Month of Maying

Click to play ( 2.0 MB)*

Two of the Gill Family Singers are also long standing Diddychwy members. Tony Gill (Senior) and Dominic Gill. Other members are: Tony Gill (Junior) Mark Gill and Lisa Buttery, formerly Lisa Gill. Special thanks to Ray Thomas, Sound engineer.

On this page below:

The Gill Family Singers sings, Now is the month of Maying

A history of the song, Now is the month of Maying

Words of the song, Now is the month of Maying

Written music of the song, Now is the month of Maying

Picture of Thomas Morley, author of Now is the month of Maying

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The Gill Family Singers sings, Now is the month of Maying

The month of Maying was also done by Diddychwy, but the song here is with The Gill Family Singers. 'Dawn Rowan' taught diddychwy this song. She was once a member of Diddychwy as a bass player and singer. Dawn was also a music teacher, so she had the necessary patience and skills to teach us this most complex of songs. But back in 1595 when the Now is the Month of Maying was composed, this complex type of song was what they were into. So have a listen to the lyrics ... "and to the bagpipes sound, the nymph's tread out there ground," now is this song about sex of what?!!! And what's prey tell does, "fa la la la la," etc etc mean!? Code for something! About sex or not, we sung it to young and old with abandon. Smiling and making gestures of appreciation to each other with every passing stanza. That's what they use to do with this kind of song back in the old days. I know ... I've seen it on TV. We always had a lot of fun with this song and people always seemed to enjoyed it.

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A history of the song, Now is the month of Maying

The 'Month of Maying' is a classic Madrical. And what's a Madrical you might rightfully ask? Wiki says this, "A madrigal is a type of secular vocal music composition, written during the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. Throughout most of its history it was polyphonic and unaccompanied by instruments, with the number of voices varying from two to eight, but most frequently three to six."

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Words of the song, Now is the month of Maying

Now is the month of Maying,
When merry lads are playing,
Fa la la la la.

Each with his bonny lass,
upon the greeny grass,
Fa la la la la.

The Spring clad all in gladness,
Doth laugh at Winter´s sadness,
Fa la la la la.

And to the bagpipes sound,
The nymphs tread out their ground,
Fa la la la la.

Fie then! why sit we musing,
Youth´s sweet delight refusing?
Fa la la la la.

Say dainty nymphs and speak,
shall we play Barley break?
Fa la la la la.

Retrieved from "http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Now_is_the_Month_of_Maying_%28Thomas_Morley%29"

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Written music of the song, Now is the month of Maying

Click this PDF file to see complete score of, Now is the month of Maying http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/c/c3/TUMS_Now_is_the_month_1_0.pdf