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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,Neil MacCormick Guest Date: 18 Aug 13 - 07:53 AM Sorry - further note. For better or worse I have just uploaded my Bunessan Fantasy to my blog. http://musicmusicandwords.wordpress.com/ For the many who don't care for dissonance, skip the middle bits. It was originally on YouTube a few years back. But I withdrew from that system on grounds of "principle." |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: kendall Date: 13 Aug 13 - 04:35 PM One of my favorite songs. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 12 Aug 13 - 07:27 PM Whatever's the case with the tune, Eleanor Farjeon wrote the words and they were first printed in 1931, when she was about 50. Wrote a lot other stuff that's pretty good as well, verse and prose Here's a page to links to some of her verse. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Rumncoke Date: 12 Aug 13 - 12:04 PM There is a blackbird which sings at the very first crack of dawn at the back of our house. To be awake just before the day and happen to hear the bird start to sing - breathtakingly beautiful. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,ollaimh Date: 12 Aug 13 - 10:42 AM it is safe to assume that jack campin doesn't read any gaelic or gaidhlig. there are in fact a number of religious songs in both dialects from what gaels call ancient times. they use the word as the French use ancient, as in l'ancien regime. I suspect campin doesn't read French either so for the benefit of the monolingual (and mono syllabic) these old religious songs are found in several sources. the most famous is the seventh century "wexford carol" which has medieval irish words and music. there are many others where the words and tune have separated but a few with both. ancient regime means before the revolution, so in the gaelteacht that would be before the ascendancy of the English military and churches. in English translation these religious songs are often called hymns, sometimes carols. they have separate gaelic designations which few here would understand. I get tired of how the English here on mudcat are experts in everything they don't understand. so is morning has broken older than 1888 when collected. I think the tune is much older, but i'll have to do some research on it. there are several good on line sources on old gaelic tunes for those with the energy to look around. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST Date: 12 Aug 13 - 10:10 AM too many researchers claim tunes are celtic or pagan incantations, even the meaningless "Fol de Rol" type chorus. There's just no way we can tell without uncovering a stoneage record collection. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,Neil MacCormick Date: 12 Aug 13 - 09:47 AM Jack, greetings once more. Briefly stirring Bunessan out of its sleep. Am on your side of the Atlantic for a few months. Following earlier comment, found a copy of Simon Fraser book http://imslp.org/wiki/The_Airs_and_Melodies_peculiar_to_the_Highlands_of_Scotland_and_the_Isles_%28Fraser,_Simon%29 Fast run through looking only at 3/4 time pieces revealed nothing resembling Bunessan melody. So Bunessan, go back to sleep! Who has time in our over-informed age to read yet more crap, but have blog out at http://musicmusicandwords.wordpress.com/ All the best. Neil |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,Neil MacCormick Date: 22 Jun 12 - 11:54 PM Jack, have been indisposed for a wee while. (And at my age, assume I will continue in some version of that mode!). But did not want to leave our discussion of Bunessan stranded in the Bull Hole. I have yet to see the papers presented to The Church of Scotland claiming attribution of Bunessan to my great grandfather. But I recently came across a copy of a paragraph in The Oban Times of some years ago, observing the death of my father's cousin, Annabel MacCormick. Mention is made of her grandfather, Neil MacCormick (of Tormore), having 'notated' the melody for "Child in the Manger." You are the musicologist and will have an expert understanding of the transition to notation of music from the oral tradition. Neil Tormore was born in 1836. Mary MacDonald died in 1872. Lachlan MacBean first published his Songs and Hymns of the Scottish Highlands in 1888. (The editions of the latter I saw online do not name the melody as Bunessan which MacBean is said to have done.) I have yet to recover the link to Captain Simon Fraser's Collection. Ah well. Perhaps I can now let Bunessan rest - for a while! All the best. Neil |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,Neil MacCormick Date: 06 Feb 12 - 11:00 PM Jack, thank you for the fascinating information. Somewhere along my way through the Net, I came across suggestions that the tune, named by MacBean as Bunessan, was to be found in Captain Simon Fraser's Collection. But the source melody was not identified. I will try and retrace my research to find a precise reference. I will also seek family help in obtaining the evidence presented to the Church of Scotland. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Jack Campin Date: 02 Feb 12 - 06:15 AM Okay, here is what Joan says about MacCormick in her book The Ross of Mull Granite Quarries, 2nd ed, New Iona Press, 2004: Neil MacCormick succeeded William Muir as Tormore quarry manager in 1875 and moved into Fionnphort House with his wife Annabella MacLachlan and their large family, of eventually eleven. Neil had been born in Iona in 1836 and shortly afterwards the family moved across to the Ross of Mull. He worked in the quarries from an early age, acquiring great knowledge and technical skill. It is said that his invention of a brake, applied by a lever, to the steep rail which took trucks from the upper Tormore quarry down to the quay became widely known. A memorable event in his life was a visit to Egypt to advise in a dispute about transport methods, which had arisen between the Government there and a firm of London sculptors who had leased a large porphyry quarry. I have frequently stayed in the quarrymen's cottages at Tormore (which Joan grew up in and still owns). That is probably where MacCormick grew up - Fionnphort House, where he would have written the tune, doesn't exist any more. This ties a few things together. A missing link might have been Marjorie Kennedy-Fraser - she stayed for a while in the cottage at Tormore just below the one I've stayed in. Joan's father William Caldwell Crawford leased and then bought the cottages just after MacCormick died; he was a painter so may well have been told about the place by Kennedy-Fraser's batty painter friend John Duncan (I'll ask Joan about that). Kennedy-Fraser would have known Neil MacCormick. MacCormick would also have been happy to see his tune used for the Temperance movement, so maybe the connection goes back a long way. But he would not have been best pleased to see the Catholics getting hold of it. I think I can dig out a lot more about this. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Jack Campin Date: 01 Feb 12 - 07:06 AM Joan lives in Dalkeith, near Edinburgh - she's almost completely blind now and couldn't cope at the Tormore cottage any more. I'll see her on Friday (for the funeral of her brother, the composer Robert Crawford) and I'll mention you to her. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST Date: 31 Jan 12 - 10:55 PM Jack, I have not met Joan Faithfull but have a copy of the booklet in which she mentions my great grandfather. I understand she has a cottage at Tormore where my grandfather was born in 1872. I had hoped to visit Iona (where other descendants still live) and environs last November but my senior muscles would not permit the trip. Perhaps this year. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Jack Campin Date: 16 Jan 12 - 05:26 AM Neil - that was interesting. Do you know Joan Faithfull (author of the monograph about the granite quarries of Iona and the Ross of Mull), and if so does she know about your great-grandfather? |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,Neil MacCormick Date: 15 Jan 12 - 10:50 PM For another story about the source of "Bunessan" see my Youtube page, http://www.youtube.com/user/ruanich |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,BLTN Date: 10 Apr 10 - 05:49 PM Phillip Bennett: I recently came across Farjeon's lyrics in a novel written at least a decade ago about the early 18th century. In the novel, the song was attributed to an even earlier time. The fact that the lyrics date to only 1931 (or thereabout) was irrelevant to me; the book was fiction. The important thing was the beauty of the moment that was captured and the feeling it conveyed to me, the reader. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Jack Campin Date: 27 Feb 10 - 07:16 PM A quick google suggests that B.J.K. didn't make that up. The song HAS been given some sort of association with recovery from alcoholism by some Christians (none of whom seem tohave heard of Farjeon). I think I'll start a counter-rumour that The Old Rugged Cross was really a jingle for Tennent's Lager and alludes to their logo. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Leadfingers Date: 27 Feb 10 - 06:41 PM GUEST,B.J.K. How do you get an Alcoholic in a Police cell in a childrens story book ? Try Reading the thread before you prattle nonsense . |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Bernard Date: 27 Feb 10 - 05:25 PM What's this? Billy J. Kramer making a comeback?! (GUEST,B.J.K.)! |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,B.J.K. Date: 27 Feb 10 - 09:11 AM I was under the impression that 'Morning has Broken' were the words of an Alcoholic having woken up in a prison cell, sober (in the morning) for the first time in years. He felt the joy of experiencing a clear head and the sounds of Dawn and was thankful. Re the Music, I wouldn't have a clue. Anyone else share this opinion?? |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Alan Day Date: 13 Jan 10 - 06:25 PM Lovely version of this on Utube by Henfield Will (Will Fly on this site) Al |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 13 Jan 10 - 05:34 PM Well, The Deer's Cry/St Patrick's Breastplate is supposed to date back at least to the eighth century. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Penny S. Date: 13 Jan 10 - 04:56 AM I assume you write the words the character sings down, possibly describing the lilt of the tune, and readers notice that it fits Bunessan. But of course, it could be something different. I suppose Philip really needs to know if that sort of tune was around at his date. Unless he is quoting the Gaelic words, in which case a date is important. Penny |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 12 Jan 10 - 07:25 PM How do you identify what tune someone is using in a story, Philip Bennett? I suppose you could write down the notes, but not too many readers are going to be able to make too much of that. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Genie Date: 12 Jan 10 - 03:31 PM The DT: Morning Has Broken lyrics have a bunch of periods thrown in in the middle of sentences (where there should be commas or no punctuation) but aside from that, they are correct. The DT does say the tune is "traditional," but perhaps it should be more specific and identify the tune as "Bunessan" or at least as "Gaelic" or something of that sort. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Genie Date: 12 Jan 10 - 03:26 PM Ed, Farjeon's lyrics do say "fresh from the Word" (as in, "In the beginning was The Word ... ". BTW, I just listened to Cat Stevens singing "Morning Has Broken" and it sounds like he sings "the word." I don't hear any "l" there at all. Anyway, Cat wasn't "Yusuf" until many years after he recorded MHB. I suspect it was them there Unitarians (contemporary type) who changed it from "The Word" to "the world," to purge the song of strong Christian theological language. (Though that reference to God as "The Word" is as much Judaic as it is Christian.) Unitarians are well known for often avoiding "the G word" or its variants (Lord, Father, Master). I think this is an example of where the attempt to rewrite old or classic hymns ends up with something either nonsensical or oxymoronic or perhaps worse. (Especially since the UU Hymnal still contains the line "God's re-creation of the new day.) I'm not sure what "Praise for (the morning, the singing) springing fresh from the world" is supposed to mean. Anyway, I don't see the need to change the original lyrics. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: Edthefolkie Date: 12 Jan 10 - 02:24 PM When I was at primary school we used to sing "fresh from the WORD" not "world". Ms Farjeon meant God's word presumably. Can't check it as I lost my copy of "Songs of Praise" about 40 years ago. So Yusuf aka Cat aka Steve or his producer must have changed it to "World" on the record. Obviously didn't want to get too, ahem, religious. |
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Subject: RE: Origin: Morning Has Broken From: GUEST,Philip Bennett Date: 12 Jan 10 - 02:12 PM Hi. Does anyone know when the Bunessan tune first appeared, I mean the first historical reference to it? I'm writing a novel set in 1574 in which my main character sings it. But if the song didn't exist in 1574 that'll be a little tricky. Thanks. Philip Bennett fillmoreavebklynny3905@netzero.net |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 21 May 09 - 12:11 PM Eleanor Farjeon was credited as lyricist for the song in Dearmer et al. Reprints are available very reasonably. Vaughan Williams used her lyrics in one or two of his "Carols." |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Rifleman (inactive) Date: 21 May 09 - 12:08 PM I'm not THAT interested in the song ( I'll leave that to archivists and other interested parties), I don't even perform said song (too over done. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 21 May 09 - 12:05 PM First published in Percy Dearmer, Vaughan Williams and Martin Shaw, 1931, "Songs of Praise," 2nd edition. Shaw provided the music, "an old Gaelic ..." This book was copyright. Published by Oxford University Press. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: GUEST,Jack Campin Date: 21 May 09 - 11:41 AM The page you linked to says they got it from Wikipedia themselves. If you're going to cite Wikipedia, it's usually better to link rather than copy - articles get revised (which this one doubtless will be) and most the time you want the current version. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Rifleman (inactive) Date: 21 May 09 - 11:25 AM I found, experienced in these threads, that nothing is helpful unless you suggest it Campin, AND I got the text from Here Not Wikipedia, so keep it to yourself! |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 21 May 09 - 11:09 AM Eleanor Farjeon published her "The Old Nurse's Stocking Basket" in 1931. If the verse appeared in her books, it would have been copyright as of the date of the first publication of the poem in her books. Several of her books were reprinted, possibly with additions, in the 1930s. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: GUEST,Jack Campin Date: 21 May 09 - 08:54 AM Dead helpful to copy and paste a chunk of Wikipedia, I don't think. Particularly when it gets somebody's name wrong. There is an important loose end here. Who was the Alexander Fraser who collected the tune? When and where? What else did he collect? Where are his manuscripts? Were any of them published? Did Macdougall ever hear the tune? How did Macbean get hold of it? |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Kent Davis Date: 20 May 09 - 10:29 PM I agree the copyright date seems odd, but that is the date in the hymnal (not the date of the hymnal itself) and it is also the date given in the DT. I'm guessing Ms. Farjeon renewed the copyright then. The copyright for "Happy Birthday" is 1935 but the song is considerably older: http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp Kent |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Rifleman (inactive) Date: 20 May 09 - 11:14 AM The tune for Morning Has Broken is named Bunessan. The tune had been found in L. McBean's Songs and Hymns of the Gael, published in 1900. Before Eleanor Farjeon's words, the tune was used as a Christmas carol, which began Child in the manger, Infant of Mary, translated from the Gaelic lyrics written by Mary MacDonald. The English-language Roman Catholic hymnal also uses the tune for the hymn, This Day God Gives Me. Writing credit for Morning Has Broken has occasionally been erroneously attributed to Cat Stevens, who popularized the song. The familiar piano arrangement on Stevens' album, Teaser and the Firecat (1971) was performed by Rick Wakeman, the classically trained keyboardist with Yes |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Jack Campin Date: 20 May 09 - 10:36 AM The 1957 copyright date makes no sense, given when the hymn was written and when Farjeon died. Maybe that was the copyright date for the hymnal? I tried the Harry Fox Agency site and got nothing, but maybe I was doing it wrong. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: pavane Date: 20 May 09 - 08:01 AM Happy Birthday was written as recently as 1932, I understand |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Kent Davis Date: 19 May 09 - 09:52 PM Jack Campin, One of my hymnals indicates that the copyright dates from 1957. Our sleazy laws extend copyright protection back 30 years before that. We Americans, in our sleazy free-trade sort of way, still provide copyright protection even to "Happy Birthday"! Sleazily yours, Kent |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Jack Campin Date: 19 May 09 - 08:32 AM it sorta sums up the tune in some ways Except that nobody said the tune originally had anything to do with Bunessan. The connection is with the words to an entirely different hymn that uses the same tune as "Morning has Broken". I've been to Bunessan several times. Not a hugely exciting place, though the local pub used to have very good ceilidhs - I'm not sure if they still happen. Facing north with the hills behind it, it can be bleak and gloomy in winter. There are quite a few American sites that claim some of Eleanor Farjeon's work as out of copyright (one of her children's books, republished by Project Gutenberg). Since she only died in 1965, that is certainly not the case in many other countries. If US law classifies "Morning has Broken" as public domain in the same way, Americans are getting something for free that would otherwise be earning very substantial sums for Farjeon's estate in the UK. American copyright law can be as sleazy as the US's idea of "free trade". The tune seems more similar to "Air Fa-La-La-Lo" than anything else to me, though I can sort of see a very distant similarity to "The Battle of the Somme". |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: GUEST,Penny S. (elsewhere) Date: 19 May 09 - 08:05 AM Try this for not doom ridden. Blackbird has spoken Penny |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Geoff the Duck Date: 19 May 09 - 04:16 AM GUEST,Just asking - As for the blackbird, it is just part of the imagery. This morning has broken and is just as beautiful as the first ever morning (actually, probably nicer, as there isn't as much ammmonia, sulphur dioxide and volcanic gases as at the start of the planet). (A) blackbird has spoken (sung), and the sound is as uplifting a sound as the first ever bird song... A blackbird does not have the sinister significance of a carrion crow crow. I expect that it was chosen because it scans as a lyric (sparrow or pigeon would just about fit) in the way that Albatross or Duck would not... Quack! Geoff the Duck. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Micca Date: 19 May 09 - 03:41 AM If I might add 2 cents of help here in clarification, with reference to the passage above "In Lachlan MacBean's Songs & Hymns of the Scottish Highlands it's given with the original Gaelic words, "Leanabh an aigh", and the note says: "Gaelic words from the hymn by Mrs. M. MacDonald, Mull (Mairi Dhighallach, bean Neill Dhomhnullaich ann an Ard Tunna)." While there's no note about the translation, we can safely assume it's by MacBean, I think." Ard Tunna (or Ardtun as it is given on maps) is a sort of suburb of Bunessan (how anywhere that small could have suburbs beats me) on the Isle of Mull and is a very beautiful place there are some views Here, scroll down it sorta sums up the tune in some ways. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Valmai Goodyear Date: 19 May 09 - 02:56 AM This is fascinating. I'd long thought that Battle of the Somme had a strong similarity to Morning Has Broken; it's interesting to know that they come from the same musical tradition. Valmai (Lewes) |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Jack Campin Date: 18 May 09 - 06:46 AM The naming of hymn tunes is arbitrary. Just because it's called "Bunessan" doesn't mean it has any connection with the place at all. There is no such thing as an ancient Gaelic hymn tune. The Catholic church didn't use hymns in vernacular languages and the Protestant church in Scotland didn't use hymns at all until the 18th century - just psalms, to a very small number of tunes. The Handbook to the Church Hymnary has this, for the hymn "Child in the Manger": Mr Lachlan Macbean of Kirkcaldy has kindly supplied the following information andout this hymn and its tune: 'The verses have been chosen from a longer, beautiful hymn by Mary Macdougall, who in the earlier decades of the nineteenth century was a widely recognized poetess in the island of Mull. This hymn she named "The Child of Agh", i.e. of Happiness, Good Fortune, Power, or Wonder. The tune BUNESSAN was noted down by Alexander Fraser from the singing of a wandering Highland singer. Its bold movements are in keeping with the freedom shown in Gaelic song'. It is printed from Songs and Hymns of the Gael (ed. L. Macbean, 1888). They don't say that what the wandering singer was singing was a hymn, or that he had any connection with Mull. Nor do they say what tune Mary Macdougall had in mind, if any. The words for "Child in the Manger" are unrelated to those of "Morning has Broken", so no link with Mull there either. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: GUEST,Just asking Date: 18 May 09 - 06:00 AM If this is a religious song then what's with the "black bird" who supposedly spoke just like the first bird? And springing fresh from the world??? We are not supposed to be FROM the world but just IN it??? |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: open mike Date: 17 Oct 07 - 02:37 AM what's a duvet? is it like a couch cushion or pillow? oh, this says it is like a down comforter.. http://www.plumeriabay.com/Main/Info/What-Is-A-Duvet.aspx 30 years ago when i was married, we had a dawn ceremony and this song was one of the ones on the program. |
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Subject: RE: Origin? Morning has broken From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 16 Oct 07 - 11:25 PM Guest posted German lyrics "Morgenlicht leuchtet" 18 Jul 07; the lyrics are a translation by Jürgen Henkrys 1987, a translation of the Eleanor Farjeon song. Evangelisches Gesangbuch no, 455. |
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Subject: Origin? Morning has broken--FACT!! From: GUEST,Lauriek722 Date: 16 Oct 07 - 02:56 PM Better late than never. Hi, I'm a PK (Preacher's Kid) so I MAY have a little edge. As far as I know, "Morning Has Broken" (text) was published in 1931 by Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965.) It is indeed a Scots Gaelic melody, originating in Bunnessan (Isle of Mull), but its meaning from the Bible, Psalms 30:5 ("weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning".) It was adopted by mainstream Protestants early on, but even Roman Catholics sing it now. However, it's my opinion that the earlier version is a much prettier and more lyrical hymn. Of course, I could be wrong. This is just what I learned. It's one of my favorite tradional hymns. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: MORGENLICHT LEUCHTET / MORNING HAS BROKEN From: GUEST Date: 18 Jul 07 - 08:41 AM Just wanted to share some much more beautiful German lyrics than the Nana M quoted above - this is a bril translation of the Eleanor Farjeon. Just in case anyone out there reads German or cares! MORGENLICHT LEUCHTET Morgenlicht leuchtet rein wie am Anfang Frühlied der Amsel Schöpferlob klingt Dank für die Lieder Dank für den Morgen Dank für das Wort Dem beides entspringt. Sanft fallen Tropfen Sonnendurchleuchtet So lag auf erstem Gras erster Tau Dank für die Spuren Gottes im Garten Grünende Frische Vollkommenes Blau. Mein ist die Sonne Mein ist der Morgen Glanz der zu mir aus Eden aufbricht (1 Mose 2,15) Dank überschwänglich Dank Gott am Morgen Wiedererschaffen Grüßt uns sein Licht. |
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