| Author | Topic: Add: My Bonny Cuckoo | |
| dmcg | Posted - 26 Aug 04 - 01:43 pm | |
My bonny cuckoo, I tell thee true, That through the groves I'll rove with you: I'll rove with you until the next spring. And then my cuckoo shall sweetly sing Cuckoo, cuckoo, until the next spring, And then my cuckoo shall sweetly sing. The ash and the hazel shall sadly say, "My bonny cuckoo, don't go away, Don't go away, but tarry here, And make the season last all year. Cuckoo, cuckoo, pray tarry here, And sing for us throughout the year." Source: Singing Together, Summer 1967, BBC Publications Notes: The tempo was not specified on the original music. I have chosen this to roughly match a version by Shirley Collins. This is taken from the Carendon Song Book II, Oxford University Press. The tune is noted as 'Old Irish Air' but is not further identified. It seems to me to be somewhat like S� bheag, s� mhor but others may have a different opinion. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 26 Aug 04 - 05:17 pm | |
It's generally considered that Carolan used this tune as the basis for his Si Bheag, Si Mhor. The song appears in Alfred Moffat, Minstrelsy of Ireland, London: Augener (4th, enlarged edn, n.d.) p 141. Words and music very close to the above, with some variation. The appended note states: "Bunting tells us that he obtained this pretty melody in Ballinascreen in 1793; the words are a close translation of the original Irish. Another version of the tune is to be found in the same author's Ancient Irish Music, 1796, under the title of 'The Little and Great Mountain.' 'My Bonny Cuckoo' was first published in Bunting's third work of 1840, and in Fitzgerald's Old Songs of Ireland, 1843. Thomas Davies refers to it in his poem, 'A Christmas Scene; or, Love in the Country.' Be quiet, and sing me 'The Bonny Cuckoo,' For it bids us the summer and winter love through, And then I'll read out an old ballad that shows How Tyranny perished, and Liberty rose. (Ballads and Songs, Dublin, 1846)." Edited By Malcolm Douglas - 26-Aug-2004 06:14:57 PM | ||
| nutty | Posted - 31 Aug 04 - 10:51 pm | |
For my 60th birthday friends bought me a copy of Irish songs and Ballads by Alfred Percival Graves, Printed in Manchester in 1880. Graves adapted the Bunting lyrics to make the pleasant four verse song shown below. MY BONNY CUCKOO My bonnie cuckoo, come whisper true Around the world I'd rove with you I'd rove with you until the next spring And still my cuckoo would sweetly sing - "Cuckoo, cuckoo" until the next spring "Cuckoo, cuckoo" until the next spring The ash and the hazel shall mourning say "Oh, Merry cuckoo don't fly away The winter wind is rude and keen Oh' cuckoo stay and keep us green Cuckoo, cuckoo, oh stay, oh stay And make the season forever May" The thrush and the robin shall sadlycry "Our bonny cuckoo, oh, do not fly For when you spread your speckled wing We have no longer heart to sing Cuckoo, cuckoo, still lead our tune And make the season forever June" The lads and the lasses together stand And call their cuckoo from off the strand "How can you leave us bird of love With the green below and te blue above Oh no, oh no, you shall not go With the blue above and the green below. | ||
| masato sakurai | Posted - 01 Sep 04 - 11:27 am | |
The song appeared in The Ancient Music of Ireland by Edward Bunting (1840; rpt. Dover, 2000, p. 96 [no. 125]) as "The Bonny Cuckoo" ("Very Ancient, Author and date unknown"). Lyrics and tune are almost the same, except for the title, key (Bb) and the first line in the second verse ("The Ash and the Hazel shall mourning say"). | ||
| Mary in Kentucky | Posted - 11 Sep 04 - 02:22 am | |
Ha! As I listened to this midi, I thought, "That sounds like S� bheag, s� mhor." (only I couldn't pronounce it and also had to copy and paste the spelling) | ||