Sleevenotes: Swiss Boy

Swiss Boy

I learned this as a country dance tune - I was taught it by the late Dave Haines who said it came from the Hardy family MSS (you can find the tune in The Yetties' The Musical Heritage of Thomas Hardy Volume 1).

The tune derives from a popular song, the words of which began:

"Come, arouse thee, arouse thee, my brave Swiss boy
Take thy pail, and to labour away :
The sun is up, with ruddy beam,
The kine are thronging to the stream."

Frankly, you'll see why we've decided to keep this as an instrumental...

The words can be found on a number of ballad sheets in the Bodleian's collection, That shown here was printed in Manchester in the second half of the ninetheenth century, but the song was also one of 25 included on a New Oxford Garland [and] Sea and other Songs, printed by W. King, St. Peter's-le-Bailey, Oxford, circa 1835 (not available on the Bodleian website). There's a real mix of song types on that sheet: the first song is The fair maid of Oxford city ("Its of a fair maid in Oxford city ..." - presumably Oxford City) , followed by Robert Burns' Highland Mary, and later by "God save the king". For his majesty, William the IVth.

There are several copies of sheet music of the Swiss Boy (all undated) on the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music.

Andrew Kuntz's Fiddler's Companion tells us that

There was a vogue for a time in both England and the United States during the 1820’s and 1830’s for ‘Tyrolese Melodies’, popularized by touring singing groups from the Continent, including yodellers. “The Swiss Boy,” or as it was often called, “The Merry Swiss Boy,” was a particularly popular song composition of Ignaz Moscheles (from his Tyrolese Melodies), a friend of Beethoven’s and teacher of Franz Mendelson’s. Although originally a song air, the melody was adapted for dancing as a march or even a polka. The tune appears in many British fiddlers’ manuscripts. In addition to Gibbons and Hardy... it appears in the music manuscripts of George Spencer (Leeds, west Yorkshire, 1831), Charles Fox (Beverley, east Yorkshire, 1830), John Moore (Tyneside, 1841), the Browne family (Troutbeck, Cumbria), James Haslingden (Midlands or south of England, 1827), and James Winder (Wyresdale, Lancashire, 1835).

Here's a typical example, from George Spencer of Leeds, circa 1831 (from the Village Music Project).

The Swiss Boy, from the George Spencer MS (Village Music Project)

Preceded by Girl with the blue dress on