Lillibullero
"Lillibullero" (also spelt Lillibulero, Lilliburlero, or Lilli Burlero) is a march attributed to Henry Purcell that became popular in England at the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
Writing over 200 years later, William Chappell surmised that Purcell's tune deserves nine-tenths of the credit for the popularity of the song.
The rakish Wharton was satirizing King James II's appointment of Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell as Lord Deputy of Ireland.
Wharton's conceit is a sarcastic conversation between two Irishmen about the imminent arrival of the Catholic Talbot, and its dire implications for the Protestants.
However, when James II began transferring Irish regiments to England in 1688, broadsides of the lyrics were printed, and "Lillibullero" became immensely popular by October.
The lily may be a reference to the fleur de lis of France, or to the most celebrated astrologer of the mid-seventeenth century, William Lilly, who became well known for prophesy at this time and to whom could readily be attributed foreknowledge that a Catholic would be king of England.
It appears to have been a popular song around the end of the 18th century and was one which Goldsmith enjoyed especially when sung by one of the comic singers who frequented one of his haunts in London.
In recent times, the melody and refrain of Lillibullero are frequently paired with lyrics from the ballad The Farmer's Curst Wife.
[12] The lyrics tell the story of a ploughman's wife who is taken away to Hell by the Devil, but is subsequently returned to Earth due to her violent acts against demons.
[15] A well-regarded argument for the persistence of Lillibullero as a signature tune of the BBC World Service was that its powerful and simple structure was an effective means of identifying the broadcaster.
The engineers who selected it were unaware of its origins, though a BBC World Service history states that the choice of interval theme at the time was that of "the transmission engineers who found it particularly audible through short wave mush, and anyway [the BBC] knew it as a tune for the old English song 'There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket, 20 times as high as the moon'.
"[citation needed] The recently initiated BBC Persian TV service makes use of a re-mixed version of Lillibullero as the title theme for its music programmes.
A British Army veteran of the fighting in Ireland and the Low Countries during King William's reign, Toby whistles "Lillibullero" when he is offered any opinion or argument which would require passionate rebuttal or which he finds embarrassing or upsetting.
[19] In Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley, the highland Chieftain Fergus Mac-Ivor sings a verse of "Lillibulero" during a dinner before he and his comrades prepare for battle on the side of the Pretender.
[20] One of the scoundrels in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island (Chapter XVI) whistles the tune, whose title is mentioned four times.
[21] One of Kage Baker's principal characters of The Life of the World to Come, Alec, loves this tune and it is referenced by him several times.
[23] A French version is known as the Marche du Prince d'Orange, and is attributed to Louis XIV's court composers Philidor the Elder and Jean-Baptiste Lully.
[citation needed] The basic melody of "Lillibulero" appears to have been adapted by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart for the theme of the first movement of his Piano Sonata No.
In 1936 Walter Niemann wrote Kleine Variationen uber eine alt-irische Volksweise (Little Variations on an Old Irish Folksong), Op.
Michael Longcor adapted "Lillibullero" as a setting for Rudyard Kipling's poem "Brown Bess" on his album, Norman and Saxon.
