A lyric database for folk songs

[loninappleton]

Below are some lyrics I could only catch by ear for a production of an 18th Century play. Are there databases or tools to
find a whole song based on fragments? Doing this by ear , what is printed below is guess work. Something obvious like trying to enter a word string in Google is pointless. I tried that and The Duck Duch Go as well.

I have a video clip of this same 40 second song and dance. I don't recall if I posted it in here rather than an ask somewhere else.

Here's the link if interested.

https://mega.nz/file/7ggAjIbJ#wEvXrBR3UrKRHNEAxN-jxbwLhR29Hc-hW8c0romUl0U

Edit. I just tried this and it looks like I did not mux in the subtitle. Nobody told me of the error. I can make a new
one... just not at the moment.


This is a part of a 3 hour play pretty much done from scratch from which I did have a sub source previously. However I use a book text and HI descriptions manually line by line with Subtitle Edit. So this 40 seconds is the only part I haven't completed. This lyric like several others are not in the text and I had to research the sources.

00:50:33,846 --> 00:50:35,846
♫ Round and Round the feared suppression

830
00:50:35,852 --> 00:50:38,352
♫-- for we shall be fortified

831
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:40,620
♫ We'll drink to the next in succession

832
00:50:40,929 --> 00:50:42,523
♫ And keep it in the right line

833
00:50:43,800 --> 00:50:45,694
♫ Bring us here ten thousand glasses

834
00:50:45,720 --> 00:50:47,214
♫ The more we drink we're dry

835
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:50,454
♫ We'll find all the beautiful lasses

836
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:53,054
♫ Comfort lies all in the eyes

837
00:50:53,220 --> 00:50:54,218
♫ Fill the cups and cans

838
00:50:54,224 --> 00:50:56,982
♫ and bring the hopes sail in

839
00:50:56,988 --> 00:51:02,726
♫ We'll begin with ......
♫... a primer to the king...

840
00:51:02,732 --> 00:51:06,432
(repeats and out)
♫..... a primer to the Kiiiiing... ! ♫

841


To be clear, words like primer (pronounced like 'rimmer' ) I was guess at.

lines 831 and 832 sound accurate to me.
so does Line 833, 834 and 835

[robertoferrari]

I don't think that is a "folk" or popular song. I think it's from some notable composer of elizabethan theatre songs like Purcell, or Arne, or Ravenscroft or any other composer of english partsongs and tavern songs of seventeen or eighteen century.

[loninappleton]

I don't think that is a "folk" or popular song. I think it's from some notable composer of elizabethan theatre songs like Purcell, or Arne, or Ravenscroft or any other composer of english partsongs and tavern songs of seventeen or eighteen century.

I don't know Ravenscroft but you may have something since the clip is from The Beaux Stratagem-- a production
which incorporated tunes like "Triffling Song" from the play itself by Farquhar, an Oliver Goldsmith poem set to music called The Traveller, and closes with -- I think it's Dryden-- poem called "Happy Is The Man" sung as "Happy Is The Maid" by one of the leads. I was able to find these. The drinking song has offered no leads.

I'll have a clip made in a bit-- working on subs there's lots of different renderings I've started.

[loninappleton]

Your remarks gave me a lead. I went back to the theatre review of the production. In it they mention
Michael Bruce and there's some info here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bruce_(composer)

I had tried to follow the end credits of the video but did not see much except a list of musicians.

For Bruce, I don't know if he has a list of published songs that might give hints of reference. "Round and Round" as example from the first lyric line.

[loninappleton]

Here's a fresh clip with the rough subtitle muxed in for both audio and text.

https://mega.nz/file/npYD1TZS#2o72rZeXmT5Z_pY_ioh1RGs7B3nZENry5oMLn2DwjuM

[robertoferrari]

Sorry, I don't know. Effectively the music seems "folky" or maybe a traditional tune arranged in a contemporary folk way. There are some english musicians like Stu Venable or female irish group like The Merry Wives Of Windsor that sing a lot of pub, tavern and drinking songs. Difficult to say.

[loninappleton]

Apparently from the Guardian review and the Wiki Michael Bruce has put out a lot of work for theatre and film. The resume is impressive even for the music in just The Beaux Stratagem. With so little to go on I'll continue to look but since my subs are largely for a private audience of theatre fileshares I'm going to go ahead and finish it for their archive-- maybe with just a super that says two characters sing a song of toasting the king.

My goal in these is to get others interested in doing subtitling to preserve and enhance these plays-- not just for hearing impaired but people like me who view things late at night in low volume. I know there are stream services possible with added subs to these plays from 10 years ago re-released but I haven't seen the detail in some that I've learned to appreciate.

[pcspeak]

You may have this from Gutenberg.
The Beaux' Stratagem.7z

Cheers.

[loninappleton]

Hello pcspeak

I have a good copy of the play: from a 1933 Modern Library edition.

I haven't read through that Gutenberg though. What's needed is the
equivilent of a play script with everything in it. Those things don't go out to the public.