I think I may have mentioned before that I really like some English Folk songs and enjoy singing them when we occasionally include them in our choir’s programme. One of my favourite tunes amongst them is the old Greensleeves which dates back to Tudor times and I’ve chosen an instrumental adaptation by Ralph Vaughan Williams which he called Fantasia on Greensleeves - performed by BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andrew Davis.
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waitingforgodo
Level 8
Feb 3, 2022
1
Not exactly Vaughan-Williams standard…but probably more popular!
I close my eyes and can see the pink ice-cream van disgorging it's fat fanned fare then hear it's stirring song as it oinks and boinks along.
waitingforgodo
Level 8
Feb 3, 2022
1
…I’ll have a Ninety-Nine please!
Always a favourite. Good old Greenfleas.
Look at how many people working the land. So many there then, now so few.
Vaughan Williams was indeed a master of adapting English folk songs.
Did Henry VIII write Greenfleas or did he take credit from another?
rogerbenham
Level 8
Feb 3, 2022
1
I think it was anecdotally attributed to him at one time…I doubt that he actually wrote it, but it did seem to originate around the time he was on the throne.
@Marionville Wikipedia: There is a persistent belief that Greensleeves was composed by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Boleyn allegedly rejected King Henry's attempts to seduce her and this rejection may be referred to in the song when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously". However, the piece is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after Henry's death, making it more likely to be Elizabethan in origin. A broadside ballad by the name "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" was registered by Richard Jones at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580.
It's lovely. 
RhondaShotwell
Level 7
Feb 3, 2022
1
It is…glad you like it.
So relaxing and beautiful to the ear. Love it!
Redheadedgammy
Level 9
Feb 3, 2022
1
Glad you do.