Album Summary: William Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius (1725) was a landmark publication; the first ever large-scale collection of "Scotch Songs" in print — 50 songs arranged with un-figured bass, most with lyrics from Allan Ramsay's Scots Songs and Tea-Table Miscellany, plus an appendix of melodic reductions. It was an instant hit and in 1733, expanded into 2 volumes with 100 songs. Indeed, Thomson's Orpheus set the standard format for Scots Song settings for the rest of the eighteenth century, including those of Robert Burns in The Scots Musical Museum. This ScotMus.com album is a faithful reprint of the song arrangements from the historic 1st edition of 1725.
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That Day she smil'd, and made me glad,
No Maid seem'd ever kinder, I thought my self the luckiest Lad, So sweetly there to find her. I try'd to sooth my am'rous Flame, In words that I thought tender, If more there pass'd, I'm not to blame, I meant not to offend her. |
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Yet now, she scornful flies the Plain,
The Fields we then frequented, If e'er we meet, she shews Disdain, She looks as ne'er acquainted. The bony Bush bloom'd fair in May, Its Sweets I'll ay remember, But now her Frowns make it decay, It fades as in December. |
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Ye Rural Powers, who hear my Strains,
Why thus should Peggy grieve me? Oh! make her Partner in my Pains, Then let her Smiles relieve me. If not, my Love will turn Despair, My Passion no more tender; I'll leave the Bush aboon Traquair, To lonely Wilds I'll wander. |