My bonny lass she smileth
My bonny lass she smileth is a famous English ballett, written by Thomas Morley and published in 1595 in his First Book of Balletts to Five Voices. A ballett was the English form of the Italian balletto, a light, homophonic, strophic song for three or more singers, distinguished by dance-like rhythms and "fa-la-la" refrains. It is based on an Italian madrigal, published by Gastoldi in 1591. The ChoralWiki gives the following words for the two opening verses.
The song was parodied by Peter Schickele
as:
The ballett is of form AABB and is in mode 7, the Mixolydian.
