Lyr Req: Captive Song of Mary Stuart (L Josephs)

Subject: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From:
Date: 16 Aug 98 - 09:54 PM

I heard this song on a Jean Ritchie recording. I no longer have the tape. I want to learn this song, but I could not understand all of the lyrics because of Ms. Ritchie's heavy Scottish accent. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: JB3
Date: 17 Aug 98 - 12:49 AM

I'm not sure you have the right Jean. Jean Ritchie is from Viper, Kentucky, altho I suppose she could sing with a Scottish accent if she wanted to. Do you mean the song, Last night there were four Marys, tonight there'll be but three?

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Murray on Saltspring
Date: 17 Aug 98 - 02:02 AM

It always helps if you give as many words as you can make out. Are you sure it's not my old friend Jean Redpath you're talking about??

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 17 Aug 98 - 08:34 AM

Dear JB3 and Murray - You are exactly right - I always get Jean Redpath and Jean Ritchie mixed up - much to my embarrassment!!! I mean the Scottish Jean - Jean Redpath. I remember just one small portion - something like - my cousin is a queen - though not as fair as I. I'll see if I can remember who I borrowed the tape from. Thanks for your imput! I am a brand new member - I just joined a minute ago - hence, a new code name - Muzishun. I tried to use my first name - Sandra - but it was already taken. Hope you both had great days! (JB3 - No, I'm familiar with Three Marys) (Murray - do you know Jean Redpath?!! - You couldn't ask her could you???!)I know the title is correct.

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: harpgirl
Date: 17 Aug 98 - 08:54 AM

Hello Via, I think the song you are looking for is on the Album "A Fine Song for Singing" with Abby Newton playing with Jean Redpath on Philo records, 1987. The song is called Captive Song of Mary Stuart. I'll have to listen to it later today and post the lyrics for you if you can't find it somewhere. Cheers! harpgirl

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Barry Finn
Date: 17 Aug 98 - 11:09 AM

Muzishum, there is also a great Scottish singer Jeannie Robertson whoo might add to the confusion but she's great none the less. Barry & welcome in.

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 17 Aug 98 - 08:56 PM

Thanks everyone for the replies and assistance! Harpgirl - you are right on track. So, I didn't even quite have the title correct! That sounds like the name of the tape I first heard the song on. But, as I said, the Scottish accent really made understanding the words difficult in several places. If you can understand them, and want to take the time, I would really appreciate it. Also - I'm very new to computers much less sites of any kind - how do I reply personally to someone I meet through Mudcat? Happy hunting to all of you muzishuns and muzic lovers!

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: harpgirl
Date: 18 Aug 98 - 04:57 PM

Hello again, Via. Sorry I didn't get to this last night. I am listening to it now and her accent is very difficult for me to understand on this song. A few more listenings should do it. I've admired Jean Redpath for many years but haven't learned many of the same songs, at least not this one. Maybe Murray on Saltspring can understand his friend more readily? How 'bout it Murray? Or maybe Alison or Barbara know it. Meanwhile I'll look through me songbooks...Cheers...harpgirl

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 18 Aug 98 - 09:23 PM

Thanks for taking time to try and decipher the words for me. If ya can't - ya can't. Don't waste much time trying to translate it - I just appreciate the attempt and the response I've had - it's been so quick and so cheerfully given! What a great site! Have you read the thread about the "tape" thing (can't remember what they called it???) Have to check- be back . . . . Via alias Muzishun

P.S. How about Murray??? He said Jean was an old fried of his???

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 18 Aug 98 - 09:28 PM

I'm back - Murray - I mean an old friend of yours - not an old fried!!! Harpgirl - the thread is called "tape swap". Members are sending tapes in to Max - original and traditional tunes. If you write or perform, you should check it out. I'll check back later. Bye.

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From:
Date: 19 Aug 98 - 03:16 AM

Hi-- I can't find the song under that title in my index of Scottish songs--which isn't complete, mind you, but does have most of what was published before 1900. So I'm assuming it's a fairly recent song. At any rate, it seems to be in rather deep Scots dialect, from what you say, which eliminates the songs in the index, which are in respectable English [about Queen M's escape from Lochleven Castle, etc.]. So, harpgirl, it would be a real help if you could give any at all of the words you can make out, particularly the opening of the song. I'll try to contact Jean Redpath, but it may take a wee while. Cheers Murray

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 19 Aug 98 - 07:59 AM

Murray - Cheers to you! I can't believe I've actually "met" someone who knows Jean Redpath! But you're right - the Scottish is very difficult to understand in the most annoying places - and I really don't know anyone who could help me here in SW VA - (this is the "Bluegrass Belt" ya know!) Thanks for offering to try and contact Jean! Harpgirl - if you try and write down what you can make out - I think I remember who I borrowed the tape from. If I can get it back, I'll see how much of it I can decipher. Thanks to both!

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: harpgirl
Date: 19 Aug 98 - 08:33 AM

Hi all The song begins

Though I was proud a Frenchman says, my day was quickly done. To trail my child______royal dress in the fairest sun. My husband was to be a King...

Since history is one more area in which I am woefully ignorant, I don't know the story but it is definitely historical!! I have to go shrink heads but I'll work some more on it later....Cheers! harpgirl

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: harpgirl
Date: 19 Aug 98 - 09:17 AM

Ah yes, the encyclopedia!! The song is about the trials and tribulations of Mary Stuart born 1542 and died 1587. Daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary Guise. Six days after her birth her father died and she became queen of Scotland. Her french mother sent Mary to France in 1548. In April 1558 (at the tender age of 16) she married the dauphin, Francis; she secretly agreed to bequeath Scotland to France if she should die without a son. In July 1559, Francis succeeded his father , become King Francis II and Mary became queen of France as well as Scotland. She lost the support of the Protestant Scottish nobility by her political decisions and marriages and abdicated in 1567. She was imprisioned at Lochleven Castle ( mentioned in the song, I believe.) She eventually returned to England and spent nearly 19 years in captivity. Her son James born in 1566 became James I of England. Perhaps with the story in my craw I can get the words down for you Muzishun! harpgirl

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 20 Aug 98 - 08:41 AM

Hello to all! I may be getting a copy of the tape back this afternoon. If so, I'll sit down and make out what I can and post it soon. Harpgirl - thanks for the historical background - I never bother to do "my homework"!

Subject: Lyr Add: CAPTIVE SONG OF MARY STUART (L Josephs)
From: Murray on Saltspring
Date: 27 Aug 98 - 10:15 PM

Hi, Muzishun!! Here's the words and note on its origin I got from Jean Redpath:

CAPTIVE SONG OF MARY STUART
^^

Though I was crowned a French princess
My day was quickly done
To trail my childhood's royal dress
In the Paris sun

My husband was to be a king
But died a little child
And I was sent without my ring
Back to Scotland wild

O Mary, Mother, hear my prayer
My cousin is a queen
Most powerful, though not so fair
As I have always been

In Scotland found I men to love
To love, if not to like
Who killed each other for my glove
With knife or sword or pike

But I took one to husband there
So pretty, slim-hipped, spoiled
With velvet eyes and gilded hair
Who fathered me a child

O Mary, Mother, hear my prayer
My cousin is a queen
Most powerful, though not so fair
As I have always been

From this high window seems the earth
A desert or a stone
Despite the son I brought to birth
Who'll sit the English throne

To rule where I have never stood
To rule when I am dead
Who'll nought remember of my good
Nor any word I said

O Mary, Mother, hear my prayer
My cousin is a queen
Most powerful, though not so fair
As I have always been

Ah, God, it is an empty thing
To one gone mad for love
To want it more than be a king
The royal world above

And I was once a French princess
Though that was quickly done
And traild my childhood's purple dress
In the Paris sun

Words: Laurence Josephs
Tune: J.Redpath

Recorded Fine Song for Singing 1987

Laurence Josephs joined the Department of English at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs in 1963, and was resident poet and Professor of English there till his retirement. His work has appeared in innumerable publications but can most readily be found in his own collections: Cold Water Morning [published 1964]; Six Elegies [1973]. Most recently his poetry appears in North Country, an anthology published by the Greenfield Review Press and in Remembered Blood: American Poets on the Holocaust, published by Avon. Laurence gave me the text for Captive Song of Mary Stuart in 1964 when he was caught by the poignant images of Mary, Queen of Scots as portrayed in traditional balladry. After more than twenty years, the song is my belated "Thank you" .

- That should help! Cheers Murray

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 28 Aug 98 - 08:11 AM

Dear Murray: I am estatic! I never dreamed when I first heard this song about three years ago and decided to learn it for performance that I would be able to go through a personal friend of the artist! I really do love this song - the lyrics are even more wonderful now that I can "fill in the blanks"! I had no idea that this was a contemporary song - it sounds very old! I have been working out the guitar accompaniment and "humming" where I couldn't make out the words. Thank you so much for offering to assist me! Thanks to you also Harpirl! Both of you have been super nice! I'll be glad to assist you in the future if I can in some way. Murray - please let your friend know how I love her voice and send my thanks to her as well! Sandra/Muzishun

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Muzishun
Date: 28 Aug 98 - 08:25 AM

Murray - which Murray are you? There are three? I want to send you a personal message. Thanks! (Is it the just "Murray" Murray?

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Baz
Date: 28 Aug 98 - 04:42 PM

Murray
can I add my thanks for all the work. This is a song my wife has been wanting to learn for some time. She is going to work on the melody, if she succeeds I'll post and ABC for anyone interested.
Thanks again Baz.

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: Murray on Saltspring
Date: 29 Aug 98 - 02:07 AM

I call myself "MoS" now because of possible confusion, but my email is (oddly enough) [e-mail] -- I'm not the only Murray on this little island, but I seem to have been the first to get an email address. Anyway, Sandra, welcome to the melee. I may as well advertise here the existence of my Scottish index, which as I said covers an awful lot of the old stuff, i.e. Scots songs, and also a good deal of verse (no music), and *also* a good many of the tunes in collections. I realise there are other indexes, of course, but this is my pet and I've been fiddling with it for donkeys' decades. So the odds are that I can tell you *something* about the oldies, and maybe a bit about the newer stuff--i.e. post-1900. I am no match however for Bruce Olson in Maryland, who has delved into old manuscripts and whatnot and made quite a few discoveries. If you want to email me at the above address, I'll be pleased, tho I warn you I'm notorious for being backward at coming forward in that regard. But I will reply sometime. Cheers Murray

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: GUEST,Lady Arlen
Date: 03 Mar 04 - 12:51 AM

At last-- I've been trying to track down the lyrics to "The Captive Song..." for years! I'm amazed and pleased that there are lots of others out there who love the song but were also frustrated in trying to "get" all the words from Jean Redpath's recording.
NOW -- HAS ANYONE WORKED OUT THE CHORDS? I can't seem to figure them out, no matter what key or capo position I use
If anyone out there has them, would you send 'em to me at [e-mail]? Thanks a bunch.

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 03 Mar 04 - 10:29 AM

a tune! - a tune! My gratitude for a tune!

Subject: Tune Add: CAPTIVE SONG OF MARY STUART
From: Marion in Cornwall
Date: 03 Mar 04 - 04:29 PM

Going back to Baz's (KJohn) entry, here I am 6 years later with the tune - better late than never!!
Notated from Jean Redpath's cd.

X:1
T:CAPTIVE SONG OF MARY STUART
I:abc2nwc
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=180
K:D
B,2B,2F2|F6D2|D2C2B,4-|B,2B2-B/2B3/2 A2|
B6F2|E6z2|E2E2G2B2-|B4D2D2|C2B,6|B,2D2C2A,2|B,6z2|]

This plays ok in abc2win, but abcmuse seems to slow it down.
Sent to Mario by PM

All the best
Marion

Subject: RE: Lyrics/Captive Song of Mary Queen of Scots???
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 04 Mar 04 - 08:23 AM

My gratitude extended forthwith!