Thursday 10 January 2019
Tune of the Day: Over the Hills and Far Away
Traditional British song, arranged for two flutes
This traditional British song dates back to at least the late 17th century. One version was published in Thomas D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy; a very different one appeared in George Farquhar's 1706 play The Recruiting Officer. A version also appears in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera of 1728, under the title “Were I laid on Greenland's coast”.
The present arrangement for two flutes is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in Philadelphia in 1833.