Who was the medieval composer of the motet from where the children's song 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat' was derived?

Arpeggionist

I'm venturing a wild guess, as English Middle-Age music is not entirely my field of expertise, but could it perhaps have been John Dunstable? Nov 21 06, 6:32 AM

skysmom65

Eliphalet Oram Lyte (1842 - 1913) was an American teacher and author of grammar and composition textbooks. He is credited as the composer of the tune to the popular song, Row, Row, Row Your Boat in the publication The Franklin Square Song Collection (1881, New York). Also indicated is that he adapted the lyrics, previously published to a different melody. http://www.answers.com/topic/eliphalet-oram-lyte Nov 21 06, 6:35 AM

Baloo55th

Lyte is hardly medieval - and not very well known for motets... On the other hand, I can find no other attribution. (Side note: Some people think kids are given weird names nowadays.....) Nov 21 06, 7:41 AM

Arpeggionist

They're Hebrew names, Baloo, even biblical ones. Nothing weird here. Nov 21 06, 8:43 AM

zbeckabee

The history of rounds discloses that very few examples have survived from the period before 1500. Therefore, study and analysis of the genetic stages are veiled by speculation and uncertainty; however, information and musical examples become more plentiful from the year 1509 to the present. ...three settings of the hymn tune known as Nuc Sancte nobis spiritus were used in the late eleventh century; with the earliest of these pieces, which is a rondellus, given the approximate date of 1065: ". . . The piece comes in the Office of St. Oswyn, a rare saint who was venerated at Tynemouth and also at St. Alban's. Oswyn, King of Northumbria, was buried in 651 in St. Mary's churchyard, at the mouth of the Tyne. His relics were found in 1065, and shortly afterwards Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, founded the Priory of St. Mary, where the relics were enshrined, and made it a dependency of St. Alban's. Hence St. Oswyn also appears in the St. Alban's calendar. The Office in which this rondellus appears may therefore have been written towards the end of the eleventh century... http://idrs.colorado.edu/Publications/Journal/JNL5/documented.html Nov 21 06, 9:17 AM

Baloo55th

Oram is supposedly of English origin, meaning 'from the riverbank enclosure'. Eliphalet may well have been one of David's sons, but it's not exactly a common name now. Just a thought more relevant to the question: perhaps tragic was asking for the origin of the original tune for Row Row, not the Lyte (calorie reduced?) version? Nov 21 06, 12:37 PM