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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Dave Rado Origins: Wild Mountain Thyme/Braes o' Balquhidder (62* d) Origins: Wild Mountain Thyme/Braes o' Balquhidder 16 Jan 20


1) Although I've heard the Braes o' Balquhidder sung to a tune very similar to that of Wild Mountain Thyme (e.g. here), the tune it is is usually sung to, e.g. by Kenneth McKellar, Alma Gluck, Carl Peterson among others, is very different from the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme.

I presume this must therefore be the tune that Tannahill set his song to, although I can't find a definitive confirmation of that - according to many sources, he set it to the tune of a traditional air called "The Three Carls o' Buchanan," but I can't find any recordings of "The Three Carls o' Buchanan". So my first question is whether I'm right in thinking that the tune that McKellar, Gluck and Peterson sang it to is in fact the tune that Tannahill set it to.

2) If the answer to my first question is "yes", then whereas words of Wild Mountain Thyme are clearly derived from those of The Braes o' Balquhidder, their tunes are completely unrelated; in which case, what's the origin of Wild Mountain Thyme's tune? Did Francis McPeake compose it from scratch, or is it derived from yet another traditional tune?

I've read loads of mudcat threads about both songs but to my surprise I can't find any discussion of the origin of WMT's tune - and the Wikipedia article about Wild Mountain Thyme doesn't mention this either, despite the fact that it does discuss the origin of The Braes o' Balquhidder's tune!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dave

PS - The Tannahill Weavers also sing The Braes of Balquhidder to a tune very similar to the one that McKellar, Gluck and Peterson sang it to, but not quite the same and I don't like theirs as much.


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