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)
Now Davie did each Lad surpass,
That dwelt on this Burnside, And Mary was the bonn[i]est Lass, Just meet to be a Bride; Her Cheeks were rosie red and white, Her Een were bonny blue; Her looks were like Aurora bright, Her Lips like droping Dew. |
(3)
As down the Burn they took their way,
What tender Tales they said; His Cheek to hers he aft did lay, And with her Bosom play'd, Till baith at length impatient grown, To be mair fully blest, In yonder Vale they lean'd them down, Love only saw the rest. |
(4)
What pass'd, I guess, was harmless play,
And naething sure unmeet; For, ganging hame, I heard them say, They lik'd a wa'k sae sweet, And that they aften shou'd return, Sic Pleasure to renew. Quoth Mary, Love, I like the Burn, And ay shall follow you. |