The Blackbird

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GreenWood
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Tell us something.: To add to the renaissance flute discussion that is under way. Well, the rest of this field is going to be taken up by a long sentence, which is this one, because a hundred characters are needed before it is accepted.

The Blackbird

Post by GreenWood »

I just happened on the tune as played by Michael Tubridy and thought it would suit the sound of the new Boehm flute (the one with 20mm bore ) so I set about learning it. As it is a set dance I figured I should make sure it is (one of the few) tunes I could play through from start to finish, and keeping a moderate rhythm is a pleasant discipline. So I thought I was there after playing it for two weeks, I press record aaaaaand... no. I'm quite happy tootleing away for hours but put a recorder in front of me and the tunes just don't want to. So after a few goes and just getting louder and more despairing I did the usual of clipping together what is just about listenable from the recording. It is just AAB, the first A is more closed and reedy, clipped onto AB which is more open and with a couple of short pauses in the B clipped out. Parts had some air noise so some equaliser is applied. It is a fun flute and the recording doesn't do it justice, but to play cleanly consistently (which it does through the range) needs more practice and skill than I have . On the other hand first octave is easy and deep, it is loud, and for anyone with energy or playing styles that don't mind air sound, or just for messing around, it is good. Probably narrower bore (or some adjustments) would be better for most people learning.

https://e1.pcloud.link/publink/show?cod ... wlWXMWqbqy

Here Michael Tubridy plays it beautifully
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ICczvCh0eT0

And by Tony Mac Mahon & Barney Mc Kenna.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HF0fZDE6fs0



The above is just an intro to the following...


Well I thought it was about blackbirds, and as usual I search up the history of the tune, which is long. Documented detail takes the name back to...



https://ebba.english.ucsb.edu/ballad/37101/image#
1651 Ballad
Broadside ladies lamentation for loss of her landlord (tune highlander's march ... which one? Once on a morning of sweet recreation - ballad opening line)




For the Gairdyn and Bowie manuscripts the tune is listed as from before the "Glorious Revolution" ... somewhere. (e.g. John Glen Early Scottish Melodies pg42)




https://hms.scot/manuscripts/mstunes/?ms=9
(filter "peg")
Gairdyn Manuscript tune
As I went down yon burn so clear / Peggy I must love thee
(but check melody, I haven't)

Slightly later ballads have similar theme set to the music.

As well as modern composition for which I could not find the ballad word origin.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9imBLePjW8w




https://hms.scot/manuscripts/mstunes/?ms=8
(filter "peg")
Bowie manuscript Tune
I most love thee / Captain Campbell his march
George Bowie




https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Pe ... _Love_Thee
1687 Tune
Pege I most Love Thee published as New Scots Tune of Purcell (who was known to copy Scots tunes, sympathy to Tory)
By Playford





http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/view/edition/22518
17- - Broadside Ballad and tune
Bonny lass of Aberdeen to New Scots Tune






http://ballads.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/search ... archany=on
17- - Broadside ballad
The blackbird same words as 1651 above.





Currently

Tunes (e.g. via tunearch) relate as Bonny lass of Aberdeen = The Blackbird = Royal Blackbird = Pege I most love thee = Captain Campbell = New Scots Tune = Once on a morning of sweet recreation (also ballad opening line) = As I Went Down Yon Burn so Clear

There is shared opinion that the tune is even older than the above. Though it became associated with the Jacobite cause and continued so to later, it is at first a Stuart theme vs Cromwell, and before all that seems lost in tradition but for Captain Campbell (his march) and As I Went Down Yon Burn so Clear, which I don't know the history of.

Pege could be Catherine Pegge Charles II mistress?

Note Pege in classical literature is a spring, is religious, not that I expect that was common knowledge then. i.e.

https://books.google.pt/books?id=XS5huS ... 22&f=false

Pegge is a distinct surname, as it sounds

https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Pegg

but for christian name Peggy is from Meggy from Margaret.

However, or and so, the tune can mean just whatever any player finds I suppose. It was not written as "The Blackbird" until later, but for Charles II a blackbird was already mentioned in the ballad. The black is thought to be of his eyes and hair (i.e. not red), or his dress, not his colour though some have tried to argue this.


Trying to find the original tune, and there is some irony in that those who have done the most to write down melodies for us seem to have done the most to confuse us also, short of finding earlier written tunes we are left with only a couple of clues maybe (not including Pege) , apart from trying to decipher different tunes for comparison.

The first is the ballad line title "As I went down yon burn so clear" which might be later, and returns nothing in search though a similar ballad but under a beech tree, to tune Peggy I must love thee:

"Eneath a beech's grateful shade,
Young Ct/In lay complaining....

.....Yet, Peggy I muft love thee."


was composed after 1700 ( firstly in Ireland if I remember)

The second is Captain Campbell His March


Captain Campbell is difficult, because there are a few before 1700, and several tunes that are later not related that include Captain Campbell. I think it might be



"When Charles II was invited to Scotland in 1650 in a brief alliance with the Covenanters against the English Parliament, Lorne was made captain of His Majesty's Foot Guards, appointed by the Scottish parliament to attend on the king's person"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archiba ... _of_Argyll



And to note the original 1651 ballad was to the tune of "Highlander's March". There are various highland marches. Later Playford says "Captain Campbell his marsh" which might affirm which march was originally meant ?

Tentatively, controversially maybe, was Peggy I most love thee Archibald Campbell 9th earl of Argyll's March as Cpt. of the Lyfe Foot Guards ? If anyone can offer any further information on this it would be appreciated.

[As a side note, or an off topic endnote, Queen Anne was of the house of Stuart, she introduced nationality by descent as equal to by birth for UK (and so in perpetuity) , and that was later walked back (reinterpreted) by a George to two generations only. This is one area of study of my own, having family left stateless and technically imprisoned within EU by EU law signed into effect by the UK while part of EU (frontex law, prohibition to leave Schenghen without valid ID) . Actually, it would be easier to bring a pet shark to UK than a British descended family... I even asked customs and immigration if I could import my family as animals and they said they are not authorised to handle Sapiens species.

This is all indirectly relevant to Ireland also, if not as signatory to the above law then because EU does look to undermine Irish nationality law, e.g. from France

"One cannot but wonder whether such a position vis-à-vis outsiders, very much in contradiction with Ireland’s being the land of the thousand welcomes (céad míle fáilte), cannot be explained by the fact of an “ethnic majority experiencing a crisis of identity”,83 going hand in hand with a late recognition of diversity and an understanding of the majority as implicitly white. In that respect, the years to come will represent a test to find out to what extent, like some European States such as the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland adopts citizenship tests offering a State’s conception of its national identity."

https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/882?lang=fr

Speaking as "a canary in the coalmine", UK introduced naturalisation mid 19th century and that has come to govern politics since, in one form or another. It becomes a political tool for importing votes, for accessing funding, for economic and social management of a country. It becomes a useful distraction by stirring argument amongst nationals. Laws don't tend to get turned back, and inconvenient "details" get taken care of "later", get used to further certain directions. I'm not to say what Ireland should do, I have my views regarding UK, but there is no need to feel that protecting nationality status is unkind. It does not prevent a country from being welcoming or cosmopolitan (I know various that are strict on nationality which are) if it so wishes. It doesn't reduce what own citizens might enjoy abroad of that either.

Disclaimer... I'm pretty much apolitical, especially so in terms of party politics, have never voted and have no intention of doing so.

Just saying, and this endnote is not for taking up in discussion in this thread, it is just to highlight a relatively unknown twist of events during 18th century that are still pertinent nowadays, and that the tune The Blackbird has been accompaniment to in some way. If the endnote crosses board standards I will delete it.]
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