Lovely Joan


Lovely Joan is a traditional English folk song, and the tune to which it is sung. Its melody is most familiar to modern audiences as the counterpoint tune used in British composer Ralph Greaves's arrangement of Fantasia on "Greensleeves" from Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera Sir John in Love.''

Lyrics

The words to "Lovely Joan," as printed in The Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, are as follows:
Sung by C. Jay, Acle, Norfolk.

Other uses

The melody for Lovely Joan was used by Emerson, Lake & Powell on the track Touch and Go of their eponymous album Emerson Lake & Powell in 1986.
The melody was used for a set of variations commissioned for the 2017 Presteigne Festival from a number of composers, who each wrote one variation. The composers were Thomas Hyde, David Matthews, Adrian Williams, Michael Berkeley, Christopher Gunning, Huw Watkins, Sally Beamish and Matthew Taylor.