20 Nov 01 - 09:18 AM (#596312) Subject: Canadian Boat Song From: GUEST,Beth Dear Mudcatters, I am looking for the tune (sheet music or midi would be nice) to the "Canadian Boat Song". The 1st verse & chorus are: Listen to me, as when ye heard our fathersThanks for your help. Beth Click for related thread |
20 Nov 01 - 09:29 AM (#596319) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: MMario this site has the lyrics in English and Gaelic. url=http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Heritage/FSCNS/Scots_NS/Mission/Domain/Canadian_Boat_Song.html the only midi's I have found are a different song. |
20 Nov 01 - 09:49 AM (#596335) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: Sorcha Background MIDI here, with a quote from the song, but I don't know the tune. Is this it? Seems like the rhythm fits. |
20 Nov 01 - 10:06 AM (#596354) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: Malcolm Douglas It didn't play in the background for me, but assuming that it was the one mentioned at the bottom of the page, it was The Mist-Covered Mountain, which I don't think is what we're looking for. For an earlier discussion of both "boat" songs, not yet indexed by the search engine here, see Canadian Boat Song The only tune anyone came up with was the French one used by Thomas Moore. If there was a tune given in the original publication of the "Scottish" song, nobody has mentioned it, so I'm assuming that it was set later on; I've heard it referred to any number of times over the years, but never sung. |
20 Nov 01 - 01:18 PM (#596493) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: masato sakurai This is not a traditional song, but a poem contained in English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman (The Harvard Classics, 1909–14). The Canadian Boat Song J. Wilson (?) (19th century) LISTEN to me, as when ye heard our father(From HERE) ~Masato
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20 Nov 01 - 02:59 PM (#596592) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: Amos Masato rides again!!! You're terrific. A. |
20 Nov 01 - 03:35 PM (#596619) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: GUEST,MCP See the thread cited by Malcolm Douglas above (and the various related sites) re the authorship of this. J.Wilson is by no means accepted as the only contender and (IIRC) one of the Oxford collections gives Anon as author. There seem to be no tunes cited anywhere, except the Dans Mon Chemin.. used for the Moore words. (Incidentally there are copies of sheet music for this at: UNC-Chapel Hill Library(pub.Firth&Hall) and also in the 19th century ballad sheet collection at the Library of Congress(pub Wrigley) Mick |
20 Nov 01 - 03:41 PM (#596626) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: MMario Mick - your links are to the Moore piece - not the one Beth was looking for. Whoops! never mind - see that you cited that the tune as for the Moore one. never mind. |
21 Nov 01 - 09:43 AM (#597147) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: GUEST,Beth Thanks for your help! |
21 Nov 01 - 10:03 AM (#597152) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: GUEST,Beth Hey, its me again! This is such a beautiful and haunting poem that it seems a shame not to sing it... any ideas on other traditional tunes that might be appropriate to the metre and content of the song? I'd really like to put this song back in circulation some day and I'm sure others would too. Just an idea! Thanks again, Beth |
26 Nov 01 - 10:25 PM (#598175) Subject: RE: Tune Req: Canadian Boat Song From: masato sakurai In the Noctes Ambrosianae section of Blackwood's Magazine there appeared in September, 1829, the following message with the English text (see Canadian Poetry linked to below):
NORTH
The authorship of "The Canadian Boat Song" has been discussed for a long time since then. Among the candidates has been John Wilson (see the post above), John Galt (HERE and HERE), Galt and "North" jointly (HERE), Sir Walter Scott(HERE and HERE), and of course Anonymous (HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and at other sites).
On this matter, Canadian Poetry (no. 6 (Spring/Summer 1980), 69-79) featured articles under the heading of "The 'Canadian Boat-Song': A Mosaic," compiled by D.M.R. Bentley. It assembles the text from Blackwood's Magazine and documents the controversy surrounding its authorship through contributions by Linda Dowler ("The Authorship of the 'Canadian Boat-Song': A Bibliographical Note"), Elizabeth Waterston ("John Galt and 'The Lone Shieling'"), and Gary Draper ("Tiger Dunlop and the'Canadian Boat-Song'"). Theses articles are online (HERE and HERE; the contents are the same). Dowler and Waterson say at the outset of their articles respectively:
From its first, anonymous appearance in Blackwood's Magazine for September, 1829, the "Canadian Boat Song" has tantalized its admirers, for the question of its authorship has remained an unsolved puzzle. The literature which has been generated by the problem of attribution is consid erable; the following, while not attempting an exhaustive bibliographical listing, will trace the major turns of the argument as it has appeared in print. There are, in all, eight names in the list of those for whom the laurel of authorship has been claimed. They will be reviewed here in the order in which they were entered.
Three Scottish puzzles have intrigued the literary world: the authenticity of the Ossianic Fragment, the authorship of the Waverley novels, and the provenance of "The Canadian Boat Song". The first mystery was cracked by detection, the second by gossip; the third has never really been cleared up. No manuscript, no diary jotting of a gossiping revelation has finally settled the origin of the poignant song of "The Lone Shieling".
Dowler's conclusion is:
As the present evidence seems unlikely to justify anything more substantial than such best guesses, and as the taste for literary enigmas has tended to decline among scholars, the mystery of the "Boat Song's" authorship would appear to be safe with the ghosts of "Christopher North" and his Ambrosian accomplices.
There's a composed work! This poem was set to music by Chrishelen Mackay (CLICK HERE; PDF files). Incidentally, pictures of the "Lone Shieling" (Nova Scotia) are HERE, HERE and HERE ("a replica of a Scottish sheep crofter's hut"). ~Masato
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