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Updated
04/24/2013 |
All
the Bluebonnets are Over the Border
This tune goes by a number of names including
“All the Blue Bonnets are Over the Border," "Over the Border,"
"Blue Bonnets Jig," "Blue Bonnets," and "Scotch Come Over the
Border." Samuel Bayard thinks this
tune was fashioned in the 1740's into a quick dance piece in 6/8
from a slow 3/4 time song tune from about 1710 or earlier called
"O Dear Mother (Minnie) What Shall I Do?" This "Blue Bonnets
Over the Border" was in turn the basis for a 4/4 version called
"Braes of Auchtertyre/Auchentyre," "Belles of Tipperary" and
"Beaus of Albany;" out of this group of tunes came "Billy in the
Lowground/Low Land." Michael Diack's, on the other hand, has
written in his Scottish Country Dances that "Blue Bonnets" is
derived from a 17th-century Scottish tune called "Lesley's March
to Scotland." If this is the "Leslie's March" printed by Oswald
(1755) and Watts' Musical Miscellany (1731), then the
resemblance seems obscure and based on a few motifs. The tune,
correctly classified a jig, often appears under the label
'country dance tune' because of its long association with the
dance. Neil's (1991) version is an adaptation of one appearing
in Uilleam Ross's Collection of Pipe Music (1869), and the piece
is said to be a quickstep march of the Black Watch.
'Blue bonnets' is a euphemism
for the Scots, stemming from the custom of Jacobite troops to
identify themselves with a white cockade worn on a blue bonnet.
The white cockade emblem is said to have originated when Bonnie
Prince Charlie plucked a wild rose and pinned it to his hat.
Lyrics to the tune were written by Sir Walter Scott, who based
them on an old Cavalier song (Scott also mentions the song in
his novel The Monastery). |
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Lyrics by
Sir Walter Scott
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March, march,
Ettrick and Teviotdale,
Why the deil dinna ye march forward in
order?
March, march, Eskdale and Liddesdale,
All the Blue Bonnets are bound for the
Border.
Many a banner spread
Flutters above your.head,
Many a crest that is famous in story.
Mount and make ready then,
Sons of the mountain glen,
Fight for the Queen and the old Scottish
glory |
Come from the
hills where your hirsels are grazing,
Come from the glen of the buck and the
roe;
Come to the crag where the beacon is
blazing,
Come with the buckler, the lance, and
the bow.
Trumpets are sounding,
War-steeds are bounding,
Stand to your arms then, and march in
good order;
England shall many a day
Tell of the bloody fray,
When the Blue Bonnets came over the
Border. |
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