Volume V, song 494, page 510 - 'O! dear what can the matter be' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)

Verse 1: 'O! dear what can the matter be O! what can the matter be dear! what can the matter be Johnny's sae lang at the fair. He promis'd he'd buy me a fairing should please me and then, for a kiss O! he vow'd he would teaze me he promis'd he'd bring me a bunch of blue ribbons to tie up my bonny brown hair.' 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. Unfortunately, neither the songwriter nor composer of this song are known. This is typcial of a song that existed as part of the oral tradition. Passed from generation to generation and kept alive through the telling, the vast majority of folk songs were never documented until the advent of the written and printed song collections of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. John Glen (1900) noted that both the song and melody were of 'Anglo-Scottish' origin, and were in fact not much older than the 'Museum' itself.

Collection

Scots Musical Museum

Inventory Number

4503688

Title

Volume V, song 494, page 510 - 'O! dear what can the matter be' - 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

- 129 x 211 mm