Greensleeves (jig)

English tune in Irish jig 6/8 time -- Key of A minor (0 sharps)

(Time through) Daniel Barbara-Lee Denise Val Dale Tony
1 Bass pizz. Zills starting C part Harmony starting B part Harmony starting 2nd A part Chords starting 2nd A part Melody
2 Bass pizz. Zills Harmony Melody Chords (tacit) until C part, then joining melody

Tempo is dotted-quarter-note = 69 bpm (four beats per measure), counting in "1-2-1-2".

Background: this is an Irish-jig version of an old and popular tune, referenced as early as 1597 by William Shakespear in his play The Merry Wives of Windsor. Only later was it used as the musical basis for popular carol What Child Is This? written in 1865 by William Chatterton Dix, and usually played at a slow tempo. Our tempo is likely closer in tempo to the Greensleeves of Shakespearean times, of which Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor references ``Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves''.