Oranges and Lemons
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
The tune and country dance directions for "Oranges and Lemons"<br> date to 1665 when it was published in the third edition of<br> The Dancing Master. It was retained through the eighth<br> edition of 1690 after which it disappears from the series.<br> The dance directions are labelled a Round, but it is really a<br> 'Square-eight'--the prototype of the contre-danse, Quadrille and<br> Lancers, notes Cecil Sharp (Musical Times, January 1, 1916). <br> It was also printed in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time,<br> vol. 2, (1859), It was also printed in Karpeles & Schofield's A Selection of 100<br> English Folk Dance Airs (1951) and Sharp's Country Dance Tunes (1909).<br> It was recorded on The English Country Dancing Master, vol 2 by<br> The Telemann Society.<br> A period nursery rhyme and play-party song called "Bells of St. Clements",<br> a play at rhyming upon the names of London churches with bell-towers,<br> contains the lines: <br> Gay go up and gay go down,<br> To ring the bells of London town.<br> Oranges and lemons,<br> Say the bells of St. Clements.<br> You owe me five farthings,<br> Say the bells of Saint Martin's;<br> The earliest version of this lyric appears in Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song Book (1744)<br> long after the tune was dropped from The Dancing Master.<br> There is a resemblance between "Bells of St. Clements" and Idris Davies' poem<br> "The Bells of Rhymney" which was set to music by Pete Seeger.<br>
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