Country Gardens

"Country Gardens" is an English folk tune collected by Cecil Sharp from the playing of William Kimber and arranged for piano in 1918 by Percy Grainger.

For the Chinese real estate company, see Country Garden.

In 2008,[1] "Country Gardens" was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry.

A version of "Country Gardens" appears in the Quaker's Opera of 1728.[2]

Use in Morris dancing

Several Cotswold villages used differing versions of the tune for their Morris dances: Bampton in the Bush (collected by Roy Dommett from Arnold Woodley); "Field Town" (Leafield - collected by Kenworthy Schofield) ; Headington (collected by Carey) and Longborough (collected by Cecil Sharp and Schofield).[3]

Format of renditions

The tune and the Grainger arrangement for piano and orchestra is a favourite with school orchestras, and other performances of the work include morris dancing. Jimmie Rodgers sang a well-known version ("English Country Garden"), which reached Number 5 in the UK charts in June 1962. The lyrics refer to several species of bird which are not native to England but are found only in the Americas. Anglo-Australian comedian Rolf Harris recorded a parody of the Rodgers version in the 1970s. Comedian Allan Sherman used this melody as the tune for his 1963 song, "Here's to the Crabgrass".

See also

References
  1. Country Gardens
  2. Walker, Thomas (2011-08-31) [First published 1728]. "The Quaker's Opera (Walker, Thomas) - IMSLP/Petrucci Music Library - Free Public Domain Sheet Music". London. p. 37. Retrieved 2017-12-27.
  3. Bacon, Lionel (1974). A Handbook of Morris Dances. The Morris Ring.

Video clips


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