Ted Hastings wrote: > > I'll probably see Hugh at the Girvan Folk Festival > at the beginning of May, so I'll check with him. > > Regards, > > Ted > Maybe I should become an executive, I've just about got that 5 minute attention span down. I've lost interest in Motherwell, but not without my reasons. In his appendix, # V, Motherwell gave a verse of "Lord Bengwell" (Gil Brenton, Child #5) and the tune collected by Andrew Blaikie. Bronson (C5, #2) repeats the verse and gives the tune transposed. The other 47 verses, with the tune as originally collected, are the first song in Dr. Emily Lyle's "Crawfurd's Collection". [#1 on cassette tape by Jo Miller, STS 1] Motherwell's note on "Bonnie Susie Cleland" is simply 'Never Before Published', and gives a tune collected by Andrew Blaikie (repeated by Bronson C65, #2). From Child at #65, text I, we find identical versions from 'Minstrelsy', from Mrs Thomson of Kilbarchan, and from Mrs McLean of Glasgow. The tune then is apparently from Mrs Thomson or Mrs McLean, and the other of the two's tunes is possibly [Reposted from Scots-L]: >From - [Jack Campin] Sun Dec 12 13:32:37 1999 X:6 T:Born in St Johnstone and burn'd in Dundee S:Blaikie MS, NLS MS.1578/Mf.Sec.MSS.295 N:double bars aren't in the MS; they mark where I put the line ends [-Jack Campin] M:3/4 L:1/8 K:Dmin D2 A2 G2|F3 G A2||\ F2 E2 D2|C3 D E2||\ D2 A2 G2|F3 G A2||\ A2 f2 e2|d6 |] A2 d2 dc|A2 d2 c2||\ F2 c2 AG|F3 G A2||\ A2 A2 G2|F3 G A2 |\ GF D2 CE|D6 |] ................................................................ I can find no evidence in his 'Minstrelsy' that Motherwell ever heard a ballad sung. Once he mentioned a singer, a widow M'Cormick of Paisley, (a very rare named informant). Child (#83, B text), adds also from Motherwell's notebook that it was from an old woman in Dumbarton. Motherwell's tune, (collected by Andrew Blaikie), however, is that for the single verse in Motherwell's Appendix, #6. Bronson, C83, #4, repeats the verse and transposes the tune. Emily Lyle took Motherwell's verse to be an alteration of Mary MacQueen's and gives full text and (untransposed tune) as the 2nd in 'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection' and 2nd on the cassette tape STS1. This text can also be seen as Child's C text, from Motherwell's MSS (no tune), from Mrs William Storie (= Mary MacQueen). Motherwell's other traditional texts are from recitation by unknown informants, and he doesn't say that he was the one that took them down from recition. He also mentions texts given to him by C. K. Sharpe, that I expect we will soon see in 'Glenbuchat Ballads'. Keeping track of texts and titles and tunes in Motherwell's 'Minstrelsy', Child's ESPB, Bronson's TTCB, and Dr. Lyle's 'Andrew Crawfurd's Collection' is more than a bit of a chore. I've had enough. Motherwell, to me, just isn't worth bothering with. (I plead for a listing of all the traditional tunes in NLS MS 843 [Sharpe's] and MS 1578 [Blaikie's]). Bruce Olson Old English, Irish and, Scots: popular songs, tunes, broadside ballads at my website (no advs-spam, etc)- www.erols.com/olsonw or click below <A href="http://www.erols.com/olsonw"> Click </a> Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
