Greensleeves, when sung properly, never fails to bring a tear to my eye. I’ve always thought “What Child” was lazy for pinching the melody. Loreena McKinnit’s version brings a lump to my throat. It sounds so sad.
Oof! I was thinking the same thing. There’s a world of aching heartbreak in that song of lost love. Why it’s on par with a hurtin’ country western tune in that respect.
Granted a buddy of mine got married and the “wedding song” was about adultery.
“Greensleeves/What Child is This” is also remarkably similar to “I Saw Three Ships”.
Ditto. That was my father’s favorite movie and that’s how he sang it. I learned Greensleeves and What Child later on and about the same time.
Thank you. The “minor” version is not only wrong, it’s boring.
And its name is “Greensleeves.” They should change “What Child is This?” to “What Song is This?”
Greensleeves. I learned it as What Child Is This way later, and even I was humming “Greensleeves was my heart and joy…” under my breath as I sang it.
Lute Skywatcher, I think I’ve learned a different version of I Saw Three Ships than you have… 
The one I know goes: middle C-F-F-G-A-C-A-G, B flat-A-F-F, A-G-middle C-middle C…
True, but it fits Greensleeves well enough. 
It’s not uncommon for hymns to be set to pre-existing melodies. ([Martin Luther]Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?[/Martin Luther]) If you look in a hymnal, for each hymn it’ll list the name of the tune (e.g. for “What Child Is This” the tune is “Greensleeves”). It’ll also give the composer and the lyricist, and sometimes their lifetimes don’t overlap. And if you look at the index of tunes in the back, you’ll see that more than one hymn often has the same tune.
He was Titus Andronicus.
Yes, that surprises me too. I thought ice cream trucks were supposed to play peppy tunes.
I know it as What Child Is This and was startled the first time I heard the tune in other context.
I’m shocked by the results as well. I thought “What Child Is This” was one of the more popular carols.
Anyway, hearing it, it sounds like WCIT as first, but there’s something not quite right about what would be the ends of lines were there words. I’d of though “Huh, they screwed up What Child Is This” before thinking of Greensleeves though I’ve heard of the WCIT/Greensleeves connection before.
Beyond the meter, I don’t see - er, hear much resemblance.
What Child first, then Greensleeves.
To thoroughly muddle up things, I’ve used the organ transcription of Vaughn Williams Greensleeves as Christmas music.
Speaking of ice cream trucks, one that wanders our neighborhood blares out La Cucaracha. I don’t know about you, but I’ll be durned if I’ll buy a food product from someone who plays a song about cockroaches. . . .
Greensleeves.
What child is this is a popular Christmas song, but I will identify the song as Greensleeves, which came first. I have seen carols where they gave the words to What Child is This and said sung to the melody of Greensleeves.
Did you know that hymnals list what other song melodies you can use in the book as an alternative to the one on that page. Only some of the songs have the alternative melody reference.
But many of them have the metric number at the bottom of the page, and then you can go to the back of the hymnal, check what other songs have the same meter and then know that you could probably sing Song A to the tune of Song B and the words would fit even if it sounded really funny.
Sometimes, there are lulls during Church services.
Maybe it’s just me but I have trouble keeping the two melodies straight.
Nobody really knows what “La Cucaracha” is about but one thing’s for sure, it’s not literally about cockroaches.
Am I the only one who thought of the Sex Pistols’ version first?
Anyways, about [sub]mumble[/sub] years ago I had a very cool high tech Casio digital watch that played three happy little tunes: Clementine, Dixie, and Greensleeves. That’s what it said in the manual, and so that’s the name of the song. Yep.
Huh. I missed that column. Thanks for the link.
Interesting that one verse of La Cucaracha talks about a cockroach who hasn’t any marijuana (a roach without a roach, one could say). A while back there was a discussion on these boards about how ice cream trucks could make enough money to stay in business. Some folks averred that some trucks sold drugs on the side. Hmmmm. Mebbe I should report the Cucaracha truck to the narcs.
Like fachverwirrt, it depends on context. If there are no words, most of the year I assume it’s Greensleeves and around Christmas I assume What Child Is This. I’ve done this since I was a child, and it wasn’t until recently that I even noticed it was the same melody. (It was pointed out to me when I was playing What Child at my aunt’s on their piano, and she told me that Greensleeves sounded very nice…).
I didn’t realize they were all the same tune until this thread. I knew about Twinkle Twinkle and Alphabet Song, because someone once complained that most people sing Alphabet Song wrong and explained it was the same as Twinkle Twinkle. Baa, Baa Black Sheep is a new one on me.
What is it that most people get wrong about the Alphabet Song?
We’re nationalizing the monasteries. But if they offer you one, don’t take it!