The First of May
| TYPE | 3 - Complex Melody |
| TOPIC | Love |
| TUNE STRUCTURE | 26 bars |
| VERSE STRUCTURE | 3v 4l |
| TIME SIGNATURE | C |
| KEY SIGNATURE | ♯♯ |
| TONAL CENTRE | D |
| INCIPIT | GAGF♯GDAGF♯BC'B |
| GENRE | Art Song |
| TEXT SOURCE | 'The First of May' ([Dublin]: T. Walker, [1776]) British Library P.P.6154.k |
| TUNE SOURCE | as above |
| FIRST LINE | Love reigns this season, makes his choice |
| NOTATED INCIPIT | |
| This Dublin-printed song-sheet can be dated through its advertisement in the Dublin periodical, Walkers’s Hibernian Magazine (July 1776). The Rotunda Lying-In Hospital hosted musical concerts in the summer months and was the main concert venue in Dublin in the late eighteenth century. For more on the context of the Rotunda as a concert venue, see Brian Boydell, ‘Music at the Rotunda Gardens in Dublin, 1771-91’, Irish Musical Studies 1: Musicology in Ireland, eds. Gillen and White (Dublin, 1990): 99-116; and Brian Boydell, Rotunda Music in Eighteenth-Century Dublin (Dublin, 1992). | |
.jpg)
THE FIRST OF MAYA favourite NEW SONG sung by Miss JAMESON in the ROTUNDAI.Love reigns this Season, makes his Choices;And shall not we with Birds rejoice?O calm your Rage, hear Nature say,Be kind with me the first of MAY.II.Would you, like Misers, hate to bless,Keep Wealth from Youth you can’t possess:To Nature hark; you’ll hear her say,Be kind with me the first of MAY.III.Oh! then be bounteous, like the Spring,Which makes Creation sport and sing:With Nature let your Heart be gay,And both be kind the first of MAY.