale: Hexachordal, plagal. Tonal Center: g. Structure: aa1a2b (2,2,2,2) =
aa1 (4,4). This is the second stanza
________________________
SIR PATRICK SPENS[9]
(Child 58)
"Sir Patrick Spence" was recorded August 5, 1937, by Miss Clara J. McCauley, Supervisor of Public School Music in the city schools. She remembers hearing her father sing it in Orange County, North Carolina, and says that members of her family have been singing it for as long as she can remember. she does not know where her father learned it, but believes that the variant as she sings it has not been influenced in text or melody by printed versions.
This eleven-stanza variant, although shorter than most printed texts, tells a fairly complete story, and opens as usual with the king sitting in Dumferling town drinking his blood-red wine. The motive for Sir Patrick's journey, to bring back a lovely maiden from far Norway, is given; however, the air of impending tragedy usually stressed is passed over quickly and the story moves rapidly toward the catastrophe. The ending is unusual. Instead of the ladies who wait tragically for the Scottish lords who will never return, we have a picture of life going on in Dumferling town, as the king still sits, drinking his blood-red wine and asking, "Where can I get a good sailor to sail this ship of mine?"
The Knoxville variant is the second, to be found in America;[10] the first, discovered by Mr. John Powell at Norfolk, Virginia,[11] fol-
-----------
9. For text and tune see Edwin Capers Kirkland, "Sir Patrick Spens Found in Tennessee," SFQ, I (December, 1937), 1-2. [This article is found below]
10. I have information which I hope will lead to other variants; but as yet I have been unable to collect them.
11. In the Lowlands Low," SFQ, I (March, 1937), pp. 1-12.
_____________________________________________________
69
-ows closely Child's H. The Knoxville text is also a variant of Child's H, but shows more variation from the child text than Mr.
Powell's variant. The tune is different from, and we think more pleasing than, that published by Mr. Powell or the one found in
Alexander Keith's Last Leaves of Traditional Ballad's and Ballad Airs'" The last part of the tune is the same as that published by professor Child," which he took from the Harris MS., "Ballads learned by Amelia Harris in her childhood from an old nurse in Perthshire the last years of the 18th century); taken down by her daughter, who has added a few of her own collecting with an appendix of airs. Harvard College Library."
------------------------
Southern Folklore Quarterly December, 1937:
SIR PATRICK SPENS FOUND IN TENNESSEE
by Edwin Capers Kirkland
THE first American version of "Sir Patrick Spens"[1] as reported recently by John Powell from Virginia.[2] On August 5, 1937, I
recorded on an acetate disk a version of "Sir Patrick Spens," sung by Miss Clara J. McCauley, Supervisor of Public School Music in the schools of Knoxville, Tennessee. She remembers hearing her father sing it at the country home near Chapel Hill, North Carolina and says that members of her family have been singing it for at reast thirty or forty years. Like Mr. George Tucker, who communicated the first American version, Miss McCauley quickly wrote out the tune after she had made a recording of the ballad.
In his article Mr. Powell states that "the general public has made up its mind that all our traditional music must be 'mountain music'." [1] His protest, "I am a folk musician. Why must I be excluded because I was born far from mountain fastnesses, because f can read and write, because I have had a musical education?" is supported by the fact that the second variant of "Sir patrick Spens," like the first, came from an educated and trained musician.
SIR PATRICK SPENCE
[music]
The king he sits in Dumferling town,
A-drinking his blood red wine,
"Sir Patrick Spence is the best sailor
That ever sailed the brine."
The king still sits in Dumferling town,
And a-sipping his red, red wine,
"Now where can I get a good sailor
To man this ship o' mine ?"
Oh up then said a yellow haired lad
Just by the king's left knee,
"Sir Patrick Spence is the best skipper
That ever sailed the sea."
Oh up then spoke an old, old knight
Right nigh the king's right knee,
"Sir, you are the very, very best sailor
That ever sailed the sea."
The king he wrote a good letter
And a-sealed it with his hand;
And when Sir Patrick Spence got it
He was strolling on the sand.
Sir Patrick read the orders from the king
That made him laugh at first,
But as he read another sad line,
Sir Patrick feared the worst.
He took his ship to far Norway,
A-sailing o'er the sea,
To get a lovely maiden fair
And to fetch her back, said he.
They sailed and sailed for many a day
Upon the wild, wild sea,
But our good sailor Sir Patrick Spence
Was drowned in the deep.
So the king sits on in Dumferling town
A-drinking his blood red wine,
"Oh, where can I get a good sailor
To sail this ship of mine?"
[University of Tennessee.]
------------------------------
1. 'John Powell, "In the Lowlands Low," Southern Folklore Quarterly, I (March, 1937), pp. 1-12.
2. Ibid., p. 1.
3. "Ibid., p. 2.