Tune Req: Burns' Farewell

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: KirstenE
Date: 12 Oct 10 - 05:51 AM

There is also "Farewell thou fair day, thou green earth and ye skies"

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Jim McLean
Date: 20 Sep 09 - 07:54 AM

Mick, our last posts crossed. I have both Dick's book and Johnson's SMM and agree of course.
Jack, in case there is any confusion, I didn't mean Burns used the title The Parting Glass. I meant that the subsequent song called the Parting Glass was, in fact, a version of Good Night ..

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 03:14 PM

Instead of ranting on about the Fiddlers Companion and unjustifiably (IMO) referring to it as the "National Enquirer" of musicology, why don't you contact the sites owner, Andrew Kuntz with the information you have so he has the opportunity to correct the entry.

It would be playing whack-a-mole. That site has always accepted anything that looks vaguely like information, and the editor has never made any effort to vet it. I don't want to be associated with anything so fundamentally misconceived, particularly when I've got a site of my own that tries to do it right.

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Tootler
Date: 19 Sep 09 - 03:04 PM

Jack,

Instead of ranting on about the Fiddlers Companion and unjustifiably (IMO) referring to it as the "National Enquirer" of musicology, why don't you contact the sites owner, Andrew Kuntz with the information you have so he has the opportunity to correct the entry.

It seems to me that Andrew has gone to a great deal of trouble to make the information he puts on the site as accurate as he can given the uncertain nature of much information about traditional tunes.

By marking the tune as Irish(?) Andrew clearly had doubts about the Irish Origins and in a way was inviting those who had more information to contact him so he could make sure the entry was accurate.

We are all aware of the tendency of people on hearing a song or tune played by an Irish band to assume it is Irish even though the band themselves have given a correct attribution. I first heard the Parting Glass on a Clancy Brothers LP back in the 1960's and although I have never got round to learning the words properly, I have been playing the tune for more years than I can remember and on first hearing it, I thought the tune sounded more Scots than Irish.

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 09:18 PM

Thanks all. Here are the first couple of verses from one of Backus'
broadsides which was to be sung to this air. It seems to scan fairly well with "Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu" as laid out by Mick above.

Vouchsafe thine aid, ye wond'rous nine,
To pen each sad and mournful line,
A tragic scene transpired of late,
The truth of which I will narrate.

On the Plank Road, in Greenville town,
A Jewish pedlar was shot down.
Ah, by the wretch, called Warren Wood,
Who shot the pedlar in cold blood.

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 09:08 PM


The Fiddler's companion says this:

AKA and see "The Parting Glass." Irish (?), Air (4/4 time). A Minor. Standard tuning. AABB. The title refers to the Scots poet Robert Burns, who wrote his song "The Parting Glass" to the tune.

The tune was first notated in Scotland in 1625. No "Irish(?)" about it. It was for the mandour, which is tuned ADADA, and it was in D mixolydian.

Burns's poem to the tune is not called "The Parting Glass", nor do those words occur in it. The version of the tune Burns knew was in E minor as published in the Scots Musical Museum, which he co-edited. The "Parting Glass" title was popularized, and possibly invented, by an Irish pub-folk-rock group of the 1960s.

The first known text for it was anonymous, published by David Herd in 1776.

More about it near the end of this, part of my collection of the music of Edinburgh.

The Fiddler's Companion is the National Enquirer of musicology.

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 07:55 PM

Jim - Dick's original source for the Goodnight... tune I just posted was SMM 600.

Mick

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: GUEST,Jim McLean
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 07:46 PM

BYW the Bonnie Doon tune is The Caledonian Hunt's Delight.

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Jim McLean
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 07:27 PM

The meoldy posted in Mick's second last posting under The Masons' Adieu was also used for Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon. Goodnight and Joy Be Wi' You A' is the same as that used for The Parting Glass and found in Johnson's SMM, last song (#600) as was the paractice in those days. The two melodies posted by Tootler are variations of this melody (different of course from Banks and Braes).

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 07:24 PM

Here's the air as it appears in Dick's The Songs of Robert Burns, 1903.

Mick

---

X:1
T:Adieu! a heart-warm, fond adieu
M:C
L:1/4
C:Robert Burns
S:Dick - The Songs Of Robert Burns, No.240
K:G
"^Lively"(B/A/)|G G D> G|E E e>
w:A_dieu! a heart-warm, fond a-dieu;
d|(B/d/)(e/d/) (B/d/)(e/d/)|B G G
w:Dear bro_thers_ of_ the_ mys-tic tye,
(B/A/)|G G D> G|E E e>
w:Ye_ fa-vour-ed en-ligh-ten'd few
d|(B/d/)(e/d/) (B/d/)(e/d/)|B G G||
w:Com-pa_nions_ of_ my_ so-cial joy!
B|(A/G/)(A/B/) G (G/E/)|(D/E/)(G/A/) B
w:Tho' I_ to_ for-eign_ lands_ must_ hie;
(A/G/)|A> B (c/B/)(c/d/)|e A A>
w:Pur_su-ing For_tune's_ slid'-d'ry ba';
B|(c/B/)(c/d/) e (d/c/)|(B/A/)(B/c/) d
w:With melt_ing_ heart and_ brim_ful_ eye,
(c/B/)|(A/B/)(d/e/) (d/B/)(A/B/)|G E E||
w:I'll_ mind_ you_ still,_ tho'_ far a-wa'.

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 06:57 PM

I've just had a look at the Bodleian for the broadsides of Burns' Farewell and the 4 copies there all start Adieu, a heart-warm fond adieu, which is the start of The Farewell To the Brethren of St. James' Lodge, Tarbolton, 1786 (ie the Masons), the tune to which is Goodnight and Joy Be Wi' You A', so that's probably the tune required.

I'll post a set in a few minutes.

Mick

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 06:23 PM

There is also a tune with title Burns' Farewell Address or The Masonic Adieu (see Early American Secular Music And Its European Sources Index entry).


You can see a copy of that tune here: The Masons' Adieu.


The same index also lists a Waltz or Burns' Farewell: Waltz or Burns Farewell at EASMES.

Both of these are from the same source book.


Mick

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Tootler
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 05:14 PM

The Fiddler's companion says this:

AKA and see "The Parting Glass." Irish (?), Air (4/4 time). A Minor. Standard tuning. AABB. The title refers to the Scots poet Robert Burns, who wrote his song "The Parting Glass" to the tune. Source for notated version: J. Kennedy [O'Neill]. Colclough (Tutor for the Irish Union Pipes), c. 1830; pg. 19. Howe (Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon), 1843; pg. 4. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; pg. 146. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903/1979; No. 269, pg. 47.

It also includes two abc's:

X:1
T:Burn's Farewell
M:4/4
L:1/8
R:Air
N:"Moderate"
S:O'Neill – Music of Ireland (1903), No, 269
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:A Minor
ed | c2A2A2 GE | c2e2d2 ^cd | e2e2 d2 ^cd | e2G2G2 ed | c2A2A2 GE |
c2e2d2^cd | e2a2 gede | c2A2A2 :: e^f | g2a2g2 ^fg | a2g2g2 ag |
=f2e2d2 ^cd | e2G2G2 ed | c2A2A2 GE | c2e2d2 ^cd | e2a2 gede | c2A2A2 :|

X:2
T:Burns' Farewell to Ayrshire
M:C
L:1/8
R:Air
S:Howe – Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon (1843)
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:Amin
ed | c2 A2 A2 GA | c2c2d2 cd | e2e2 efed | c2A2A2 :: ef | g2g2g2 fe |
a2g2g2 fe | f2e2d2c2 | g2G2G2 ed | c2A2 A2 GA | c2c2 d2 cd | e2e2 efed | c2A2A2 :|

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 04:24 PM

Maybe another possibility - "Burns and His Highland Mary", from Scott Skinner's Elgin Collection of 1883. Does the date fit? Gore's Scottish Fiddle Music Index doesn't list any tune called "Burns's Farewell".

Maybe you could quote us a verse of one of these broadsides?

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 03:01 PM

Could he have meant Burns's version of Macpherson's Farewell? Does it fit?

Subject: RE: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 02:06 PM

JC's Tunefinder returns 6 entries for Burns' Farewell of which 2 are listed as air and also Burns' Farewell to Ayrshire. This last and the 2nd air seem to have gone from their source sites, but the 1st listed as air is OK and the one before it (as just Burns' Farewell) is a variation on it.

This link gets you to the search results (wait a few secs for the search when you get there): Burns' Farewell. You can select many formats from the search results and have a look.


Mick

Subject: Burns' Farewell as a song air?
From: Dave Ruch
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 01:31 PM

Henry Backus, also known as "The Saugerties Bard", was an itinerant NY ballad maker and seller in the 19th century. Several of the broadsides he wrote and distributed were to be sung to the tune of "Burns' Farewell".

I've found a version of this air as printed in O'Neill's Music of Ireland, but it's a two-part dance tune with an AABB format.

Does anyone know what tune Backus may have been referring to?