Lilli Bulero meaning

Subject: Lilli Bulero meaning
From: Lesley N.
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 09:41 AM

I did a forum search for this because I can't believe it is hasn't been discussed before! So if someone finds a previous thread this can be very short!!

According to one source the words "lillibulero" and "bullen al-a" were used as a rallying cry for the Irish to recognize one another in an uprising in 1641.

However, it doesn't say what the words mean... Any theories out there?

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From:
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 03:22 PM

The recent 'Sources of Irish Traditional Music', 1998, translates it as: Lilli/ bu le'ir o/, bu linn an la/ - Lilli will be manifest, the day will be ours. Wm. Lilli or Lilly was a famous astrologer of the time.

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: A Celtic Harper
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 06:06 PM

I have a vague memory of Irish author Brendan Behan addressing the meaning of Lillibulero - don't remember if his translation matches the above, good luck finding any of his books.

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: Lesley N.
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 06:08 PM

I found something at Rick Kopp's site gave a similiar lily phrase - but it indicates there is some symbolism behind the lily flower, though it didn't explain how it came to be a symbol.

Sounds like an interesting book. I take it you consider it worth the purchase?

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From:
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 09:41 PM

While I knew the tune had lyrics, I've never really known it as anything but a fife and drum tune played by British regiments. I think they still play it. The BBC Overseas Service starts their broadcast with a few bits from it.

For the decidedly anti-Irish lyrics sung by the English, see http://www.multidoc.co.nz/65th/Songbook/lillibul.htm

What were the Irish lyrics?

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: Lesley N.
Date: 04 Jul 99 - 10:49 PM

They're in DT under LILLI BURLERO. Same lyrics. There's some history there. The rallying cry must have been by the PROTESTANT Irish in 1641 (Catholic Irish were fighting Protestant Irish at the time). There should, I believe, be a correction to DT statement that the TUNE was sung in 1641 as it wasn't written until 1678. Here's more of what I found:

FYI, (Brother Teague referred to in the lyrics was then the nickname of the Irishmen - as John Bull would later be for Englishmen).

The origin of the tune/lyrics we know are as follows: Thomas, Lord Wharton (1640-1715), wrote a set of satirical verses titled Lillibolero regarding the Irish problems and set them to a melody written by Henry Purcell in 1678. Supposedly after the Stuarts were deposed Lord Wharton boasted that he had "rhymed James out of three kingdoms" with his tune.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannia Online the earliest known printed version of the tune now associated with the words appeared in Robert Carr's Delightful Companion (1686), for recorder or flute. The words, with the tune printed above, were issued on a broadside in 1688.

According to Bruce's site there is some doubt as to Wharton's authorship. Most sources (including Britannica) I found seem to accept it - doesn't mean that's the case!

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: Lesley N.
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 06:45 AM

More on the gaelic translation which supports the William Lilly theory. William Lilly (1602-1681) made a prophecy, Prophecy of the White King, which warned about a King who was going to be beheaded or killed. It was published in 1644 (after Marston Moor). Lilly actually wrote a letter to Charles I warning him of the prophecy. This would mean the second translation would certainly apply to William Wharton's lyrics, but not to the rallying cry in 1641. The rallying cry theory (which was by Brendan Behan) seems to be a myth - unless there is some other symbolism for the flower. Someone suggested the fleur de lis of France?

lesley
who really enjoys obscure history!

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: Lesley N.
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 07:33 AM

Oops - Brendan Behan only translated the lyrics to "The lily won the day for us." - I don't know if he said when it was used. The 1641 rallying cry theory is from The National Music of America and Its Sources (1900).

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: A Celtic Harper
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 08:45 AM

The tune (but not with the original words) was used in "The Beggar's Opera," in the 18th cent. by author John Gay - the original appearance of the character, Mack the Knife, supported by a cast of other highwaymen, footpads and sluts in slit skirts. Purcell did indeed make an arrangement of the tune, I don't believe he actually composed it. The Harvard Dictionary of Music goes on to further describe it as "A 17th-century political tune the melody of which appeared FIRST (my emphasis) under the name "Quickstep" in the "Delightful Companion" (1686). This melody [cf. Grove Dictionary iii, 198] was, in the following year, used to a political text, satirically directed against the Papists and the Irish Roman Catholics, which began as follows: Ho, broder Teague... The melody has been used for various other texts of the same type. It also appears under the name "A New Irish Tune" in "Musick's Hand Maid" for the Virginal and Spinet (1689) with H. Purcell given as the composer either of the tune or of the keyboard version. Purcell also used i t as a ground bass in his play "The Gordian Knot Unty'd" (1691)" Collins Encyclopedia of Music agrees with the above, likewise crediting Purcell only with having made a setting of the tune, not as the composer.

UT - A Celtic Harper, AKA Mari-Kat

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: Lesley N.
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 11:34 AM

Thanks for the clarification and information!

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From: Big Mick
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 01:10 PM

Great thread!!! Thanks for starting it.

All the best,

Big Mick

Subject: RE: Lilli Bulero meaining
From:
Date: 05 Jul 99 - 01:46 PM

The tune is first found untitled in Robert Carr's 'The Delightful Companion, 2nd ed. 1686, (B286 on Bruce Olson's website, from Simpson's BBBM). There is a MS addition of 'Quick-step' in the only copy known. This was before Tyrconnel was appointed deputy to Ireland, so the song as we know it wasn't that early. Next is a setting by Henry Purcell entitled "A New Irish Tune" in 'The Second Part of Musick's Handmaid', 1689 (reprinted in 'Sources of Irish Traditional Music', #121, 1998).

C. M. Simpson in 'The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music' cites the evidence of 1711 for Wharton's authorship, but concludes that it isn't very strong.

Anthony Wood dated his broadside copy of the song as December, 1688, but a verse broadside addressed to John Dryden on Nov. 5, 1688 mentions the song.

A copy of the song not noticed by Simpson in BBBM is in Cambridge Univ. Lib. MS 7112, where it is headed "The New Irish Song: In Anno: 1688 a little before King James ye second went out of the England", commencing:

Ho Brother Teague dost hear de decree
Lilly bullero, Bullen ala