Staines Morris
Small Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

Item Number: 22048562
5 out of 5 Customer Rating
$4.99
Digital Download Instant Download

Taxes/VAT calculated at checkout.

Small Ensemble Bouzouki,Guitar,Harpsichord,Mandolin,Violin - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1017678

Composed by Anonymous. Arranged by Gordon Jackson. Baroque,Celtic,Classical,Folk,Irish,Multicultural,World. Score and parts. 4 pages. Gordon Jackson #6436745. Published by Gordon Jackson (A0.1017678).

Staines Morris

The song, Staines Morris, is very well known by singers of traditional songs. It’s a 17th century song. It’s a 19th century song. Actually, it’s both! The lyrics were certainly published, and probably written, by Robert Cox for his play Actaeon and Diana, published in 1656. The tune was first published in John Playford’s The English Dancing Master in 1651. There is no evidence that, in the 17th century, the lyrics were sung to this melody. That didn’t happen for two hundred years, when William Chappell put the two together for his Popular Music of the Olden Time, vol. 1 (1859).

I have added chords to the melody. Whilst humming the tune to myself, I found myself moving into 6/8 time, and that inspired me to compose a galliard based on it, complete with ‘divisions’ (runs of semiquavers or 32nd notes) and counterpoint.

The song melody and the galliard can be played separately or as parts of one piece, perhaps with the galliard played between two of the verses. I put the galliard in A minor, to provide a contrast with the D minor song melody, but play them in whatever key takes your fancy.

I have also added below the lyrics, as most often sung today.



Come ye young men, come along
With your music, dance and song
Bring your lasses in your hands
For ’tis that which love commands

  Then to the Maypole haste away
  For ’tis now our holiday

It is the choice time of the year
For the violets now appear
Now the rose receives its birth
And the pretty primrose decks the earth

And when you well reckoned have
What kisses you your sweetheart gave
Take them all again, and more
It will never make them poor

When you thus have spent your time
And the day be past its prime
To your beds repair at night
And dream there of your day’s delight




This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard’s global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.

About Digital Downloads

Digital Downloads are downloadable sheet music files that can be viewed directly on your computer, tablet or mobile device. Once you download your digital sheet music, you can view and print it at home, school, or anywhere you want to make music, and you don’t have to be connected to the internet. Just purchase, download and play!

PLEASE NOTE: Your Digital Download will have a watermark at the bottom of each page that will include your name, purchase date and number of copies purchased. You are only authorized to print the number of copies that you have purchased. You may not digitally distribute or print more copies than purchased for use (i.e., you may not print or digitally distribute individual copies to friends or students).