Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon

Another new member of the group, Kristina, sings this beautiful song;

"I have known this song since I was about 11, when we moved back up to Scotland after several years doon south, and my brother, still at primary school, was competing in Burns Club competitions with a terrible Mancunian accent! I have always loved it, as, for me, classically trained and particularly versed in the world of Schubert and lieder, this is a song with a real Romantic feel, showing man affected by and joined to nature, and lyrical and personal in its approach. Burns was a real collector of folk tunes and often took existing tunes to use as settings for his own words. This tune has been attributed to Charles Miller, but we do not really know where it comes from. Settings have since been made by several classical composers including Ravel, Quilter and Britten, who changes the tune quite drastically, but it is still well worth a listen! Burns was admired by Goethe and Schiller, and was really quite a success in his day, other poems having been set all over the world, as far as Japan and even by composers as unlikely as Shostakovich!"

Kristina

Ye banks and braes o' bonie Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu' o' care!
Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons thro' the flowering thorn:
Thou minds me o' departed joys,
Departed never to return.

Aft hae I rov'd by Bonie Doon,
To see the rose and woodbine twine:
And ilka bird sang o' its Luve,
And fondly sae did I o' mine;
Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose,
Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree!
And may fause Luver staw my rose,
But ah! he left the thorn wi' me.