Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament

Subject: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: GUEST,cherokee
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 10:59 AM

I'm trying to find lyrics for
Neil Gow's Lament; so far I have been
able to find a version performed by
Alison Krause - "Get Me Through December".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: GUEST,scabby douglas
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 11:38 AM

Which Gow lament were you looking for?

I've foound three so far and was not really looking very hard:

Niel Gow's Lament For James Moray Esq. of Abercairney
Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of his Brother Donald
Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife

Incidentally, when searching, you might want to bear in mind that it's Niel, not Neil.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: scouse
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 11:54 AM

I thought they where all tunes!!!!Especially Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife..It's one of me claims to fame.. Davy Steele said to me years ago in Skagen in Denmark "I bet you I can make you cry".. I told him to bugger off.He then he went over to Aly Bain and Jon Cunningham and whispered in their ear.. I then heard the most beautiful music I'd ever known. "Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife." I cried!!! Nough said.
As Aye,
Phil

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: GUEST,cherokee
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 12:40 PM

Sorry - forgot that there are a number of
Niel Gow laments; I am looking for:
"Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of his Second Wife"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From:
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 01:12 PM

Niel Gow was a composer of music. There are no lyrics to the tune. It's been famous for a couple of hundred years, but I don't recall ever hearing a song associated with it. (Alison Krauss not withstanding)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Geoff Wallis
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 01:14 PM

Hmm, I'm puzzled since Niel Gow only wrote tunes (or 'borrowed' them from earlier sources), not songs.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Cluin
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 01:41 PM

This is one of the most beautiful aires ever composed, but I have never heard lyrics for it.

Not to say someone has written any to the tune at some time, but they certainly aren't needed.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Aug 07 - 04:13 PM

"Aire", bleurgh. Doe alle thee Americanes belike themselves to spelle with a superfluositie of e's like untoe that? (The old Scots spellings are "ayr" and "air", about equally common. "Aire" features nowhere).

There probably were words. Gow ripped the tune off. It's based on an older Irish tune, "Kitty Tyrrell", which may not be known from any Irish source, but the Gows themselves published it (I think in the same volume as the lament, to make it even easier to spot where it came from).

You have to wonder about a man who couldn't be bothered to write any tune for his first wife and nicked one for his second.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Cluin
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 01:25 AM

Actually, it was a typo, Jack.

Time for a new kleenex. That one's full.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: GUEST,MC Fat
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 03:49 AM

Try looking at Michael Marra's website I think it's one of his songs

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Gedpipes
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 05:15 AM

If you want to hear a beautiful version try
Pete Clark and the Niel Gow Ensemble

Blue skies
Ged

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: GUEST,info
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 06:09 AM

"You have to wonder about a man who couldn't be bothered to write any tune for his first wife and nicked one for his second. "

I understood that his "second wife" referred to his fiddle, which he loved so much he called it his second wife

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Nick
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 06:17 AM

Tune with a bit of dancing!

Text below is from here

1523
CD Cut 10 – "Get Me Through December"
Gordie Sampson & Fred Lavery, based on the melody of 'Neil Gow's Lament For the Death of His Second Wife' by Neil Gow, arr by Gordie Sampson
Pub Not Spec
Greentrax CDTRAX 180 ( In Australia through Didgeridoo: www.didgerecords.com
Worldwide via: www.greentrax.com )
Natalie MacMaster – "In My Hands"
6'28"

"Get Me Through December"
Gordie Sampson & Fred Lavery, based on the melody of 'Neil Gow's Lament For the Death of His Second Wife' by Neil Gow, arr by Gordie Sampson


How pale is the sky that brings forth the rain
As the changing of seasons prepares me again
For the long bitter nights and the wild winter's day
My heart has grown cold my love stored away
My heart has grown cold my love stored away.

I've been to the mountain left my tracks in the snow
Where souls have been lost and the walking wounded go
I've taken the pain no girl should endure
But faith can move mountains
Faith can move mountains of that I am sure.

Just get me through December
A promise I'll remember
Get me through December
So I can start again.

No divine purpose brings freedom from sin
And peace is a gift that must come from within
I've looked for the love that will bring me to rest
Feeding this hunger beating strong in my chest
Feeding this hunger beating strong in my chest

Get me through December
A promise I'll remember
Get me through December
So I can start again.

I've been to the mountain left my tracks in the snow
Where souls have been lost and the walking wounded go
I've taken the pain no girl should endure
But faith can move mountains
But faith can move mountains of that I am sure.
(Gentle ballad featuring Alison Krauss' vocals and Natalie's fiddle)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: curmudgeon
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 07:01 AM

And I thought that this thread was going to be about "Farewell To Whisky."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From:
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 09:42 AM

Much as I like Alison Krauss, Natalie & Gordie & Freddy, I prefer Niel Gow's tune without the words. And I've told Gordie & Fred that very thing.

Guest info, the story I heard was that his "2nd wife" was contained by a bottle.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 10:23 AM

There is at least one set of words to Niel Gow's Lament for his second wife; I heard them sung on Radio Scotland (Robbie Shepherd's programme, "The Reel Blend") about ten or fifteen years ago, by Anne Lorne Gillies. The last line of each verse ran, "my fiddle and me", so presumably the song was based on the story mentioned in GUEST info above. Robert Burns provided words to the Lament for Abercairney (beginning, "Where, braving angry Winter's storms/The lofty Ochiuls rise"), and in his various notes on Scottish songs and airs it's pretty clear he knew of the Gows' habit of appropriating or adapting melodies ("This air is claimed by Niel Gow, who calls it the lament for his brother Donald", for instance). There's another set from the nineteenth century, each verse ending, "Gude Abercairney's gane".

Oh; with regard to fiddlers' fondness for the instrument, it's related of Peter Milne, "The Tarland Minstrel" and associate of J.S.Skinner, that he said he "loved the fiddle that much I could crawl inside and keek oot o' the F-holes"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 10:28 AM

Bottle? Fiddle? Most unlikely.

Some men just can't stand the thought that a woman was loved, that's all.

If the tune is really that fine, it should not be contaminated by association with sneering and rumors.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Gedpipes
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 11:11 AM

Oh no another good thread bites the dust

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 11:46 AM

I think Niel Gow's second wife was Margaret Urquhart.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Cluin
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 12:21 PM

Maybe he really didn't care for the first wife and didn't lament her `tall.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 04:41 PM

Niel Gow wrote this tune late in life. His was married to his second wife, Margaret, for many years and she died about two years before him. I think that he lived to his early 80's.
In any case a beautiful fiddle air that needs no words to express emotion. The music says it all!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Neil Gow's Lament
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Aug 07 - 05:05 PM

Some people can write words and some can write tunes ! Some can do both . I have yet to hear a modern lyric hung on an old and well loved tune that really did justice to the tune !