Volume V, song 469, pages 482 and 483 - 'Chronicle of the heart' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1 (to the tune of 'Gingling Geordie'): 'How often my heart has by love been o'erthrown, what grand revolutions its (e)mpire has known, you ask my dear friend then attend the sad strain, since you bid me relate such ineffable pain. For who that has got e'er an eye in his pate so dismal a tale without tears can relate, or such dire annals recall to his mind, /without bursting in tears both before and behind.' Chorus: 'O Love thy vicissitudes who can describe, How fiercely they threaten how highly they bribe, How sweetly they tickle! how keenly they smart and how dreadful the havock they make in my heart.' The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition. The tune 'Gingling Georgie' was first recorded by the music collector Margaret Sinkler in her manuscript book, dated 1710. The version given there, however, is simpler and clearer. The tune seems to have then remained unpublished until its appearance in the 'Museum'. There is a tune which Oswald published in in 1725, entitled 'Pioberachd Mhic Dhonuil' which bears a resemblance to the tune here. It is interesting to note that one of the main early, handwritten collections of Scottish songs was gathered together by a woman and attributed to her in the early eighteenth century.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503663

Title

Volume V, song 469, pages 482 and 483 - 'Chronicle of the heart' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Object Type

PhysicalObject

Measurements

- 258 x 211 mm