Origins: I'll Bid My Heart Be Still (T Pringle)

Subject: Origins: Story behind 'I'll Bid My Heart Be Still
From: GUEST,Jerry 'Old Codger"
Date: 14 Oct 02 - 05:59 PM

I'm searching for information about this song that was on Ian & Sylvia's album IN THE EARLY MORNING RAIN. Sylvia sings it acapella and in the liner notes says that it is a 19th century Scottish tune. Does anyone know any more about this haunting song of grief?

Subject: Lyr Add: I'LL BID MY HEART BE STILL
From: masato sakurai
Date: 14 Oct 02 - 10:43 PM

Ian and Sylvia's sound clip is HERE. Rebecca Clarke composed an instrumental piece based on this tune in 1944: "I'll bid my heart be still (Old Scottish Border Melody)" [sound clip].

According to Plymouth Song Index, "I'll Bid My Heart Be Still" is in these songbooks:

New national song book, 2nd ed., vol.1 ed. by c.   1938       Songbook
National song book, ed. c.v. stanford             1906       Songbook
Minstrelsy of scotland, moffat (songbook)                     Songbook

From The National Song Book (Boosey and Co., 1906, p. 74; with music):

I'LL BID MY HEART BE STILL
(Poem by Thomas Pringle; Old Border Melody)

1. I'll bid my heart be still,
And check each struggling sigh!
And there's none e'er shall know
My soul's cherish'd woe,
When the first tears of sorrow are dry.

2. They bid me cease to weep,
For glory gilds his name;
Ah! 'tis therefore I mourn--
He ne'er can return
To enjoy the bright noon of his fame.

3. While minstrels wake the lay
For peace and freedom won,
Like my lost lover's knell
The tones seem to swell,
And I hear but his death-dirge alone.

4. My cheek has lost its hue,
My eye grows faint and dim,
But 'tis sweeter to fade
In grief's gloomy shade,
Than to bloom for another than him.

The song is also in Maver's Collection of Genuine Scottish Melodies (Glasgow: Robert Maver, pp. 239-240 [No. 477]; with music) [possibly published in the late 19th century or at the turn of the century, but my rebound copy has no publication date or lacks the page containing the date], where the credits are to Thomas Pringle and "Border Melody."

Thomas Pringle's biography is HERE.

~Masato

---

Click to play

Subject: ADD: I'll Bid My Heart Be Still
From: GUEST,shonagh
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 02:02 PM

I learnt this song a few years back and I believe that Burns may have written a few other verses to it as i dont know this version of it. Also, my music teacher wrote a few more verses. Its actually meant to be about the battle of Culloden and the aftermath with the women trying to find thier men and children. I do know the other verse that goes on the end but unforunately i can only remember the last 3 lines! i'll post them when i remember!! Really sad song but a very nice one.    I call it Hapless Caledonia.



I'll bid my heart be still
And check each struggling sigh
For there's none heare shall know,
My soul's hapless woe
When my last tears of sorrow are dry.



I watched from a hilltop high
'Neath a cloudless summer sky
Each happy fathers son
Shot down by a red coat gun
Had no chance to tell his children goodbye.


In the quiet when the battle is o'er
I found my love amisdt the gore
He had fallen like the rest
A bayonet in his breast
There i cradled him and wept full sore.


He was father to our children so dear
And he loved them scarce a year
Now they never can be glad
That they're fathers love they had
For he lies among the brave, beyond fear.

Subject: RE: Origins: Story behind 'I'll Bid My Heart Be Still
From: Joe Offer
Date: 15 Oct 02 - 08:47 PM

Can anybody come up with a tune for us?
-Joe Offer-

---

Masato did.

Click to play

Subject: RE: Origins: Story behind 'I'll Bid My Heart Be Still
From: GUEST,Jerry 'Old Codger'
Date: 19 Nov 02 - 01:01 PM

I just want to thank Masato Sakurai and a guest, shonagh for the plethora of material about this song info request. Masato's references to other song book sources were particularly appreciated. Previously I have been able to find NOTHING about this song. This response is so late becauseI could not find the thread again. Thanks again. Jerry

Subject: RE: Origins: Story behind 'I'll Bid My Heart Be Still
From: GUEST,just this on npr
Date: 19 Apr 08 - 02:56 PM

Subject: RE: Origins: I'll Bid My Heart Be Still (T Pringle)
From: GUEST,paula
Date: 21 Jul 23 - 07:13 AM

hello , I play the Rebecca Clarke version on cello. could never fit the words to the melody line. found the original in the New National Songbook, Boosey & Hawkes 1958, lying at the back of my cupboard. Thank you for the next 4 verses as they do not appear elsewhere.