The Lass of Peaty's Mill
I'd promise and fulfil, That none but bonny she, The lass of Peaty's mill, Shou'd share the same with me.
The lass of Peaty's mill, So bonny blythe and gay, In spite of all my skill, Hath stole my heart away. When tedding of the hay, Bareheaded on the green, Love 'midst her locks did play, And wanton'd in her een.
Sic a wife as Willie had Willie Wastle dwalt on Tweed, The spot they ca'd it Linkumdoddie; Willie was a wabster gude, Cou'd stown a clue wi' ony bodie. He had a wife was dour and din, O Tinkler Maidgie was her mither, Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.
Her arms, white round and smooth, Breasts rising in their dawn, To age it would give youth, To press them with his hand; Through all my spirits ran An ecstasy of bliss, When I such sweetness fand, Wrapt in a balmy kiss.
She has an e'e, she has but ane, The cat has twa the very colour; Five rusty teeth, forbye a stump, A clapper tongue wad deave a miller; A whiskin beard about her mou, Her nose and chin they threaten ither; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.
Without the help of art, Like flow'rs which grace the wild, She did her sweets impart, Whene'er she spoke, or smil'd. Her looks, they were so mild, Free from affected pride, She me to love beguil'd; I wish'd her for my bride.
She's bow-hough'd, she's hem shin'd, Ae limpin leg a hand-breed shorter' She's twisted right, she's twisted left, To balance fair in ilka quarter: She has a hump upon her breast, The twin o' that upon her shouther; Sic a wife as Willie had, I wad na gie a button for her.
O! had I all that wealth Hopetoun's high mountains fill, Insur'd long life and health, And pleasure at my will; 11
adapted the words for more or less all the songs from previously published collections. Suc h interdependency is unremarkable given that the majority of music based on Scottish traditional melodies was derived from a relatively pre-determined body of songs. Many other composers and publishers –some native, others of English or foreign origin like Pietro Urbani–tackled the native song repertory; some merely compiling new vocal arrangements of the songs themselves, while others expanded selected airs into full instrumental pieces. Their work achieved varying degrees of success, but all were motivated by commercial gain, unlike the participants in the SMM.
the Scottish theme, but which allows some harmonic development within an otherwise rather restrictive idiom. Another to use this popular approach was the rather better known composer Johann Christian Bach (17351782), J S Bach's youngest son, and not only the first to play the piano in public in Britain, but also a mentor to the young Mozart during his visit to London (1764-5). This London-based German made arrangements of several different Scottish tunes in the late 1770s, probably due to the influence of his friend, the Italian castrato G F Tenducci (c.1735-1790). Tenducci had recently returned from a period in Edinburgh where he had been attempting to escape his creditors, and where he had gained an enormous reputation as the singer of Scots songs. For Tenducci, Bach made elaborate instrumental arrangements of four songs, but he also incorporated two other melodies within piano concertos, the most popular of which was his variation set on The Yellow-hair'd Laddie found in the third movement of his piano concerto Op.13 No.4 (1777), a work often republished due to its enormous success. Bach compiled a set of five variations, in succession putting the melody up an octave; utilising an Albertitype arpeggiated bass; moving the melody into the bass; chromaticising the melody; and finally tripletising it in arpeggiated figures.
J
ohn Ross (1763-1837) was an English-born composer and organist who spent his adult life in Aberdeen, where he played a prominent role in musical life, even meeting Burns during his visit there in 1787. An astute businessman, Ross retained contacts with several London publishers, his output including a volume of Ancient and Modern Scots Airs (some of which he had written himself) and more than twenty sonatas, some of which included Scots airs, for piano with an accompaniment for violin or flute.The final movements of many of Ross's sonatas were tuneful rondos that became great favourites in the drawing rooms of the period. Ross's approach to the melody Busk ye, Busk ye is through another commonly employed technique: the variation. Ross utilises the technique in a relatively advanced manner, writing not only three variations of increasing virtuosity (in one of which the underlying rhythm of the theme itself is altered from a slow 4/4 to a more lively, dance-like 6/8), but also what Ross himself terms a 'Minore Digressione'–a section in A minor which contrasts completely with the A major of the remainder of the work.This 'Digressione' is literally that–a deviation that bears little thematic correlation to
P
ietro Urbani and Domenico Corri were two of many Italian musicians active in Edinburgh during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Corri arrived in 1771, his invitation to Edinburgh originating in a favourable account of his musical activities in Charles Burney's journal of his travels in Italy, and he remained there for eighteen years before moving to London around 1790. Urbani's arrival was ten years later, 4
