Origin: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell (A Hume)

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SCOTTISH EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL (A Hume)
From: Lesley N.
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 06:28 PM

I've run across a wonderful tune, The Scottish Emigrant's Farewell in Scottish Songs, Bayley & Ferguson circa 1920. It says the words and air are by Alexander Hume but has no other information. Alexander Hume is also credited with the tune for Afton Water. My question: is this the poet Alexander Hume (1556 - 1609) - that seems a bit early for Scottish emigrant songs and the mention of Pentland would be consistent with someone who had to emigrate because of the clearances. Of course I could be reading later history into earlier lyrics! Is there a later Alexander Hume? Can anyone give me some information? Here are the lyrics:

THE SCOTTISH EMIGRANT'S FAREWELL
Alexander Hume

Fareweel, fareweel, my native hame,
    Thy lanely glens and heath-clad mountains!
Fareweel thy fields o' storied fame,
    Thy leafy shaws and sparkling fountains.
Nae mair I'll climb the Pentlands steep,
    Nor wander by the Esk's clear river;
I seek a hame far o'er the deep—
    My native land, fareweel for ever!

Thou land wi' love and freedom crowned,
    In ilk wee cot and lordly dwelling
May manly-hearted youth be found,
    And maids in every grace excelling.
The land where Bruce and Wallace wight
    For freedom fought in days o' danger,
Ne'er crouched to proud usurping might,
    But foremost stood, wrong's stern avenger.

Though far frae thee, my native shore,
    And tossed on life's tempestuous ocean,
My heart—aye Scottish to the core—
    Shall cling to thee wi' warm devotion.
And while the waving heather grows,
    And onward rows the winding river,
The toast be "Scotland's broomy knowes,
    Her mountains, rocks, and glens forever!"

Corrections made. --JoeClone

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 06:57 PM

I didn't know the song above, but it doesn't look like 17th century poetry to me.

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 08:23 PM

Good, though!

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: Murray on Saltspring
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 08:35 PM

Composer & author was Alexander Hume, born at Edinburgh 7 Feb 1811, died in Glasgow, 4 Feb. 1859. His tune for "Afton Water" vies for popularity with the original one, and he also did a good job on "A Guid New Year", which is traditionally sung in Scotland (and at my parties) at the stroke of Hogmanay.There's a whole page on him in D. Baptie, "Musical Scotland"(1894, reprinted by Olms, 1972). Correction to text above: penultimate line of first stanza should be "I seek a hame far o'er the deep" -- which, you'll notice, rhymes with "steep". Last bit should be punctuated
The toast be "Scotland's broomy knowes,
Her mountains, rocks, and glens forever!"

Cheers Murray

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 08:38 PM

Sorry, the first part of my message, on Alexander Hume, seems to have disappeared. Roughly, it went as follows: John Glen's 'Early Scottish Melodies' makes the now popular tune for "Afton Water" composed by Alexander Hume to be of about 1850, so Hume here can't be the early poet Hume. Glen says Hume (II) composed some other tunes, but names none.

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 08:46 PM

Murray settled everything while I was still typing. That kind of thing has happened to me before, but I don't know how to prevent it.

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: sheila
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 08:50 PM

It sounds more late 1700-early 1800. The mention of the Pentlands isn't likely to tie in with the Highland Clearances, though - the Pentland Hills are south of Edinburgh (the Lowlands).

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: Lesley N.
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 10:20 PM

And here I've been thinking all this while Pentland referred to the Firth! Pentland is also referred to in The Scarborough Settler's Lament - though in SSL they refer to "Pentland's craggy comb" - would that fit the hills as well? But I see now in Bonnie Dundee it's definately the hills (he wouldn't have been near John o' Groats anyway, come to think of it - duh!), and in this instance the hills would make much better sense as he's from Edinburgh! My Scottish geography is woefully inadequate!

Thanks Murray and Bruce. I appreciate the info - and the corrections to the lyrics. Although it is sea in the songbook - deep is certainly much preferable. Though I am now a bit confused as to Afton Water. The tune we are familiar with is Hume's, correct? So there was another tune associated with Burns' words before that - can you tell me what it was?

Well, it's good to know that when my instincts suggested to me that it wasn't a 16th century tune, they were right. It doesn't always work that way...

I put the tune up at Scottish Emigrant's Farewell (http://www.contemplator.com/folk6/scotemig.html).

Subject: Tune Add: AFTON WATER
From: Bruce O.
Date: 18 Nov 99 - 11:37 PM

[It appears that I typed in my addendum in the second message, but forgot to paste my file text. Now if I start to block this from the begining for copying we should be okay.]

Here's the tune from SMM. Wm. Stenhouse said Burns sent the tune with his song for SMM. John Glen, 'Early Scottish Melodies', said the tune was not known earlier (than 1792), and it might be by 'Major Logan, or some Ayreshire worthy.' He added that some prefer this tune to Humes.

X:1
T:Afton Water. (Written for this work by Robert Burns)
S:Scots Musical Museum, #386
Q:1/4=120
L:1/4
M:3/4
K:F
C|FA(G/F/)|(G/A/)B(A/G/)|FAG/F/|{F}E2C|FAG/F/|G/A/c(f/d/)|\
cB/A/ G/A/|F2||(c/d/)|e(f/e/) (d/c/)|cdf|eAG/F/|(FE)C|\
FAG//F/|(G/A/)cf/d/|cB/A/ G/A/|F2|]

PS: See the Scottish tune index on my website for a tune called "Pentland Hills". So far as I know there's no song for it.

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From:
Date: 19 Nov 99 - 01:10 PM

There are more "Afton Water" tunes in the Levy collection.

Subject: RE: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell - A Hume?
From: Lesley N.
Date: 20 Nov 99 - 12:44 AM

How fasctinating, Bruce. Sorry - I should have known to check your site - it's usually the first place I go! But I started a new job a couple of weeks ago with a three hour commute a day so I'm pretty computer lazy these days.

Subject: RE: Origin: Scottish Emigrant's Farewell (A Hume)
From: GUEST,An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 26 Sep 14 - 11:56 AM

While quite a few of Burns's songs have been set to airs different from the ones he chose, or set to new melodies composed especially for the verses, Hume's for "Afton Water" strikes me as the most successful, in that it fits the flow of the singer's sentences more comfortably than the air in SMM. Just an observation.