A Riddle-Song (Jennifer Bastable)

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• (Posted 2025-10-09)  CPDL #87064:       

Editor: Jennifer Bastable (submitted 2025-10-09).   Score information: Letter, 6 pages, 342 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: A Riddle-Song
Composer: Jennifer Bastable
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 5vv   Voicing: SSATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published:
Description: A setting for SSATB of a traditional riddle-rhyme. Old Noll was a nickname given to Oliver Cromwell by Royalist contemporaries, so the verse is assumed to date from the mid-seventeenth century.

The final two lines are not part of the original text.

Original text and translations

English text

Purple, yellow, red, and green,
The king cannot reach it, nor the queen;
Nor can old Noll, whose power's so great:
Tell me this riddle while I count eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Richard of York gave battle in vain.