WALES traditional – Song, ‘The Ash Grove’ – CELLO AND PIANO (easy)

Other Identification:
“The Ash Grove” (Welsh: Llwyn Onn) is a traditional Welsh folk song whose melody has been set to numerous sets of lyrics. The best-known English lyrics were written by Thomas Oliphant in the 19th century.
The first published version of the tune was in 1802 in The Bardic Museum, a book written by the harpist Edward Jones. About four years later a version with words appeared, under the name ‘Llwyn Onn’. It tells of a sailor’s love for “Gwen of Llwyn”.
The tune might be much older, as often happens in folk music, for a similar air appears in ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ by John Gay (1728), in the song “Cease Your Funning”. This was even arranged by Beethoven in his Twelve Scottish Songs, WoO 156 No. 5. In 1922, after research, the English folksong collector Frank Kidson claimed that Gay’s air derives from the even older morris dance tune “Constant Billy”, which is first known in Playford’s Dancing Master (1665)!