Subject: RE: Origins: Wild Mountain Thyme/Braes o' Balquhidder
From:
Dave Rado
Date: 05 Feb 20 - 08:19 PM
Apologies for taking so long to reply to this thread and to all your wonderful posts. I can’t read music and it’s taken me until now to make sense of it all with the help of a friend, James Eisner, who can. He’s made and uploaded a couple of recordings – which I’ve linked to below – from some of the sheet music that was linked to previously.
Many thanks in particular to Rossey for his fabulous link to the Joop’s Musical Flowers blog post; to “rich-joy” for his two links: to Ewan MacColl’s recording of the song (which I’d never have found on my own); and to the sheet music of the traditional air called The Braes of Balwhither. Most of all, many thanks to Jim McLean for his very helpful post. (I’ve already thanked Allan Conn in a previous post for his link to Peter Kennedy’s fascinating interview with Francis McPeake).
I still have some important questions that I don’t think have been answered yet. However, I’ll write a summary of my understanding of all that is known about the various tunes that both songs have been sung to, as I think it would be useful to have all this information and all the important links (which are currently scattered across many different posts and web pages) laid out in a single post; and I’ll include my remaining questions, marked in bold, within the following summary.
I'm afraid that makes this a rather long post! I couldn't think of anything that I could leave out without losing some important information.
As well as answering my questions, if Jim or anyone else thinks I’ve got any of my facts wrong, please could you put me right.
1) Wild Mountain Thyme
A) Wild Mountain Thyme was first recorded in 1952 with the title Will Ye Go, Lassie Go, sung by Francis McPeake (1885–1971), during the course of an interview with Peter Kennedy. The interview can be played on the British Library website here and the relevant section starts 39m 40s into the recording. (If you have an ad blocker you may have to disable it for this site in order to be able to play the interview).
In the interview, Francis McPeake said he learnt the song from an uncle and that he thought it was a traditional song. However, I’m wondering whether he might have meant that he learnt The Braes of Balquhidder from an uncle: more on this below.
B) Later in the same year, 1952, Francis McPeake and his son (also called Francis), recorded a 10” LP featuring the song – again with the title Will Ye Go, Lassie Go. There is a photo of the front cover of the LP here; of the back cover here; and of the liner notes for the song here. (There is also an MP3 recording of it here). The liner notes state that ‘their song is a version of “The Braes of Balquidder”’. So the McPeakes were happy to acknowledge in 1952 that their song was based on The Braes of Balquhidder. And yet Francis McPeake Snr copyrighted Wild Mountain Thyme in 1957, which is puzzling if you take his statement about his uncle at face value.
C) Contrary to the claims on many websites – and even the liner notes of some recordings – the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme/ Will Ye Go, Lassie Go was never published or recorded before Francis McPeake Snr sang it in 1952; and the tune he sang it to bears no relationship whatsoever to any of the tunes that The Braes of Balquhidder had ever been sung to prior to 1952. So either Francis McPeake wrote the tune and that version of the words; or his uncle did; or else Wild Mountain Thyme – including its tune – must surely be a traditional Irish variant of The Braes of Balquhidder that was passed to them through the oral tradition. Question to Jim or anyone else who can throw any light on this: do you know which of these three alternative possibilities is the closest to the truth?
D) Subsequently to 1952, a number of people have recorded The Braes of Balquhidder to the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme, most notably John MacDonald in 1975. It seems to me that these people must have realised that the words of Wild Mountain Thyme were derived from those of The Braes of Balquhidder, and must therefore have assumed – wrongly – that its tune was also derived from that: but it wasn’t. This misunderstanding on their part was particularly understandable given that the words of The Braes of Balquhidder and the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme work very well together.
The Traditional Tune Archive
href="https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Braes_of_Balquidder_(The)">states that:
“The song "Wild Mountain Thyme" is derived from "Braes of Balquidder," as is "Will You Go, Lassie, Go," reworked by Frank McPeake of Belfast. When the melody was employed in an advertisement for Irish television the McPeakes threatened legal action for coypright [sic] infringement. After some public discussion in the press, followed by a bit of research, the conclusion was that the McPeakes did not compose either the words or the music. The threat of a suit never materialized and the matter was quickly forgotten, according to Harry O'Prey."
But if the McPeakes didn’t write that version of the words, or that tune, then who did? The writer of the above quote doesn’t address this – so I suspect he wasn’t aware that the words of The Braes of Balquhidder had never been set to the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme in any recording or sheet music prior to 1952.
I suspect that the McPeakes did in fact write both the tune of, and the version of the words used in, the song Wild Mountain Thyme – which would explain why Francis McPeake copyrighted the song; and I suspect that when he said it was a traditional song, he probably meant that The Braes o’ Balquhidder, which Wild Mountain Thyme’s words (but not its tune) are based on, is a traditional song.
2) The Braes o’ Balquhidder
Robert Tannahill was a depressive who committed suicide in 1810 at the age of 36, after first burning all his manuscripts. Those texts which have survived despite not being published in his lifetime presumably did so thanks to his friends preserving copies of them.
Wikipedia states incorrectly that the song was first published in Robert Archibald Smith's Scottish Minstrel (1821–24) – but in fact it had already been published several times before that.
A) According to Jim Mclean, it was first published in 1810 (the year Tannahill died – so possibly it was published while Tannahill was still alive?). Jim states that while writing his dissertation he saw a copy of this 1810 publication; and that its melody, although untitled in the document, is identical to that of The Three Carls o' Buchanan (the sheet music for which appeared in Vol 4 of RA Smith’s Minstrel – see below).
Jim, do you know where this 1810 sheet music is now held and who the publisher was – and can you lay your hands on a scanned copy of the manuscript that you could upload to somewhere and link to? I would then be able to update the Wikipedia article so that it states that the song was first published in 1810, with a link to the manuscript.
B) The Joop's Musical Flowers blog states that the song was first published in 1814 without a melody, at Falkirk, together with "Jamie frae Dundee", "Blyth was she", "M’Pherson’s farewel", and "Highland Rover" – and that this publication is held in the British Library at shelfmark 11621.b.10.(35.). So this was, presumably, actually the second publication of the song.
C) More significantly, it was then published in 1815 in the 3rd edition of Poems and Songs, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect by Robert Tannahill. The Braes Of Balquhither is on page 154, with The Three Carls o' Buchanan clearly mentioned as its accompanying air.
D) It was also published in New York by J.A. and W. Geib between 1818-1821, with sheet music which, although it doesn’t say so in the manuscript, also turns out to be the melody of The Three Carls o' Buchanan (more on this below). The catalogue record is here and the sheet music is here.
So Tannahill’s song had already been published four times before RA Smith first published it: once with no melody, and three times set to the melody of The Three Carls o' Buchanan.
E) Robert Archibald Smith then published the song twice in his series of books The Scotish minstrel : a selection from the vocal melodies of Scotland, ancient and modern.
i) In Volume 1, published in 1821, the song is listed in the index as Will ye go, lassie, go – set to the air Braes o’ Balquhither; and the song is shown on page 49 along with the sheet music for this melody. This was the first time this song had ever been published to that tune – but the melody itself dates back to at least 1742 – more on this below.
ii) In Volume 4, published in 1823, the song is listed in the index as Will ye go, lassie, go – set to the air The Three Carls o Buchanan; and the song is shown on page 89 along with the sheet music for this melody. The melody shown in the sheet music in this volume is identical to the melody shown in the sheet music for the song in the J.A. and W. Geib New York publication that had been published shortly before – and according to Jim MacLean, is also identical to the sheet music in the 1810 manuscript that he found while writing his dissertation.
Incidentally, several sources have claimed that RA Smith himself wrote the tune for Tannahill’s song, but this claim is based on a misunderstanding – Smith makes it clear in his own index in both volumes that he didn’t. He did write tunes for some other Tannahill songs, which is presumably how the misunderstanding arose.
G) There doesn’t appear to be any surviving copy of the sheet music for the air The Three Carls o Buchanan on its own (as opposed the sheet music for that tune when set to Tannahill’s song); and nor does it appear to be known when the air was written or when it was first published. But the original air must have pre-dated Tannahill’s song and must have been very similar – almost certainly identical – to that shown in the sheet music in RA Smith Vol 4; and in J.A. and W. Geib’s sheet music; and in the untitled sheet music for the song that was published in 1810.
G) Until now, no one ever seems to have made a recording of The Braes o’ Balquhidder sung to the melody of The Three Carls o Buchanan, so for the benefit of all those who, like me, can’t read music, James Eisner has now made a recording of the song set to that tune, and has uploaded it to here.
H) Before Tannahill wrote his poem, there already existed a traditional air, originally published under the name The Braes o’ Balquhider; which was collected and published by John Walsh in 1741 or 1742 in a collection called 24 Country Dances – and the tune is presumably even older than that.
I) In 1780 Robert Burns set his song And I'll Kiss Thee Yet, Yet (also known as Bonny Peggy Alison), to this tune. The original sheet music for the Burns song is here, and there is a recording of it sung to that air here. The tune of the Burns song is almost identical to the tune shown in the sheet music of Tannahill’s song in RA Smith’s Minstrel Vol. 1.
J) In 1796, John Hamilton wrote and published a song called The Braes o' Bowhether, which he also set to the traditional air The Braes o’ Balquhider. This song, with its sheet music, is held in the National Library of Scotland and can be viewed online here. Although the manuscript doesn’t state that it is set to the air The Braes o’ Balquhider, the tune in its sheet music is almost identical to that of the Burns song.
Many websites, including the Wikipedia article about Wild Mountain Thyme, claim that Tannahill may have based his song on The Braes o' Bowhether, but this seems highly unlikely. Other than the title, the words of the two songs have almost nothing in common; and although many recordings of Tannahill’s song are set to the same tune as The Braes o' Bowhether, that is almost certainly not the tune that Tannahill intended it to be set to; and the tune pre-dates The Braes o' Bowhether by more than 50 years.
K) It seems clear, therefore, that what must have happened is as follows:
i) RA Smith, although he was a friend of Tannahill’s, didn’t become aware of this song until several years after Tannahill had died (hence he didn’t publish the song until 1821).
ii) When he found the words of Tannahill’s poem he initially assumed – wrongly – that Tannahill had intended it to be set to the traditional air of the same name. So he published Tannahill’s song set to the air Braes o’ Balquhither in Vol 1 of his Scotish Minstrel series.
iii) Subsequently he realised that Tannahill had intended it to be sung to the air The Three Carls o Buchanan; so he published the song again in 1823 in Volume 4 of his Scotish Minstrel series, this time set to the melody The Three Carls o Buchanan.
iv) However, when Alma Gluck decided to record the song in 1910, she saw it in RA Smith’s Minstrel Volume 1, set to the traditional air Braes o’ Balquhither. So she sang it to that tune – not noticing that the song had subsequently been republished by Smith, set to a different tune, in his Minstrel Volume 4.
v) Every recording of the song between 1910, when Alma Gluck recorded it, and 1952, when the McPeakes first recorded Wild Mountain Thyme, was set to the traditional air Braes o’ Balquhither – presumably as a result of Alma Gluck recording it to that tune. The vast majority of recordings of Tannahill’s song made since 1952 have also been set to that tune (including those by Kenneth McKellar and Carl Peterson); but a few have been set to the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme, most notably John MacDonald’s 1975 recording. Several of these recordings, including John MacDonald’s, have stated incorrectly that the tune they were singing it to was The Three Carls o' Buchanan.
vi) However, in the oral tradition the song was sung to the tune of The Three Carls o' Buchanan; although the orally transmitted version of the tune evolved over time, as is often the case with folk tunes. Ewan MacColl learnt the song from his mother Betsy Miller, who learnt it through the oral tradition; and the tune they sung it to is clearly derived from the tune of The Three Carls o' Buchanan, although it’s so different (after nearly 200 years of evolving) that you have to listen quite carefully to hear the relationship. Ewan MacColl’s 1964 recording of the song can be played here, and Betsy Miller’s 1960 recording (made when she was 74 years old!) can be played here.
(I would like to thank Callum MacColl, who uploaded the album A Garland of Scots Folksong, in which the Betsy Miller track appears, to Bandcamp in record time – thus enabling me to link to it from this post).
vii) There is a copy of the sheet music for a version of the traditional Braes o’ Balquhidder air in the Traditional Tune Archive, here (under the title Braes o’ Balwhither). For the benefit of those who, like me, can’t read music, James Eisner has created a midi file recording from this sheet music, which he’s uploaded in mp3 format to Soundcloud, here.
The Traditional Tune Archive took the sheet music from the book Robert Petrie – Third Collection of Strathspey Reels (1802, p. 9).
This is a highly ornamented version of the melody; and given that the much simpler version of the tune which appears in the sheet music for the Burns song And I'll kiss thee yet, yet; and in the sheet music for the John Hamilton song; and in the sheet music in RA Smith Vol. 1; are almost identical to each other, I suspect that the version of The Braes o’ Balquhider air that was published by John Walsh in 1741 or 1742 is probably closer to the simpler version of the tune used in these songs than to the highly ornamented version of the air published in 1802.
Questions for Jim: please could you confirm whether I’m
right about this; and do you have access to a scanned copy of the sheet music
of the air as it was published by John Walsh? If you do, would it be possible
to upload it to somewhere and link to it?
3) Summary
Either the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme was written by Francis McPeake Snr, or by his uncle – or else Wild Mountain Thyme is an orally transmitted Irish variant of The Braes o’ Balquhidder. If the latter is true, its tune must have been written anonymously and passed orally to the McPeakes. In any case this tune bears no relationship to any of the tunes that The Braes o’ Balquhidder had ever been sung to prior to 1952.
The words of Wild Mountain Thyme are a variant of The Braes o’ Balquhidder but are significantly different from the Tannahill poem; and again, must either have been written by one of the McPeake family, or are an orally transmitted Irish variant of The Braes o’ Balquhidder that was passed down to the McPeakes. I suspect that one of the McPeake family wrote both the tune and this variant of the words, and I think it was probably Francis McPeake Snr who did so.
Tannahill clearly intended his poem to be sung to the air The Three Carls o' Buchanan, but due to a quirk of history, it seems never to have been recorded being sung to that tune – until James Eisner recorded it a few days ago for the purposes of this thread.
The vast majority of recordings of Tannahill’s song have set it to a traditional air called The Braes o’ Balquhider, which was first published in 1741 or 1742.
A few recordings have set it to the tune of Wild Mountain Thyme, which works really well – but that tune was first recorded in 1952, set to the words of Wild Mountain Thyme.
And Ewan MacColl and Betsy Miller have recorded it to a tune that they learnt through the oral tradition, which is clearly based on – but is significantly different from – The Three Carls o' Buchanan; which in turn is almost certainly the tune that Tannahill set it to.
Finally, I wanted to say how very honoured I feel that Jim McLean has already made such a crucial contribution to this thread (with more to come, I hope!). Hush, Hush/Smile in your Sleep (which Jim wrote) is one of my very favourite songs. I have sung it several times in public, usually also singing Johnny’s So Long at the Fair, followed by Three Old Ladies, followed by the chorus of Chi Mi Na Morbheanna, followed by the whole of The Mist Covered Mountains of Home; and ending up with Smile in your Sleep – all to illustrate how folk songs evolve over time!
Dave
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