The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126264   Message #2804719
Posted By: Matt Seattle
06-Jan-10 - 06:20 AM
Thread Name: Twa Corbies in Friesian
Subject: RE: Twa Corbies in Friesian
Some kind soul has transcribed the Shortreed version, I found it on John Chambers' abc tune finder, posted below, I take no credit or blame for it. If you go there you can get it to play a midi of the tune for you. The melody is written in 2/4 but in groups of 3 bars, I hear it in 3/2. Gordon Mooney recorded it in the 80's, I think he minorised it IIRC. It's a fine tune and a good alternative to the Breton one.

X: 1
T:Twa Corbies
S:Digital Tradition, threrav3
B:From Singing Tradition of Child's Popular Ballads, Bronson
B:Collected from Thomas Shortreed, Jedburgh
Z:dt:threrav3
M:2/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
W:As I cam' by yon auld house end
W:I saw twa corbies sittin thereon,
W:The tane unto the t'other did say,
W:"O whare sall we gae dine the day?" (repeat last line)
W:
W:"Whare but by yon new fa'en birk,
W:There, there lies a new slain knight;
W:Nae mortal kens that he lies there
W:But his hawks and hounds, and his ladye fair.
W:
W:"We'll sit upon his bonny breast bane,
W:And we'll pick out his bonny gray een;
W:We'll set our claws intil' his yallow hair
W:And big our bow'r, it's a' blawn bare.
W:
W:My mother clekit me o' an egg,
W:And brought me up i' the feathers gray,
W:And bade me flee where'er I wad,
W:For winter wad be my dying day.
W:
W:Now winter it is come and past,
W:And a' the birds are biggin' their nests,
W:But I'll flee high aboon them a'
W:And sing a sang for summer's sake.
K:F
D|G>A B>c|d2 g2|d3B|c>B A>G|
AA B>c|dB A>G|
G2 d>-B|G2 f-e|d>B A>G|G2 d>-B|G2 z||