BONNIE DOON. AKA and see "Ye Banks and Braes." Scottish, Jig. G Major. Standard. AABB. A waltz setting is in Kerr's Merry Melodies, Vol. 1, pg. 25. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 4; No. 259, pg. 28. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; pg. 25.
BONNIE RAN THE BURNIE DOON. AKA and see "Calder Fair."
BONAPARTE CROSSING THE RHINE [1]. AKA and see "Bonaparte's Retreat," "Bruce's March," "Caledonian March," "The Freemanson's March," "Napoleon Crossing the Rhine," "Ranahan's March," "Sherman's March (to the Sea)," "The Star of Bethlehem." Old-Time, March (cut time). D Major. Standard or ADAE. AAB (Phillips/1995): AABB (most versions). Samuel Bayard (1944) was quite familiar with the origins of this tune, a common march tune in his primary collecting area of western Pennsylvania, and one which circulated under a variety of names including (in Fayette County) "Bruce's March" and (in Greene County) "The Star of Bethlehem." A Pennsylvania bandmaster gave Bayard the name "Ranahan's March," which he said commemorated a local bandmaster. As with several of the other 'Bonaparte'-titled tunes it is sometimes confused with similar names; for example, Bayard once heard it played by a New Jersey fiddler who gave it the ubiquitous name of "Bonaparte's Retreat." Fiddler Mack Snodderly played a slow, dirge-like version of the tune and called it "Dying on the Field of Battle."
**
"The Greene County title (i.e. "Star of Bethlehem") suggests that the air may formerly have been sung to a once popular religious piece of the same name, beginning:
***
When marshalled on the nightly plain
The glimmering host illumed the sky.
***
But this hymn is now usually associated with the air 'Ye Banks and Braes of Bonnie Doon' in southwestern Pennsylvania and elsewhere. And there is no other indication thus far that (this tune) has been anything but an instrumental march tune in the Middle Atlantic area. We know, however, that it was used as a hymn melody in the South. Its currency in southern tradition is attested by two distinct versions used with a couple of the favorite pieces in the shapenote hymn books of fasola singers. One of these, a close variant of (this tune) appears in Swan, The New Harp of Columbia (1867), No. 148 as 'France'; the other, representing a quite different--somewhat more vocal--development of the air, is entitled 'Family Bible' in Walker, The Southern Harmony (1835), No. 20, and Cayee, The Good Old Songs (1913), No. 217. This second version is listed by Professor George Pullen Jackson among the eighty most popular tunes in the fasola song books: see 'White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands', p. 146, tune No. 63 and references. Other Pennsylvania sets are Bayard Coll., Nos. 35, 50. A variant called 'Caledonian March' appears in Howe's School for the Violin, pg. 17. Although the air sounds Scottish, it has not yet been traced outside this country. A tune bearing some resemblance to it occurs, in Smith, The Scottish Minstrel, IV, 12, 'The Pride of the Broomlands'; and another, still closer, occasionally appears in the commercial fiddle-tune books as 'Lochnagar': e.g., Cole, p. 124; White's Excelsier Coll., p. 70; Kerr, No. 214" (Bayard, 1944).
***
Source for notated version: Tony Marcus [Phillips]. Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 90. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 51. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 23. June Appal 003, John McCutcheon - "How Can I Keep From Singing?" (1975). Rounder 0035, The Fuzzy Mountain String Band- "Summer Oaks and Porch" (1973. Learned from John Summers, Marion, Indiana).
CALDER FAIR. AKA and see "Sing a Song of Sixpence" or "Song of Sixpence," "Cawdor Fair." English, Reel. England, Shropshire. D Major (Kennedy, Raven): F Major (Hardings): G Major (Ashman). Standard. AABB. Lady Nairne wrote lyrics, called "Bonnie ran the Burnie doon," set to a tune of this name. Source for notated version: a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman]. Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 26b, pg. 7. Harding's All Round Collection, 1905; No. 13, pg. 4. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 1, 1951; No. 46, pg. 23. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 177.
DOON REEL, THE [1] (Ríl an Dúna). AKA and see "Callaghan's," "gCeirtlin Snaithe in Aimhreidh," "Nellie Donovan's." Irish, Reel. Ireland, Sliabh Luachra. D Mixolydian (Breathnach): D Major (McNulty): G Major (Taylor). Standard. AB (Breathnach): AAB (Taylor): AABB (McNulty). Moylan (1994) notes there are several reels associated with fiddler and farmer Cal Callaghan from Doon, all of them being known as either 'the' or 'a' 'Doon Reel'. Callaghan was the uncle of fiddler Pádraig O'Keeffe, who absorbed the older man's repertoire and called them "Doon reels." The village of Doon is near Kiskeam, County Cork (also called Doonasleen), and is the birth place as well of O'Keeffe's mother Margaret Callaghan, who played the concertina and probably the fiddle. Breathnach (1976) says the first part is related to "Kate Kelly's Fancy" and "Nellie Donovan." Some similarities to Donegal fiddlers John and Mickey Doherty's "Bonnie Bunch of Ferns." Sources for notated versions: fiddler Denis Murphy, 1966 (Gneeveguilla, Co. Kerry, Ireland), who had the tune from Pádraig O'Keeffe, who got it "from my uncle in Doon" (i.e. Callaghan) [Breathnach]; set dance music recorded live at Na Píobairí Uilleann, mid-1980's [Taylor]. Breathnach (CRE II), 1976; No. 270, pg. 139. McNulty (Dance Music of Ireland), 1965; pg. 7. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Yellow Book), 1995; pg. 19. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Blue Book), 1995; pg. 14. John Edwards Memorial Foundation JEMF-105, Paddy Cronin - "New England Traditional Fiddling" (1978).
NELLIE DONOVAN. AKA and see "The Doon Reel," "Kate Kelly's Fancy," "Killoran's (Reel)" [2]. Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard. AB (O'Neill/1850): AA'BB' (O'Neill/Krassen): ABCD (Mitchell). Breathnach (1976) finds the first part of "The Doon Reel" related to this tune and to "Kate Kelly's Fancy" and "The Ravelled Hank of Yarn." A Donegal setting was played by John and Mickey Doherty under the title "Bonnie Bunch of Ferns." Source for notated version: piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Mitchell]. Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 19, pg. 40. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 131. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1394, pg. 259. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 638, pg. 115 (appears as "Nellie O'Donovan"). Piping Pig Productions PPPCD001, Jimmy O'Brien-Moran - "Seán Reid's Favourite" (1996).
T:Nellie Donovan
T:Nellie O'Donovan
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Reel
S:O'Neill - 1001 Gems (638)
K:G
B2 Bd dcAc|BGGB d2 cA|B2 Bd dcAc|d2 cA BGGA|B2 Bd dcAc|BGGB d2 cA|
BABc dcAc|dBcA BGGe||fgaf gfeg|fdcA Adde|fgaf gfeg|fdcA AGGe|fgaf gfeg|
fdcA Adde|fefg abag|fdcA AGGA||
PIOBAIRE A' CHEIDIGH, AN. AKA and se "The Bonnie Bunch of Ferns," "The Keady Piper," "Maire Bhan's Wedding," "The Piper of Keadue." Irish, Reel. Ireland, County Donegal. G Major. Standard. AA'BB. A favorite of the famous Donegal piper Tarlach Mac Suibhne. It is a version of "The Doon Reel."
T:An Piobaire a' Cheidigh
L:1/8
M:4/4
K:G
B2dB c2Ac | BGGB d3c | B2dB c2Ac | dBcA BGGA | B2dB c2Ac | BGGB d3c|\
B2dB c2Ac |1 dBcA BGGA :|2 dBcA BGGg || fgaf gefd | cAAB c3g | fgaf gbag |\
fdcA BGGg | fgaf gefd | cAAB c3g | fgaf gbag | fdcA BGG2 :|
YE BANKS AND BRAES (O' BONNY DOON). AKA and see "Bonny Doon," "Lost is my quiet," "The Caledonian Hunt's Delight." Scottish, Waltz. D Major. Standard. AB. The antiquarian William Chappell claims the tune is English on the strength of its being included in a Collection of English Songs by Dale (who published about 1780-1794) under the title "Lost is my quiet." However, the collector John Glen (1891) relates a delightful story of the tune's origins involving the great Scots poet, Robert Burns, who wrote to George Thomson in 1794:
**
Do you known the history of the air? It is curious enough. A
good many years ago, Mr. James Miller, writer in your good
own (Edinburgh), a gentleman whom, possibly, you know, was
in company with our good friend Clarke; and taling of Scottish
music, Miller expressed an ardent ambition to be able to
compose a Scots air. Mr. Clarke, partly by way of a joke, told
him to keep to the black keys of the harpsichord, and preserve
some kind of rhythm, and he would infallibly compose a Scots
air. Certain it is, that, in a few days, Mr. Miller produced the
rudiments of an air which Mr. Clarke, with some touches and
corrections, fashioned into the tune in question. Ritson, you
know, has the same story of the black keys; but this account
which I have just given you, Mr. Clarke informed me of several
years ago.
**
Miller's tune was first published under the title "The Caledonian Hunt's Delight" in Gow's 2nd Collection (1788), but Glen concludes that it is more likely that "Lost is my quiet" is a poor adaptation and nothing else. He also notes there is a tune having a supposed resemblance in Playford's Appollo's Banquet (1690) entitled "A Scotch Tune" (No. 68), but in the end he believes that "neither Chappell's arguments nor facts are strong enough to deprive Mr. Miller of his claim." Francis O'Neill (Irish Folk Music, pg. 56), taking up the Irish banner, reports that George Farquhar Graham, editor of Wood's Songs of Scotland, states there is an Irish claim to the melody which predates the Burns verses. A jig setting can be found in Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 4, pg. 28, as "Bonnie Doon."
**
The song begins:
**
Ye banks and braes O' Bonnie Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chaunt, ye little birds,
And I'm sae wearyful O' care?
Ye'll break my heart ye warbling bird,
That warbles on the flow'ry thorn.
Ye mind me O' departed joys, Departed never to return.
**
In the United States an early printing appears in the Ira Clark Jr. Manuscript (pg. 55), from the year 1790. Mr. Clark resided in Simsbury, Connecticut. A variant can be found in the American Veteran Fifer.
**
Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 3, pg. 25.
T:Ye Banks and Braes
M:3/4
L:1/4
S:Kevin Briggs
K:D
A|"D"d2d|"A7/e"e3/2d/2e|"D/f+"faf|"A7/e"e3/2d/2e|
"D"f3/2e/2d|"G"dBA|"Em"ABd|\
"A7"e2A|"D"d2d|"A7/e"e3/2d/2e|"D/f+"faf|"A7/e"e3/2d/2e|
"D"f3/2e/2d|"G"dBA|"A7"ABd|\
"D"d2f||
"D"a2"G"b|"D"afd|"D"a2"G"b|"D"afd|"D"afd|"D"afd|"Em"ba/2g/2f|"A7"
P:pause
e2A|"D"d2d|"A7/e"e3/2d/2e|"D/f+"faf|"A7/e"e3/2d/2e|
"D"f3/2e/2d|"G"dBA|"A7"ABd|\
"D"d2||