Description

Humphrey Clucas writes: ‘A Clutch’, for three double basses, consists of five folk songs, played continuously, as follows: ‘Quand j’étais chez mon père’, ‘…I sowed the seeds of love’, ‘Pure and fair’, ‘Early one morning’, and ‘Widdecombe Fair’: one French, three English, and one, the third, entirely spurious since I wrote it myself, words and music.
The words are as follows: He tickled me under the chin, my dears, When spring was in the air;
For he was wicked as sin, my dears, And I was pure and fair.
So I cried, “Oh sir, for shame!” my dears, Remember your gentle birth!”
For I had never a name, my dears, But I knew what I was worth. I parried his every kiss, my dears, For all the gold he’d bring;
He promised me oh! such bliss, my dears, And I said, “But where’s the ring?”
Then he’s down on his bended knee, my dears, He much have me all his life;
So I thought, That’ll doe for me, my dears – And now I’m a wedded wife.