Greensleeves

Greensleeves is a traditional English folk song, basically a ground of the form called a romanesca; the widely-believed legend is that it was composed by King Henry VIII (1491 - 1547). It likely circulated in manuscript, as most social music did, long before it was printed. A tune by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves." No copy of that printing is known. It appears in the surviving A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584) as "A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves. To the new tune of Green sleeves." Whether this suggests that an old tune of "Greensleeves" was in circulation, or which one our familiar tune is, remain mooted.

All files available for download are backing tracks, it's not the original music. More info...