The Gleeman
Notes on Tam Lin
References:
- Air; Johnson (1787-1803)JSM, vol V, p423, No.
411.
- Text; Johnson (1787-1803)JSM, vol V, pp423-425,
No. 411.
Comments:
This is #39A in the Child cannon. Child (1882-1898)CPB (vol I,
pp340-343) has Johnson's The Scots
Musical Museum as the source, and additionally states that it
was communicated (to Johnson) by Robert Burns. Indeed, in The Scots Musical Museum Johnson
does indicate a number of songs that were communicated by Burns,
however, Tam Lin is not one of them. (This is not to say that it
wasn't!)
Despite this being the source for #39A in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,
the version in Child has clearly been edited. This is understandable as
there are a number of what seem like errors in Johnson's version.
For instance, in the first verse (typeset with the air), Johnson has
"That wear gowd or your hair,
...", which should be "That wear gowd on
your hair, ...". Child has corrected this (although I've left it as was
in the air, and only corrected it in the text).
Johnson provides the air with a bass line. I have not added this in
with the main entry, although for those who are curious, a .png, .midi, and .ly are available. The mid-bar line
break is as the original.
Regarding the text, as with the original, I have used the old-fashioned
stye "ſ" for "s", where indicated. However, this means that the text
file is unicode rather than ascii. An ascii .text file is available (with modern
"s"s!).
