Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn

Subject: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: ChS
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 12:40 PM

Looking for the tune to this song by Caroline Oliphant, Lady Nairne.
I suppose it could be a melody with the same title, composed by Alexander Walter and published in "A collection of Strathpeys, Reels and Marches" in 1866

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: curmudgeon
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 12:50 PM

The McPeaks recorded a tune under the title "The Winding Streets of Earne," which was the same tune as "Tramps and Hawkers."

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 02:36 PM

Perhaps not Alexander's tune, unless it was written quite a long time before he published it (Lady Nairne died in 1845 at the age of 79). 'Tramps and Hawkers' is unsuitable metrically.

Many of Lady Nairne's songs can be found in older collections of popular Scottish music, and that would be your best bet for notation, I expect; however, there is a cd by Anne Lorne Gillies, White Rose o' June -The songs of Carolina Oliphant (Lady Nairne) (Brigh Productions Dunlop BR002) which includes arrangements of both the songs you have asked about. Presumably the tunes used are the ones Lady Nairne intended.

Incidentally, there is a transcription of Songs by the Baroness Nairne (1902 edition) at http://www.electricscotland.com/nairne/; tune indications are not given.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: Peace
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 02:42 PM

The lyrics appear at this site.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: ChS
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 04:28 AM

Thank you!
I'll take Malcolm's advice and get the CD by Anne Lorne Gillies, since both questions submitted are answered in it. (I was aware of the difficulty with Alexander Walker and made the same hypothesis: late published arrangement of an old, popular tune).

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 09:23 AM

Some of Nairne's collections were printed with the tunes (which she would sometimes adapt quite a lot). Did she publish this one in her lifetime?

I can look up Walker's collection or Nairne's manuscripts for it this week, but I'd like a bit more detail first - i.e. *exactly* where you know this song from. In particular I want the date when it was written.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: ChS
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 12:56 PM

Here is where I know these songs from:
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/printall/Carolina+Oliphant/1

On this site the tunes are as a rule quoted immediately after the titles:

"The Attainted Scottish Nobles
by Carolina Oliphant, 2006

Air — "The Attainted Scottish Nobles."

Oh, some will tune their mournfu' strains,..."

but

"The Banks of the Earn
by Carolina Oliphant, 2006

Fair shone the rising sky,..." (no tune quoted).

The Alexander Walker Collection (with the title "The Banks of Earn") is mentioned on several sites.
The CD by AL Gillies referred to by Malcom Douglas contains these two songs.
I have know ordered it.
But maybe I does not give any clue as to the origin of the tunes.
I had the same problem with a Capercaillie CD ("Songs of the '45") containing songs by the Gaelic poets John McLachlan,Alexander McDonald and Alasdair Cameron of Dochanassie.
They are sung to melodies whose origins remain unknown.

Subject: Tune: The Banks of Earn
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 03:03 PM

Somebody was asking for this tune, as the possible tune for a song by Lady Nairne, but the forum search doesn't locate the thread.

X:2
T:The Banks of Earn
S:Alexander Walker
S:A Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Marches, &c.&c.
S:for the Pianoforte, Violin and Violoncello
S:pub John Marr, Aberdeen, 1866
S:p67
M:C|
L:1/8
Q:1/2=112
K:G Minor
g|G/G/G (BG) dGBg|AFcF dFAF|G/G/G (BG) dGBc|dba`f g2-g:|
a|bgdg       Bgbg|afcf cfaf|bgdg       BgdB|AdD^F G2-G
g|bgdg       dgbg|afcf Afaf|bagf       edcB|AdD^F G2-G|]

Not my idea of a promising song tune but maybe you could slow it down and get something. It's very similar to "Lord Kelly's Reel" and several other Scottish G minor reels and strathspeys of about a century before - Walker was about as original as Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: GUEST,Here's the words.
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 06:45 PM

THE BANKS OF THE EARN.

1 Fair shone the rising sky,
2 The dew drops clad wi' mony a dye,
3 Larks lilting pibrochs high,
4 To welcome day's returning.
5 The spreading hills, the shading trees,
6 High waving in the morning breeze;
7 The wee Scots' rose that sweetly blows,
8 Earn's vale adorning.
9 Flow on sweet Earn, row on sweet Earn,
10 Joy to a' thy bonny braes,
11 Spring's sweet buds aye first do blow
12 Where thy winding waters flow.
13 Thro' thy banks, which wild flowers border,
14 Freely wind, and proudly flow,
15 Where Wallace wight fought for the right,
16 And gallant Grahams are lying low.
17 O Scotland! nurse o' mony a name
18 Rever'd for worth, renown'd in fame;
19 Let never foes tell to thy shame,
20 Gane is thine ancient loyalty.
21 But still the true-born warlike band
22 That guards thy high unconquer'd land,
23 As did their sires, join hand in hand,
24 To fight for law and royalty.
25 Oh, ne'er for greed o' worldly gear,
26 Let thy brave sons, like fugies, hide
27 Where lawless stills pollute the rills
28 That o'er thy hills and valleys glide.
29 While in the field they scorn to yield,
30 And while their native soil is dear,
31 Oh, may their truth be as its rocks,
32 And conscience, as its waters clear!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 07:13 PM

Good God. It actually fits. Just do the whole tune through twice, repeats as written.

Needs a rather Anne Lorne Gillies voice, though.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: ChS
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 12:22 AM

I think I know by now everyting about the tune of "The Banks of the Earn". As already mentioned, I've ordered but not yet received the Anne Lorne Gillies CD. I hope I'll soon be able to inform you if it has the same tune as the one contributed by Jack Campin.
Thanks to the lot of you for your excellent job!
Ch. S.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: The Banks of the Earn
From: ChS
Date: 20 Oct 06 - 06:38 AM

I've duly received the A.L. Gillies CD.
She sings "The Banks of the Earn" to an arrangement by Gordon Cree of the tune contributed by Jack Campin, hugely slowed down and modified.
As to the second tune requested, she sings "The attainted Scottish nobles" to the tune of "Dainty Davie" as explained in the booklet attached to the CD.
Here is the result of my own exertions:
http://chrsouchon.free.fr/attaint.htm
and
http://chrsouchon.free.fr/earn.htm