Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SCOTTISH MUSIO SCOTTISH MUSIC 395
of any but a true sorrow, the wail of a mourner
for those who would never return — and
which no doubt is nearly coeval with Flodden.
The MS. was published in 1838 by Mr. Wm.
Dauney, with a Dissertation, excellent in many
respects, on the subject of Scottish music. He
was greatly assisted by G. Farquhar Graham,
who not only translated the MS. from Lute
Tablature, but contributed much musical and
other information. (See Skene Mantjsoeipt.)
From some anecdotes told of Charles II. he
seems to have had a great liking for Scottish
music, and certainly from the Restoration it
became popular in England. This is shown
by the almost innumerable imitations of the
style that are to be found in the various publications
of John Playford. They are usually
simply called 'Scotch tunes,' but sometimes
tlie name of the composer is given, showing
that no idea of strict nationality attached to
them. In general they are worthless ;
but
occasionally excellent melodies appear among
them, such as She ' rose and let me in, ' Over
'
the hills and far away,' 'De'il take the wars,'
'
Sawney
'
was tall ' (Corn rigs), In January
last' (Jock of Hazeldean), all of which, with
many others of less note, have been incorporated
in Scottish Collections, at first from ignorance,
afterwards from custom, and without further
inquiry. There are however many tunes, not
to be confounded with these, which two or
even three centuries ago were common to the
northern counties of England and the adjoining
counties of Scotland, the exact birthplace of
which will never be satisfactorily determined ;
for of course the first record in print does not
necessarily decide the parentage of a tune.
Among these—though rather on account of
the words than the music—may be classed the
famous song 'Tak your auld cloak about ye,'
which having been found in Bishop Percy's
ancient MS. has been claimed as entirely
English. The Rev. J. W. Ebsworth, a very
high authority, believes it to be the common
property of the Border counties of both nations.
Probably it is so ;
yet it seems strange that so
excellent a ballad, if ever popularly known in
England, should have so utterly disappeared
from that country as not to be even mentioned
in any English work, or by any English author
with the exception of Shakespeare, who has
quoted one stanza of it in Othello. Not a line
of it is to be found in the numerous ' Drolleries
of the Restoration, in the publications of Playford
and D'Urfey, or in the Merry Musicians
'
and other song-books of the reign of Queen
Anne. Even the printers whose presses sent
forth the thousands of blackletter ballads that
fill the Roxburgh, Pepys, Bagford and other
collections, ignore it entirely. Allan Ramsay,
in 1728, was the first to print it, nearly forty
years before Bishop Percy gave his version to
the world, confessing to have corrected his own
by copies received from Scotland. The question
naturally arises, where did Allan Ramsay get
his copy of the ballad, if not from the singing
of the people ? Certainly not from England,
for there it was then unknown.
The half century after the Revolution was a
busy one both with Jacobite poetry and music ;
in regard to the music, little, if any of it, was
new, for the writers of the words had the
wisdom to adapt their verses to melodies that
every one knew and could sing. Thus many
old favourite tunes got new names, while others
equally old have perhaps been saved to us by
their Jacobite words, their early names being
entirely lost. The story of the battle of
Killieorankie (1689) is one of the earliest of
these songs, and enjoys the distinction of
having a Latin translation, beginning
Grahamius notabilis coegerat Montanos
Qui clypeis et gladiis fugarunt Anglicauos,
Fugerant Vallicolae atque Puritan!
Cacavere Batavi et Cameroniani.
It is sung to a Gaelic tune of its own name, so
quickly and so widely spread as to be found in
a Northumbrian MS. of 1694, as the Iris7i
Gillicranky. It is a stirring bagpipe tune, no
doubt older than the words.
A still more celebrated air, now known as
'Scots wha hae,' received its name of 'Hey
tuti taiti' from a stanza of a song of 1716 (?),
'
Here's to the king, sir ; Ye ken wha I mean,
sir. ' The stanza is worth quoting, and would
be yet more so could it tell us the still earlier
name of the tune, a subject which has caused
much discussion.
When you hear the trumpet soun'
Tuti taiti to the drum,
Up sword, and down gun,
And to the loons again.
The words Tuti ' taiti ' are evidently only an
attempted imitation of the trumpet notes, and
not the name of the air. To suppose that the
tune itself was played on the trumpet as a
battle-call is too absurd for consideration. As
the air has a good deal in common with 'My
dearie, an thou dee,' there seems considerable
probability that it was another version of the
same, or that the one gave rise to the other, a
thing likely enough to happen in days when
there being no books to refer to, one singer took
his tune as he best could from his neighbour.
'
When the king comes owre the water '
otherwise Boyne water ' '-—is a good example
of change of name ; the air was discovered in a
MS. of 1694, where it is called ' Playing amang
the rashes,' a line of an old Scottish song recovered
by Allan Ramsay, and printed in his
Tea- Table Miscellany, 1 724—a fact which seems
somewhat to invalidate the Irish claim to the
tune. The Jacobite words are said to have been
written by Lady Keith Marischall, mother of
the celebrated Marshal Keith, a favourite general
of Frederick the Great.