Can you name this tune?

**piperdbh** · 30th December 11, 05:23 PM

I can read your notation system just fine. It's clearly in 3/4, starts out with a 1 1/2 beat pick-up to the first measure (+ 3 + [1+2 + 3 +] 1+2... and so forth. However, I'm away from an instrument or a hymnal either one, so I'm not much help.
By the way, to paraphrase Col. Jock Sinclair, "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree" is a cheesy tune (and text).

**glenlivet** · 31st December 11, 03:38 PM

Ok, how's this? http://flic.kr/p/b52z38

**davidg** · 31st December 11, 06:29 PM

On the top of the score it shows info about the lyrics top left and the tune top right. The tune is simply noted as "Scottish folk song" arranged by K. Lee Scott

That suggests that the name, if one ever existed for this tune, has been lost in the mists of time. Copyright convention dictates that if K. Lee Scott actually knew what the tune was called he SHOULD have used its proper name

Have you searched for information on the arranger? Such a search may throw more light on the subject

**EagleJCS** · 31st December 11, 08:49 PM

When I did the search for 'Jesus the Apple Tree', Joshua Smith was one of the other names mentioned.

"The first known publication of 'Jesus Christ the Apple Tree' was in 1784 in Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the use of Religious Assemblies and Private Christians compiled by Joshua Smith, a lay Baptist minister from New Hampshire. The hymn may have been based on an earlier anonymous poem first printed in London's Spiritual Magazine in August 1761 crediting 'R.H.' as the writer."

It's quite possile this is an old Scottish melody that has remained unattributed for a couple of centuries. There are several tunes like this in the pipe band world and the Scottish fiddle tradition, when the tune has been published and re-published as 'trad' or 'anon' so many times the original composer has been forgotten.

**glenlivet** · 1st January 12, 06:49 AM

Originally Posted by davidg

On the top of the score it shows info about the lyrics top left and the tune top right. The tune is simply noted as "Scottish folk song" arranged by K. Lee Scott

That suggests that the name, if one ever existed for this tune, has been lost in the mists of time. Copyright convention dictates that if K. Lee Scott actually knew what the tune was called he SHOULD have used its proper name

Have you searched for information on the arranger? Such a search may throw more light on the subject

True, and I'd been toying with the idea of seeing if I could contact K. Lee Scott, and ask where s/he found the tune.

Thanks for everyone's feedback! I was hoping someone might know the words that might be more familiarly (well, not to me) set to that particular tune. Even knowing that might be a little bit of help. My wife & I well know that the origins of most "traditional" or "folk" tunes are indeed usually lost in the mists of time, as you say.

**piperdbh** · 1st January 12, 09:20 AM

If you can't find the original text, any text written in long meter will work. For those who have forgotten high school English class, long meter is a quatrain written in iambic tetrameter, or 4 lines of 8 syllables each with a light-HEAVY pattern to each pair of syllables. Most hymnals list the meter of their entries, and you can pair anything written in long meter (or sometimes called 8.8.8.8) with this tune.
Let us know what you come up with.