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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For Oh! that Form so heavenly fair,
Those languid Eyes so sweetly smiling, That artless Blush, and modest Air, So fatally beguiling. Thy every Look, and every Grace, So charms when e're I view thee, Till Death o'ertake me in the Chace, Still will my Hopes pursue thee; Then when my tedious Hours are past, Be this last Blessing given, Low at thy Feet to breath my last, And die in Sight of Heaven. |