The Banks o' Doon
Busk ye, busk ye
Ye Banks and braes o' bonie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair; How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary fu' o' care! Thou'll break my heart thou warbling bird, That wantons thro' the flowering thorn: Thou minds me o' departed joys, Departed never to return.
Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny bride; Busk ye, busk ye, my winsome marrow, Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny bride, And let us to the braes of Yarrow. There will we sport and gather dew, Dancing while lav'rocks sing in the morning: There learn frae turtles to prove true; O Bell, ne'er vex me with thy scorning.
Oft hae I rov'd by bonie Doon, To see the rose and woodbine twine; And ilka bird sang o' it's luve, And fondly sae did I o' mine. Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree; And my fause luver staw my rose, But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.
To westlin breezes Flora yields, And when the beams are kindly warming, Blythness appears o'er all the fields, And Nature looks more fresh and charming, Learn frae the burns that trace the mead, Tho on their banks the roses blossom, Yet hastily they flow to Tweed, And pour their sweetness in his bosom. Haste ye, haste ye, my bonny Bell, Haste to my arms, and there I'll guard thee; Wi' free consent my fears repel; I'll wi' my love and care reward thee. Thus sang I saftly to my fair, Who rais'd my hopes with kind relenting O queen of smiles, I ask nae mair, Since now my bonny Bell's consenting.
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proficient, but rather old-fashioned style. Written in the early 1790s, this work shows a profound shift to a new type of compositional approach most likely to have derived from the influence of a new member of the family.
common in the works of later nineteenth-century composers appearing in his music on a regular basis. His works incorporating Scots airs again include both rondo and variation set formats, one of which, Rosline Castle, even introduces a further Scottish air, The Lass of Peatie's Mill, in a 'pot-pourri'. A term that implied a musical composition that was a medley of tunes from pre-existing sources, the 'pot-pourri' technique was particularly common amongst composers of Scotsinfluenced keyboard sonatas. In this, as in most other works of the type, the two melodies are linked by the similarity in their thematic material, providing, in essence, further possibilities in the variation of the original tune. In contrast the variations on one of Scotland's most beautiful melodies, Within a mile of Edinburgh, display the virtuosic character that Corri so wanted to imitate after meeting Dussek in 1791. With four elaborate written-out cadenzas, movement between an Andante 4/4 and an Allegretto 2/4, and some dramatic use of both dynamics and cadential episodes, this is Dussek and the instrumental Scottish air at their best.
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round 1790, following Sutherland's death, the family moved to London, where Corri quickly became established as a music publisher in Soho. Amongst his musically talented family was a daughter, Sophia (1775-c.1828), who made her successful début as a singer at the Hanover Square Rooms on 15 April 1791. Another of the performers on that occasion was Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812), an eminent pianist of Bohemian origin, who, later that summer, undertook a recital tour of Scotland in the company of Domenico Corri.Two months later the multi-talented Sophia gave her first benefit concert, in which she performed on the harp, played a piano duet with Dussek, and sang an unspecified 'Scotch song, by Desire'. Just over a year later the two were married, and in 1794 Dussek went into partnership with his father-in-law in a music publishing business, which was to carry on the tradition of printing the works of family members. Several sonatas written by Dussek incorporating Scottish airs were published by the company, together with a number of other Scots melodies arranged for solo piano or harp. Dussek's compositional skills were extremely well developed, many of his works displaying definite Romantic characteristics such as detailed expression markings, frequent modulations to remote keys, deeply chromatic passagework and non-harmonic notes within complex chords. As a composer for piano, his own virtuoso technique is influential, many rapid scalic passages (some in thirds or octaves), cadential episodes and types of pianistic figuration more
S
cotland's national melodies had much more potential than musicians and audiences alike had at first appreciated. The American politician, Benjamin Franklin, writing to the Scottish philosopher Lord Kames in 1765, astutely summed up the effectiveness of Scots music: I have sometimes at a Concert attended by a common Audience plac'd myself so as to see all their Faces, and observ'd no Signs of Pleasure in them during the Performance of much that was admir'd by the Performers themselves; while a plain old Scottish Tune, which they [the performers] disdain'd and could scarcely be prevail'd upon to play, gave manifest and general Delight.
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