Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: medievallassie
Date: 05 Nov 17 - 11:43 PM

Thank you all so much. I'm a good source for some of the oldest Irish trad music but Scots and Manx...not so much. :-) That's a whole lotta verses so I guess I'd better start now!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 27 Oct 17 - 10:55 AM

Good stuff, peeps!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 07:29 PM

Musical notation for THE BLACK BIRD can be found in The Songs of Scotland Prior to Burns, with the Tunes, edited by Robert Chambers (Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, 1862), page 82.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BLACK BIRD (from Allan Ramsay, 1733)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Oct 17 - 06:46 PM

Here's the oldest copy of the lyrics I can find:

From The Tea-Table Miscellany: Or, a Collection of Scots Sangs, by Allan Ramsay (London: A. Millar, 1733), Vol. 1, page 112.

THE BLACK BIRD.

Upon a fair morning, for soft recreation,
    I heard a fair lady was making her moan,
With sighing and sobbing, and sad lamentation,
    Saying, my black bird most royal is flown.
        My thoughts they deceive me,
        Reflections do grieve me,
    And I am o'er burthen'd with sad misery;
        Yet if death should blind me,
        As true love inclines me,
    My black bird I'll seek out wherever he be.

Once in fair England my black bird did flourish;
    He was the chief flower that in it did spring;
Prime ladies of honour his person did nourish,
    Because he was the true son of a king:
        But since that false fortune,
        Which still is uncertain,
    Has caused this parting between him and me,
        His name I'll advance
        In Spain and in France,
    And seek out my black bird wherever he be.

The birds of the forest are all met together;
    The turtle has chosen to dwell with the dove;
And I am resolv'd, in foul or fair weather,
    Once in the spring to seek out my love.
        He's all my heart's treasure,
        My joy and my pleasure;
    And justly (my love) my heart follows thee,
        Who art constant and kind,
        And courageous of mind.
    All bliss on my black bird, wherever he be.

In England my black bird and I were together,
    Where he was still noble and generous of heart.
Ah! woe to the time that first he went thither,
    Alas! he was forc'd soon thence to depart.
        In Scotland he's deem'd,
        And highly esteem'd;
    In England he seemeth a stranger to be;
        Yet his fame shall remain
        In France and in Spain.
    All bliss to my black bird, wherever he be.

What if the fowler my black bird has taken,
    Then sighing and sobbing will be all my tune;
But if he is safe, I'll not be forsaken,
    And hope yet to see him in May or in June.
        For him, through the fire,
        Through mud and through mire,
    I'll go; for I love him to such a degree,
        Who is constant and kind,
        And noble of mind,
    Deserving all blessings, wherever he be.

It is not the ocean can fright me with danger,
    Nor tho' like a pilgrim I wander forlorn,
I may meet with friendship of one is a stranger,
    More than of one that in Britain is born.
        I pray Heaven, so spacious,
        To Britain be gracious,
    Tho' some there be odious to both him and me,
        Yet joy and renown,
        And laurels shall crown
    My black bird with honour, wherever he be.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 08:10 PM

OK for Manx National Songs try - https://ia601407.us.archive.org/11/items/manxnationalson00gillgoog/manxnationalson00gillgoog.pdf

and scroll through to p115.
The words are credited to Charles Dalman because only the title and tune were collected from Tom Kermode of Ballakaighen, IOM.
The words making up the title occur in versions of The Royal Blackbird in :-
THE BLACKBIRD -A Jacobite Relic - from: Irish Minstrelsy, c1890. The Walter Scott Publishing Co., London.
THE BLACKBIRD - Hogg – JROS v2 pp68-69
THE BLACKBIRD - Tocher No 34. p 244 Collected by Hamish Henderson.1953.
THE BLACKBIRD - Songs of Irish Rebellion - Zimmerman pp119

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 06:56 PM

It was recorded by Charles Guard on his album "Avenging and Bright"

Also appears here
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4434132
Songs of Popular Heroes
A. G. Gilchrist and Lucy E. Broadwood
Journal of the Folk-Song Society
Vol. 7, No. 28, Manx Collection, Part I (Dec., 1924), pp. 150-154
Published by: English Folk Dance + Song Society

Topics: African Americans, Bird songs, Fowling, Jacobitism

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 06:37 PM

The tune I am thinking of appears in Alfred Graves Celtic songbook as Arrane Y Lhondoo- the Song of the Blackbird, but I am certain it is also called "The fowler & the Blackbird" will keep looking

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 08 Oct 17 - 06:33 PM

There is a harp tune called
"The Fowler and the Blackbird" maybe Charles Guard recorded it? I'll have to check where I got it from.... Julia

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: medievallassie
Date: 07 Oct 17 - 09:09 PM

Thank you BigJ GUEST. I just did some research on the Royal Blackbird and it seems to be a different song entirely but....I ordered a cd because I like it too and can add it to my set list as well! Although I have found the link to an index for the book you mention, page 115 is not a link I can click on. Are you looking at a digital version of the book?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 07 Oct 17 - 06:03 PM

If you go to - http://isle-of-man.com/manxnotebook/search.htm - and search for "O What if the Fowler my Blackbird has Taken" you'll get the book 'Manx National Music' where on page 56 there's a four-part arrangement of the tune only.
If you go to 'Manx National Songs' p115 you'll get both words and music - with the words credited to Charles Dalmon.
This is a song better known as 'The Royal Blackbird' (Roud No. 2375 - 242 entries).
James Hogg 'The Ettrick Shepherd' wrote in his 'Jacobite Relics of Scotland' 1819 "one of the street songs of the day."

Subject: Tune Req: O What if the Fowler my Blackbird...
From: medievallassie
Date: 07 Oct 17 - 01:49 AM

I apologize if there is a thread already archived on this song but for some reason I can't search the data base. Does anyone have any information on a trad song from the Isle of Man called "O' What if the Fowler my Blackbird has Taken" ? I found one video on YouTube that was very much less than ideal for the tune and I truly would like to explore this beautiful piece.