Remembering The Old Songs:

WE BE SOLDIERS THREE

by Bob Waltz

And now, for something completely different.

This column normally looks at the songs which stand at the roots of bluegrass and old-time music. But bluegrass, in particular, is more than a set of songs. It involves a certain class of instruments -- and it involves a particular style of harmony.

Now I've no doubt that people have been singing harmony for almost as long as they've been singing at all. But harmony as a system is relatively recent.

And few played a greater part in that system than Thomas Ravenscroft (c. 1590-c. 1633). There isn't space in this column to detail all that Ravenscroft did, but he was both an arranger (e.g. he is our earliest source for the important ballad The Three Ravens) and a composer of church and secular music — by which he did much to bring harmony to the people.

So this month, we're going to do Ravenscroft, as interpreted by Curtis & Loretta. We Be Soldiers Three is from Deuteromelia (1609), and is a curiosity; at that point the British weren't involved in the Low Countries. Presumably, Ravenscroft was talking about something else — but I've no clue what.

We learn much about harmonic theory just by comparing Curtis & Loretta's version with Ravenscroft's. They learned it from a Renaissance band I've never heard of, and they don't use Ravenscroft's precise tune. This, I think, is partly the fault of William Chappell, who published the piece in Popular Music of the Olden Time, but interpreted it according to his notions of harmony. I've shown the piece as Curtis and Loretta sing it -- but also show a bit of the Ravenscroft/D'Urfey/Chappell corrected harmonization, transposed to E minor (the original was in G minor).

It's a fine melody either way. I heartily recommend you listen to the Curtis & Loretta rendition on Sit Down Beside Me.

[CLICK HERE FOR SHEET MUSIC (pdf file)]

Complete Lyrics:
Chorus:
We be soldiers three
Pardona moy je vous an pree¹
Lately come forth of the low contry
With never a penny of mony.²

Here, good fellow, I'll drink to thee
Pardona moy je vous an pree
To all good fellows wherever they be
With never a penny of mony.

Here, good fellow, I'll sing you a song,
Sing for the brave and sing for the strong,
To all those living and those who are gone,
With never a penny of mony³

And he who will not pledge me this
Pardona moy je vous an pree
Payes for the shot what ever it is
With never a penny of mony.

Footnotes:
1. Read "pardon me, please" (idiomatic)

2. "many": so Chappell. Curtis and Loretta sing "money." This may be dialect for "many" — i.e. read "with never a penny from many."

3. This verse isn't in Chappell, who instead has a final verse:
Charge it againe boy, charge it againe,
Pardona moy je vous an pree
As long as there is any inck in thy pen,
With never a penny of mony.