Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket", also known as "Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket" is an English<br> Morris dance tune in 6/8 or 2/2 time and D Major (Raven), F Major (Bacon-Bidford, Carlin),<br> G Major (Bacon), G Mixolydian (Bacon) or B Flat Major (Bacon-Bidford). <br> The parts are played AAB (Bacon, Carlin), AABA (Bacon-Bidford), AABB (Raven) or<br> AABCBCBC (Bacon-Headington).<br> The title "The Old Woman Tossed Up In a Blanket" is taken from the nursery rhyme and song<br> indexed as Roud #1297 (which is perhaps a nonsense song remnant), <br> There was an old woman tossed up in a basket<br> Seventy times as high as the moon.<br> What she did there I could not but ask it<br> For in each hand she carried a broom.<br> <br> “Old woman, old woman, old woman,” said I<br> “Where are you going to up so high?”<br> “To sweep the cobwebs from the sky<br> And you may come with me if you can fly.”<br> "Old Woman Tossed Up" exists in song and dance versions. As a song, the lyric was early set<br> to the tune of<br> "Lillibulero"<br> (an early version of which appears in in Henry Playford's Musick's Hand-Maid (1689) as<br> "An Irish Tune") and was a favorite of Oliver Goldsmith. It is similar to the Scottish<br> "There was a wee wifie rowed up in a blanket").<br> It is similar to the Irish "Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket" tune but has three parts.<br> The tune was one of the most popular among Cotswold morris dancers, with similar versions collected<br> from the villages of Bidford (Warwickshire), Bledington (Gloucestershire), Longborough<br> (Gloucestershire), Kirtlington (Oxfordshire), Headington (Oxfordshire) and Ilmington (Warwickshire).<br> Some variants of "Old Woman Tossed up" are very similar to strains found in<br> "The Kerry Dance", "St. Patrick's Day", "Patrick's Day", "Love in a Village," and "The Charms of<br> Melody".<br> It was printed in<br> Bacon's A Handbook of Morris Dances (1974),<br> Carlin's Master Collection (1984),<br> Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984) and<br> Trim's Thomas Hardy (1990).<br> It was recorded by Hutchings et al on Morris On (1983/1972).<br>
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