Volume IV, song 302, page 312 - 'Frae the friends and Land I love' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1 (to the tune of 'Carron Side'): 'Frae the friends and Land I love, Driv'n by Fortunes felly spite, Frae my best Belov'd I rove never mair to taste delight Never mair maun hope to find Ease frae toil, relief frae care When Remembrance wracks the mind, Pleasures but unvail Despair.' 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. Not only did Robert Burns write many of the songs included in the 'Museum', he also spent a great deal of time collecting and revising existing songs. For this particular song he recorded in his notes on the 'Museum', 'I added the four last lines by way of giving a turn to the theme of the poem, such as it is'. Prior to the 'Museum', the tune of 'Carron Side' appeared in book eight of James Oswald's 'Caledonian Pocket Companion' (c. 1756) and also in his 'Collection of Scots Tunes'. Glen (1900) noted that 'The air is a pleasant one; but to some extent the first strain is indebted to the tune of 'Todlin' hame'. It has some Celtic character in the second strain'.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503498

Title

Volume IV, song 302, page 312 - 'Frae the friends and Land I love' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 132 x 211 mm