Where can i go to hear a vocal sample of the 17th century greensleeves by king h

Question:

Where can i go to hear a vocal sample of the 17th century greensleeves by king henry?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: To answer your question in detail, it needs to be established from which time period "Greensleeves" originates, since Henry VIII's authorship of this song has not been established with certainty. This is assuming that you wish to hear the "original" verision of "Greensleeves" (or as close as we can get to it these days). Answers.com provides the following synopsis of "Greensleeves'" provenance:

"Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song and tune, basically a ground of the form called a romanesca.

The widely-believed legend is that it was composed by King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547) for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Anne, the youngest daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, rejected Henry's attempts to seduce her. This rejection is apparently referred to in the song, when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously." It is not known if the legend is true, but the song is still commonly associated with Boleyn in the public mind. The widely-believed legend is that it was composed by King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547) for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Anne, the youngest daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, rejected Henry's attempts to seduce her. This rejection is apparently referred to in the song, when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously." It is not known if the legend is true, but the song is still commonly associated with Boleyn in the public mind.

It likely circulated in manuscript, as most social music did, long before it was printed. A tune by this name was registered at the London Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves." No copy of that printing is known. It appears in the surviving A Handful of Pleasant Delights (1584) as "A New Courtly Sonnet of the Lady Green Sleeves. To the new tune of Green sleeves." It remains debatable whether this suggests that an old tune of "Greensleeves" was in circulation, or which one our familiar tune is.

References
In Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, written around 1602, the character Mistress Ford refers twice without any explanation to the tune of "Green Sleeves," and Falstaff later exclaims:

Let the sky rain potatoes! Let it thunder to the tune of 'Greensleeves'!
All of these allusions suggest that the song was well known at that time.

This establishes that "Greensleeves" was a song known at the end of the British renaissance, which would - most likely - make it a lute song subject to the then current treatments such as voice with viol consort accompaniment, as well as polyphonic versions of the song performed either vocally or by a consort of viols or lutes or a mix thereof.

Based on this information, your best bet of hearing a good performance of what is probably the "original" verison of "Greensleeves" will be to listen to the the following recommended CDs, which are available on Amazon.com (search on Amazon.com using the keyword "Greensleeves"):

Voice and lute:
"Greensleeves: A Collection of English Lute Songs"
Performer: Ronn McFarlane, Julianne Baird
Audio CD (August 31, 1993)
Label: Dorian Recordings
ASIN: B000001Q89

A version for lute is available on:
"Musica Barocca" with Il Giardino Armonico:
Performer: Giovanni Antonini, Paolo Grazzi
Orchestra: Giardino Armonico Ensemble
Audio CD (15 Oct 2001)
Label: Teldec
ASIN: B000059QW3

and "Go From My Window"
Performer: Nigel North
Audio CD (11 Aug 2003)
Please Note: Requires SACD-compatible hardware
Format: SACD
Label: Linn
ASIN: B0000AQVKV

Recordings of voice with consort, viol consort and polyphonic vocal versions of "Greensleeves" do not seem readily available on Amazon.com at the time of writing, but have most likely been recorded in the past. There is, of course, the romanticised version by British composer Ralph Vaugh-Williams dating from the early 20th century for string orchestra. The Vaughn-Williams version of "Greensleeves" is available on numerous CD recordings, but it is not, obviously, the "original" version of the song as it would have been heard in the 16th century.