Major Andre: written while he was a prisoner in the American camp. Together with The rose

This pastoral love song has long been attributed to Major John André on broadsides and in songsters. André was hanged in 1780 for his part in the plot with General Benedict Arnold to surrender West Point to the British. However, the lyric was actually written in England by a Miss Carter and set to music by Stephen Storace and had nothing to do with André. In the sheet music edition of ca. 1785, the credits are given in the title: “Ah! Delia See the Fatal Hour. A Favorite Arriette. Translated, by Miss Carter, from Part of that Beautiful Canzonette of [Pietro] Metastasio, Called La Partenza” (Schnapper 2:984). It also became known as “Damon to Delia, a Pastoral Song” and was copied by several American manuscript compilers, appearing in twenty-seven songsters between 1792 and 1815 (Wolfe, Secular Music #5519 and #6850; R. Keller, Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources). It is credited to André in the (Bennington) Vermont Gazette on December 28, 1789, and in most sources after that. The sentimental attribution to André undoubtedly helped sales considerably.

Another sentimental song, “The Rose” was written by the English poet William Cowper (1731-1800). Cowper was emotionally unstable for most of his life and retired to the country to live with the family of Mrs. Mary Unwin, probably the Mary of this text. The tone of the poem seems to reflect the ups and downs of Cowper’s life.

The text was set to music by at least three composers: [George?] Knowles, “Mr. [Samuel] Webbe” (Freeman), and Benjamin Milgrove (Schnapper 675; Wolfe, Secular Music #9677). It is likely that the setting by “Mr. Knowles” published in Boston around 1808 was the one familiar to Coverly’s patrons.[1] The text appeared in forty songsters between 1790 and 1820 (R. Keller).