Scarborough Faire, and it's variants, being "popular" ballads that no doubt
evolved over time, probably couldn't be considered lute tunes (somehow I think
of lute music as being music written specifically for lute), though lutenists
no doubt played popular ballads on lute when it suited them (or their
audiences). I'm guessing most lutenists didn't often consider pop ballads
worthy of inclusion in lute music compilations.
My basic annoyance with most of the modern renditions is that they entirely
alter the original subject of the ballad, though not having researched this I
guess argueably those modern renditions may be based on older ones which did
the same thing. I prefer the variants that retain the stanzas that make
Scarborough Faire not a song about an angry/disappointed/disenchanted ex-lover
a la Greensleeves but a ballad about a supernatural encounter more akin to The
False Knight on the Road or Isabel and the Elf Knight. Some of the versions are
titled The Demon Lover after all. It's just so much niftier imho when the song
is about a human woman topping an evil spell than about a guy telling his ex in
no uncertain terms she'll have to perform miracles to get him back. ;) And
it's not like the missing stuff won't fit into the Simon/Carthy version just
fine.
>Somewhere in all this, John Renbourn's arrangement is surely worth a
>mention. That said, was it ever a lute tune?
>Tony
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