No. 101. 'Twas na her bonie blue ee ivas my ruin.
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Source: «traditionalmusic.co.uk»
No. 101. 'Twas na her bonie blue e'e was my ruin. Currie, Works, 1800, iv. 229. 'Tune, Laddie lie near me. ' The MS. is in the Thomson collection. In a letter to Thomson, dated September, 1793, Burns explains his manner of writing songs and choice of melodies. ' Laddie lie near me, must lie by me for some time. I do not, know the air; and until I am complete master of a tune, in my own singing (such as it is), I never can compose for it My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment correspondent to my idea of the musical expression; then choose my theme; begin one stanza; when that is composed, which is generally the most difficult part of the business, I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for subjects in nature around me that are in unison and harmony with the cogitations of my fancy, and workings of my bosom, humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. When I feel my muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, and then commit my_effusion to paper; swinging at intervals on the hindlegs of my elbow-chair, b"y way of calling forth my own critical strictures as my pen goes on. Seriously, this at home is almost invariably my way.' In April, 1795, 'Twas na her bonie blue e'e was completed, but in the following May he suppressed it as unworthy of his pen. A black-letter English ballad of the seventeenth century to a ' northern tune' is entitled The longing shepherdess, or Lady lie near me. Ritson discovered a Northumberland ballad which begins:—
- ' Down in yon valley, soft shaded by mountains
- Heard I a lad an' lass making acquaintance ;
- Making acquaintance and singing so clearly,
- Lang hae I lain my lane, laddie lie near me.'
The English melody in Playford's Dancing Master, 1650, copied into Chappell's Popular Music, 18j, is not the same as that in the Scots Musical Museum, 1790, No. 218. The Scottish tune is also in McGibbqp's Scots Tunes, 1768, iv. 116; and Caledonian Pocket Companion, c. 1760, xii. /. See Tune and Notes, No. 142.
Source: «traditionalmusic.co.uk»
