Open downloadable pdf file: Ha_My_Ow_Mos

Notes

(1) Tonkin’s Spelling, (2) Morton Nance’s Spelling, (3) Modern Standard Written Form.

Literal English Translation: As I was going out – On a blue / green downs, -I heard the sound of little fishes – But I found one great fish with nine tails, All the people in St Ives and Marazion, Never could keep hold of it.

These words were given to Thomas Tonkin by Noel Cater of St Agnes in 1698 but no tune was recorded. The original spelling seems to be phonetic and misses some of the mutations of conventional Cornish orthography. Robert Morton Nance discusses this in the Old Cornwall Journal of 1929 and gives a unified and grammatically corrected version together with a melody composed by Michael Cardew. It seems that Morton Nance and Cardew were inspired by Carew’s contemporaneous mention of “Three Men’s Songs ” in his 1602 Survey of Cornwall to interpret this as a 3 or 6 piece canon. Tonkin’s and Morton Nance’s versions are given here together with a spelling in modern (Standard Written Form) Cornish. Nance doubles up on “an tros” to fit Cardew’s melody.

Sources

Thomas Tonkin Manuscript, Courtney Library, Royal Institution of Cornwall Museum.

Robert Morton Nance, A Fisherman’s Catch, Old Cornwall Vol. 1, no. 2, p. 31, Oct. 1925

Robert Morton Nance, A Cornish Three-Mens’ Song, Old Cornwall Vol. 1, no. 9, p.1, Apr. 1929