Fantasia on the Old English Folk Song, 'Lovely Joan.' By Stephen Gamble
- Rev Stephen Gamble
- 1 day ago
- 1 min read
Lovely Joan is a traditional English Folk Song. In the song a young man on a white horse tries to seduce pretty Joan by offering his gold ring in exchange for her favours. However, Joan is not just a pretty face, she accepts the ring, leaps onto his horse, and rides off - leaving the importunate man stranded in the meadows. As with many folk songs, there is a pastoral surface overlaying a darker themes. Is this a romance with a comic ending, or is the rich and powerful young man a menace? In either case, justice is done. I hope I have caught something of the spirit of the song in my Fantasia.
The tempo indications for this piece are, Andante cantabile - Allegretto ballabile. For those who care about such things, the music is organised in a modified sonata structure.
I am not the first composer to put the 4/4 Lovely Joan into 6/8, Vaughan Williams did so in his Greensleeves Fantasia.
Most of this music was written in June on holiday, but I have been improvising on this tune with my violin for years, so most of the ideas were just waiting to be written down.
The portrait of a woman comes from St Nicholas' Church, Gunby.
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