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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(2)
No more the Nymph, with haughty air,
Refuses Willie's kind address, Her yielding Blushes shew no Care, But too much fondness to suppress, No more the Youth is sullen now, But looks the gayest on the Green, Whilst every Day he spies some new, Surprising Charms in bonny Jean. |
(3)
A Thousand Transports crow'd his Breast,
He moves as light as fleeting wind, His former Sorrows seem a Jest, Now when his Jeanie is turn'd kind: Riches he looks on with Disdain, The glorious Fields of war look mean; The chearful Hound and Horn give Pain, If absent from is bonny Jean. |
(4)
The Day he spends in am'rous Gaze,
Which even in Summer shortned seems, When sunk in Downs with glad amaze, He wonders at her in his Dreams. All Charms disclos'd she looks more bright, Then Troy's Prize the Spartan Queen, With breaking Day he lifts his Sight, And pants to be with bonny Jean. |