Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: Gutcher
Date: 27 Jun 12 - 05:48 PM

Michael-thanks for the link. The blue clip of the first poster took me to what looks to be an interesting site.
Unfortunately due to the fact that I have a VAT return to complete for tomorrow I have only had time to listen to your contribution,which gives the same words in a different order as I have them. The first and only time I heard them sung was at the latest 1942.
My reference to WW1 was a pure guess which I hoped would generate some interest and throw up further verses/details.
Joe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 Jun 12 - 02:14 PM

It is also included, contributed by me, on p43 (note on source p211) of Roy Palmer's What A Lovely War: British Soldiers' Songs [Michael Joseph 1990].

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 27 Jun 12 - 02:07 PM

Gutcher ~~ I can be heard singing I Canna See The Target on British Library's Roy Palmer Collection ~~ see the ongoing thread on that, Recordings Of Traditional Music, which I have refreshed. I learned it in the late 60s from a former, WW2, captain of the Black Watch, who told me his men used always to sing it on the way to the butts for target practice. I shouldn't be surprised if it went back to WW1; but I collected it as a direct piece of WW2 folklore.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Jun 12 - 12:24 PM

While My Nut Brown Maiden was largely unknown in Cape Breton Ho-ro Mo Nighean Donn Bhoideach was very popular in the Gaelic tongue and in a Gaelic parody version. One verse was sung in English:
I asked her if she loved me
She said she was above me
She opened the door and shoved me
And called me a fool

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: Gutcher
Date: 27 Jun 12 - 05:36 AM

When a child in the back of beyond I heard a parody on this one:--

"Oh bring the target nearer
Oh bring the target nearer
Aa cannie see the target
It"s ower faur awa."

This is all I can bring to mind--do any of you folk out there have the rest of it?
Possibly WW1.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 26 Jun 12 - 09:36 AM

....and Roger Livesey can be seen/heard singing it in the Powell/Pressburger film "I Know Where I'm Going" (1945).

(as an interesting aside: the actor John Laurie was the choreographer and arranger for the ceilidh sequences).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 26 Jun 12 - 01:21 AM

This fine tune is a company march of one of the Scots Guards battalions. I once heard it played at the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace when men of that company were finding the guard, and very fine and impressive it sounds.   It is one of the "Tunes Of Glory", mentioned by Alec Guinness's Highland colonel as suitable to be played at his predecessor's military funeral, in the fine film of that name.

The Rankin Family can be heard singing it in Gaelic on YouTube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKsrYkKGsoY

~Michael~

Subject: Lyr Add: HO-RO, MY NUT-BROWN MAIDEN
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 10:40 PM

This English version is given in the appendix of Altavona, fact and fiction from my life in the Highlands by John Stuart Blackie, 1882, page 415f.

The Gaelic version, HO-RO MO NIGHEAN BONN BHOIDHEACH, along with musical notation, is given at page 60f of the same book.

HO-RO, MY NUT-BROWN MAIDEN

CHORUS: Ho-ro, my nut-brown maiden,
Hi-ri, my nut-brown maiden,
Ho-ro, my nut-brown maiden,
O she's the maid for me!

1. Her eye so mildly beaming,
Her look so frank and free,
In waking and in dreaming,
Is evermore with me.

2. O Mary, mild-eyed Mary,
By land, or on the sea,
Though time and tide may vary,
My heart beats true to thee.

3. With thy fair face before me,
How sweetly flew the hour,
When all thy beauty o'er me,
Came streaming in its power!

4. That face with kindness glowing,
That face which knows no guile,
The light grace of thy going,
The witchcraft of thy smile.

5. And, since from thee I parted,
A long and weary while,
I wander heavy-hearted,
With longing for thy smile.

6. In Glasgow and Dun-Edin
Were maidens fair to see,
But never a Lowland maiden
Could lure mine eyes from thee;-

7. Mine eyes that never vary
From pointing to the glen,
Where blooms my Highland Mary,
Like wild rose 'neath the Ben.

8. And when with blossoms laden
Bright summer comes again,
I'll fetch my nut-brown maiden
Down from the bonnie glen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 03:47 PM

thanks for that, GUEST do.

you can refresh the thread in another ten years, just in case we have all forgotten the lyrics by then.

incidentally, I don't think John Stuart Blackie translated this from the Gaelic, my impression has always been that this was his original composition.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Nut Brown Maiden
From: GUEST,do
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 03:02 PM

NUT BROWN MAIDEN

cho: Ho ro my nut-brown maiden,
Hee ree my nut-brown maiden,
Ho ro ro maiden,
For she's the maid for me.

Her eye so mildly beaming,
Her look so frank and free,
In waking or in dreaming,
Is evermore with me.

O Mary, mild-eyed Mary,
By land or on the sea,
Though time or tide may vary
My heart beats true for thee.

And since from thee I parted,
A long and weary while,
I wander heavy hearted
With longing for thy smile.

Mine Eyes that never vary
From pointing to the glen
Where blooms my Highland Mary
Like wild rose 'neath the ben.

And when the blossoms laden,
Bright summer comes again,
I'll fetch my nut-brown maiden
Down from the bonnie glen.

Subject: RE: Nut Brown Maiden
From: Bert Hansell
Date: 03 Mar 97 - 09:10 AM

Thanks for the song and the background Kevin.

Just Great.

Bert.

Subject: Lyr Add: NUT BROWN MAIDEN
From: Kevin
Date: 28 Feb 97 - 04:30 PM

Hi Bert,

NUT BROWN MAIDEN

CHORUS: Ho ro my nut-brown maiden,
Hee ree my nut-brown maiden,
Ho ro ro maiden,
For she's the maid for me.

Her eye so mildly beaming,
Her look so frank and free,
In waking or in dreaming,
Is evermore with me. CHORUS

O Mary, mild-eyed Mary,
By land or on the sea,
Though time or tide may vary
My heart beats true for thee. CHORUS

And since from thee I parted,
A long and weary while,
I wander heavy hearted
With longing for thy smile. CHORUS

Mine Eyes that never vary
From pointing to the glen
Where blooms my Highland Mary
Like wild rose 'neath the ben. CHORUS

And when the blossoms laden,
Bright summer comes again,
I'll fetch my nut-brown maiden
Down from the bonnie glen. CHORUS

"One of the most popular songs of the Highlands, this was translated from the Gaelic in the nineteenth century by the Scottish poet John Stuart Blackie."
(From "Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales" Selected and edited by William Cole, Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden Cith New York, 1961)

Enjoy,
Kevin

Subject: Nut Brown Maiden
From: Bert Hansell
Date: 28 Feb 97 - 01:37 PM

Does anyone have the words for Nut Brown Maiden?

All I can remember is the chorus which goes....

Ho Ro my nut brown maiden

Hee Ree my nut brown maiden

Ho ro-o o-o maiden

You're the one for me.