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610 ANGLO-SCOTTISH SONGS.
composed by Purcell; " The bonny grey-ey'd morn begins to peep," to the tune of " an excellent new Play-house song, call'd The bonny grey ey'd morn, or Jockey roused with love" composed by Jeremiah Clark; " Corn riggs are bonny," to the tune of Sawney was tall and of noble race, a song in D'Urfey's play, The Virtuous Wife; *'Nanny 0," to the tune of the English ballad of Nanny 0.&
If this kind of scrutiny were carried through the songs in the Tea Table Miscellany, in Thomson's Orpheus Qaledonius, or any other collection, the bulk of Scottish music would be sensibly diminished; but, on the whole, it would gain in symmetry. Many good and popular tunes would be given up, but a mass of indifferent would be rejected at the same time.
The mixture of English and Anglo-Scottish with the genuine Scottish music has been gradually increasing since Thomson's time. Successive collectors have added songs that were popular in their day, without care as to the source whence they were derived; each seeking only to render his own publication more attractive than those of his predecessors. The songs of English musicians— often of living authors—have been thus included, and their names systematically suppressed. Although the authorship of these songs may have been known to many at the time of publication, it soon passed out of memory, and the Scotch have themselves been deceived into a belief in their genuineness. Thus Burns, writing to Mr. Candlish, in June, 1787, about Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, says, " I am engaged in assisting an honest Scotch enthusiast, a friend of mine, who is an engraver, and has taken it into his head to publish a collection of all our songs set to music, of which the words and music are done by Scotsmen." And again, in October, to another correspondent,—"An engraver, James Johnson, in Edinburgh, has, not from mercenary views, but from an honest Scotch enthusiasm, set about collecting all our native songs" &c. And yet, within the first twenty-four songs of the only volume then published, are compositions by Purcell, Michael Arne, Hook, Berg, and Battishill.
Thomson's Orpheus Oaledonius was printed in London; but the Scots Musical Museum was published in Edinburgh.
Although the popularity of Scottish music in England cannot be dated further back than the reign of Charles II. ,b it may be proved, from various sources, that English music was in favour in Scotland from the fifteenth century, and that many English airs became so popular as at length to be thoroughly domiciled
• This ballad and the answer toit are In the Roxburghe v It Is difficult to account wholly for this, but it maybe
Collection. The first (ii. 415) is " The Scotch wooing of attributedpartiallytotheprejudiceagainst theScotch,who
Willy and Nanny: To apleasant new tune, nr Nanny, O." were long viewed as interlopers, and somewhat to their
Printed by P. Brooksby. Although entitled " The Scotch broad dialect; for, although they would naturally sing
wooing," it relates to the most southern part of North- the airs of their country, 1 cannot find that any attained
umberland. It commences, " As I went forth one mom- popularity in England before the Restoration, either by
ing fair," and has for burden— notices of dramatists and other writers, by being used as
" It is Nanny, Nanny, Nanny O, ballad tunes, or by being found in print or manuscript.
The love I bear to Nanny O, I should say that one or two airs are the most that could
All the world shall never know be adduced. The upper classes of both countries seem
The love I bear to Nanny 0." to have sung only scholastic music, and the lower order of
Tynemouth Castle is spelled "Tinmouth" in the ballad, English had abundant ballad tunes of their own, and were
just as it is now pronounced in the North of England; it apparently loth to change them.
is, therefore, probably, of Northumbrian origin. The
answer is in Rox. ii. 17; also printsd by Brooksby. |
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