Tune Req: Heather on the Moor

Subject: heather on the moor ABC/MIDI?
From:
Date: 03 Aug 98 - 04:53 PM

does anyone have the ABC or MIDI or WAV of "heather on the moor"? Thanks Big! John

Subject: RE: heather on the moor ABC/MIDI?
From:
Date: 03 Aug 98 - 04:56 PM

GOT IT MYSELF - THOUGHT IT WAS NOT IN THE DB SORRY!

Subject: RE: heather on the moor ABC/MIDI?
From: John Nolan
Date: 03 Aug 98 - 08:43 PM

On this topic, the heather/moor songs in the database may be related to "O'er the moor amang the heather" collected in the late 1700s by Robert Burns. In Burns' Remarks on Scottish Song, he is quoted as follows: This song is the composition of Jean Glover, a girl who was not only a whore, but also a thief, and in one or other character, has visited most of the Correction Houses in the West. She was born, I believe in Kilmarnock. I took the song down from her singing, as she was strolling through the country with a sleight-of-hand blackguard.

Comin through the craigs o' Kyle
Amang the bonnie blooming heather,
There I met a bonnie lassie
Keeping a' her yowes thegither.

Chorus: O'er the moor amang the heather
O'er the moor amang the heather
There I met a bonnie lassie
Keeping a' her yowes thegither.

Says I, My dearie, where is thy hame
In moor or dale, pray tell me whether?
She say, I tent the fleecy flocks
That feed among the blooming heather
O'er the moor etc.

We laid us doon upon a bank
Sae warm and sunny was the weather
She left her flocks at large to rove
Amang the bonnie blooming heather.
O'er the moor etc.

While thus we lay she sang a sang
Till echo rang a mile and further,
And aye the burden o'the sang
Was, O'er the moor amang the heather.
O'er the moor etc.

She charmed my heart and aye sinsyne
I couldna think on any ither
By sea and sky she shall be mine!
The bonnie lass amang the heather
O'er the moor etc.

I hope this makes it into the database at a future point and poor Jean Glover gets some credit.

Subject: RE: heather on the moor ABC/MIDI?
From: Bruce O.
Date: 03 Aug 98 - 09:42 PM

The song above first appeared in 'The Scots Musical Museum', #328. Stenhous comments in 'Illustrations to SMM' that there were older verses 'rather too loose for insertion'.

I have an old recording of Delia Murphy singing an Irish version.

The tune, "Over the moor amang the heather' is in a manuscript of Scot tunes compiled by David Young in 1740. It was published in P. Thompson's 'Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1758, the year Jean Glover was born (Oct. 31, died 1801). Two years later it appeared in Bremner's 'A Collection of Reels'. For other early copies of the tune see SCOTUNS and CNTYDAN2 files on my website.

Subject: RE: heather on the moor ABC/MIDI?
From: John Nolan
Date: 04 Aug 98 - 05:55 PM

That's interesting Bruce, and accurate, no doubt. But isn't it odd that Burns gave Jean Glover credit for the song, or at least that version, when a collector/patcher like he would surely have been aware of preceding similarities? Ulterior motives, perhaps? Any thoughts?