Volume III, song 265, page 274 - 'Highland Song' - Scanned...
Volume III, song 265, page 274 - 'Highland Song' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse in Gaelic: 'Se do mholla mholla mholla se do mholla ni mi gu brach Er mo riara is thu mo Luasa ameasg na'hisil agus nasil s'thu fir mhac au Dunuasil s'mac an Tuanic n'ur ghas a bar.' A translation is provided: 'Thy praise I'll ever celebrate. Truly thou art my Lover either among the lowly or high, thou art the true son of the Gentleman, and also the Farmer's son when the Harvest comes on.'
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
William Stenhouse, editor of the 'Museum' following Johnson's death, believed the Gaelic words, translation and melody included by Johnson were taken directly from James Sibbald's 'Edinburgh Magazine' (1785). Whilst much of what Stenhouse wrote has since been discredited, in this instance it appears to be correct. An interesting insight into the possible origins and history of the song is offered by Alexander Campbell, in 'Albyn's Anthology' (1816): 'This original Hebridean air was noted down from the mouth of a young girl, a native of Lewis, by an accomplished lady (a namesake of the Editor), in 1781. In the Edinburgh Magazine for anno 1785, this fragment, for it is no more, will be found as given by the present Editor to the late Mr James Sibbald.'
Volume III, song 265, page 274 - 'Highland Song' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)