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Skye Boat SongComposer | Traditional, lyrics by Harold Boulton (1859-1935) | Tags | Celtic, Folk, Lyrics, Solo | Revised | 5th September 2013 |
Parts(PDF) Cello (PDF) Cello duet (PDF) Viola (PDF) Viola duet (PDF) Violin (PDF) Violin duet (PDF) Voice Audio(MIDI) Skye Boat Song Source(Sibelius) Skye Boat Song - Scorch CommentsFrom The Fiddler's Companion:
Words to the tune were written by Sir Harold Boulton to an air collected by Miss Annie MacLeod (Lady Wilson) in the 1870's. It seems that Miss MacLeod was on a trip to the isle of Skye and was being rowed over Loch Coruisk (Coire Uisg, the 'Cauldron of Waters') when the rowers broke out into the Gaelic rowing song "Cuchag nan Craobh" (The Cuckoo in the Grove). A talented composer and singer, MacLeod remembered fragments of the song and fashioned them into an air which she set down in notation with the intentions of using it later in a book she was to co-author with Boulton.
As a piece of modern romantic literature with traditional links it succeeded perhaps too well, for soon people began "remembering" they had learned the song in their childhood, and that the words were 'old Gaelic lines'.
There's a waltz-style version of this tune at The Session.
Lyrics:
Chorus
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
"Onward," the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that's born to be King,
Over the sea to Skye.
1.
Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunder claps rend the air;
Baffled our foes Stand on the shore,
Follow they will not dare.
Chorus
2.
Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep,
Ocean's a royal bed.
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
Watch by your weary head.
Chorus
3.
Many's the lad fought on that day,
Well the Claymore could wield,
When the night came, silently lay
Dead in Culloden's field.
Chorus
4.
Burned are their homes, exile and death
Scatter the loyal men;
Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath
Charlie will come again.
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