Lyr Add: Away to the Mountain's Brow

Subject: Lyr Add: Away to the Mountain's Brow
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Mar 21 - 04:00 PM

from Leeneia (edited by Leeneia for singing)-

Away to the Mountain's Brow

Away, away to the mountain's brow where the trees are gently blowing.

Away, away to the mountain's brow where the streams are tumbling and flowing.

And beauty, my love, on your cheek shall dwell like the rose as it blooms in the day,

while the wind that breathes through the flowering dell shakes the sparkling dewdrops away.

[partial repeat ]

Away, away to the rocky glen where the deer are wildly bounding.

Away, and the hills shall echo in gladness again to the kestrel's cry resounding.

And beauty, my love, in your eyes shall glow like the sun at the end of the day.

while the wind that breathes through the flowering dell shakes the fading petals away.

[partial repeat]

from John L. Hatton, the Songs of England

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Away to the Mountain's Brow
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 12:38 PM

This song, apparently from about 1832, was in 'Songs of England', John Hatton, editor. I found the book on the IMSLP site, and I thought a song about a day on a not-very-wild mountain would be just the thing for people kept home by COVID.

The original had old-fashioned poetical language which I modernized. I also got rid of some huntsmen. I didn't want hunters rampaging through the song, killing the animals, so I replaced their bugle with the kestrel's cry.

Finally, I didn't want to repeat the line about the rose in the lady's cheek, so I changed it to the glow in her eyes being like the sun at sunset. This gave the sense of time passing on a lovely day on a beautiful mountain.
==========
Thanks for sharing it, Joe.

In the evening after the singaround, the DH and I watched a travelogue about the Lake District. That is exactly the kind of landscape the song made me think of.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Away to the Mountain's Brow
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 06:27 PM

Here's a band performance of "Away to the Mountain's Brow" by the Coldstream Guards. It is the Regimental March of the old Reconnaissance Corps of WW2 fame. Is it anywhere similar to the melody you sing, Leeneia?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS-U7gReKjc

Subject: ADD: Away to the Mountain's Brow
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 06:42 PM

AWAY TO THE MOUNTAIN'S BROW

Away, away to the mountain's brow,
Where the trees are gently waving.
Away, away to the mountain's brow,
While the stream is gently laving.
And beauty, my love, on thy cheek shall dwell,
Like the rose as it opes to the day,
While the zephyr that breathes thro' the flow'ry dell,
Shakes the sparkling dew-drops away.

Away, away to the rocky glen,
Where the dear are wildly bounding,
And the hills shall echo in gladness again
To the hunter's bugle sounding;
While beauty, my love, on thy cheek shall dwell,
Like the rose as it opes to the day,
While the zephyr that breaths thro' the flow'ry dell,
Shakes the sparkling dew-drops away.

This is from a 19th-century English broadside from the Borowitz Collection at Kent State University Library. Of all the versions I saw, only the broadside at Kent State and one identical one at Bodleian Ballads had "breaths." It's clear that the word should be "breathes."
https://omeka.library.kent.edu/special-collections/items/show/6846

Also in The National Melodist (Edinburgh, 1837) at the National Library of Scotland, with "breathes" instead of "breaths." "Breathes" makes more sense, so the broadside text must be a typo.

https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/90243654?mode=transcription

And at Bodleian Ballads: http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search/firstline/Away%20away%20to%20the%20mountains%20brow

This song is Number V155 in the Roud Index. It is not listed in the Traditional Ballad Index.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Away to the Mountain's Brow
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 11:39 PM

Yes, it's basically the same tune. The melody in the book "Songs of England" repeats and first and second lines of each verse, and it has some vocal flourishes at the end.