SONGS OF SCOTLAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 26 July 1924, Page 14

SONGS OF SCOTLAND.

THEIR. INFLUENCE ON CHARACTER. A very fine address on the above topics was given by Mr. T). (L Smart, of Hawera, at the meeting of the Hawera Scottish Society on Tuesday, July 22. A summary is given hereunder. The songs of Scotland are the nation’s pride, and for these songs the true Scotsman, no matter to what remote comer of the globe he may have wandered, always has a warm corner in his heart. They remind him of the past, of his childhood days when he first heard them at his mother's knee., The secret of their popularity and permanence with the British people is that they tell the story of such human things as love, home, joy and sadness, and of human failings. These are all told in simple and homely language that it goes straight to the heart. - There is nothing forced or artificial about any of them —whether love-songs, war songs or humorous songs. They are full of inherent beauty, and, as said before, 'the language is so simple and expressive that the human heart instantly responds. It would be- exceedingly difficult to pitch on ’any feature of Scottish character and say without hesitation what is due to the influence of Scottish Bongs. In the first instance the songs were due to the people's character, but it is evident that the songs have contributed to the force of the tendency from which they originally sprang. The Scottish people could not have gone from generation to generation singing a certain class of song without these songs exerting some influence on the people, because we know that every influence working on the people of a country will, as in the case of an individual, contribute something to its character. If you will permit me. I would like to point out some of the features which distinguish Scottish songs and the effect they are calculated to produce. A word first about the legendary songs and ballads. Every Scotsman kjiows that a vast store- of ballads and songs have for their theme the doings of fairies, kelpies, witches and ghosts, no doubt handed do.wn from the remote past. Nearly every glen had its witch and every stream its kelpie. It is not so long ago that the farm servants and eottarfolk used to beguile the winter evenings by a recital of these ballads and songs. I suggest that perhaps it was not altogether for the good of these people, as they must have continually re-invigorated the superstitions which were so common in the country districts. "On the other hand, they must have' helped to intensify the feeling of the mysterious in nature and the belief in an unseen Power behind all natural law. 1 pass to that class of Scottish songs which, by the common consent- of those competent to judge, are the finest of their kind the world has produced. I refer to love songs. Here the Scottish poets seem to be in their natural element. The greatest- of them is the mouthpiece of all when, referring to his Jean, he describes her influence upon his verse.

Oh, how that name inspires my style! The words come skelpin’, rank and /file Amaist before I ken ! ’ The ready measure rins as fine As Phoebus and the famous Nine, Were glowrin’ owre my pen.

For delicacy of feeling, refinement of passion, I have only to mention those beautiful and world-wide popular songs, “Mary of Argyle,” “My Love is Hike a. Red, Red Rose,” “Mary Morrison,” and for sentiments expressed with a happiness of language and almost perfect utterance, “Green Grow the Rashes, 0.” In some of these love songs the storv is pathetic to a degree such as “ Fair Helen of Kirconnell,” “My Nannies Awa,” “Ac Fond Kiss,” “To Mary in Heaven. ’ lerhaps, however, there is no love tragedy so ever-powering as that of Auld Rohm Gray,” by Lady Anne Lindsay which has been called the king of Scottish ballads. In others the story takes a humorous turn, and show.s, how ridiculous is the theory that Scotsmen are deficient in fun and humour. “The Laird o’ Cockpen,” ‘Hunean Gray,” “Last May a Braw and “Jenny’s Bawbee” with' fi nPri aPPy rm doSCn] ? tion ° f 3 rejected TT t The , r f one circumstance nhich I would like to point out in connection with Scottish love in general, and that is the poetical feeling for nature which most of them display and the association of human love with” the scenes and sights of nature. The loves celebrated in' these songs are associated with beautiful scenes—thus Maxwellton Braes.” “Kelvin Grove, ’ Gala Water.” “The Bonnie Wood of BWiS of Awieidvand Afton Water” have attained something like classical fame.

Let lassie t 0 Kel vingrove, bonnie T‘ Zes !<?t us rove > bonnie ST fu Tn in all her Pride, Paints the hollow dingle side Where the midnight fairies’ glide bourne, lassie 0. ’

>»ow simmer blinks on flowery braes And oer the crystal streamlet plavs G,me let us spend the light-some days In the Birks o’ Aberfeldy. tS 1 rT r u he i' r heads the hazels hing biddies blythely sing ?n iTT, fllf , °\\ war *ton wing In the Birks o’ Aberfeldy. They lead you out to the shady glens, the wimpling burns, the braes of the birch and hazel; they ring with the notes of the wild birds, and thev refresh you with the breath of the heather and the scent of the wild rose. Who will say that those songs are not refining and ennobling, or that they do not stimulate the best part of our natures. In the domestic songs you have such as the “Auld floose” and the “Rowan Tree,” by Baroness Nairne, depicting scenes rendered beautiful by the general afiections of family life, and the love that has stood the test of years finds its expression in “John Anderson, My Jo.” You have songs as the “Logie o’ Buchan,” depicting the worth of conjugal love as opposed to worldly gear. And I must also mention “There's Nae Luck About the Mouse/' Then are the amusing song's about domestic differences in which the wife nearly always comes out victorious—good examines—.“ Get Up and Bar the Door” and “John Grumlie.” Jacobite Songs. I now wish to mention a very numerous class of song. The Jacobite songs form a very extensive literature, and comprise many beautiful songs: “The Campbells are Coming,” “The March of the Cameron.” Many of them are written in a martial strain, and the singing of them could not but have the effect of stimulating feelings of patriotism and pride .of race.

Social Relations. From the nature of their subject they are not very numerous, hut their quality compensates for their lack oi number. One of the best is the well known “Tullochgorum’s my delight, strained jollity, which dances along with the hilt of Strathspey. 0, Tullochgorum’s my delight, It gars ns a’ in ane unite; And ony sumph that keeps up spite, In conscience 1. abhor him. ’ Blithe and merry we’s be a'. Blithe anti merry, blithe and merry, Blithe and merry we’s-me a’, And make a- cheerfu’ quorum. Blithe and merry we’s be a’, As lang as we hae breath todraw, And dance till we be like to tV, The reel of Tulloehgorum.

The Scotch have been blamed for want of genial warmth in the outward expression of their affections, yet it is in “Auld Lang Syne” that we find the most universally recognised hymn of friendship. No other song in "the world is so infectious in its charms as this simple song of Scottish friendship. The singing of this song wherever its import is understood awakens a. chord of kindly brotherhood, and for the time, at any rate, is calculated to raise -its singers to the sublime. It is Harry Lauder w r ho says singing is the thing that makes you cheery. There is no occupation of-Scottish, life whose toil is not made more pleasant and mo sorrow whose shadow is not brightened from the songs which the Scots, both men and women, sing, or try to sing with inward satisfaction. On the subject of the -effect which Scottish songs have had on the people of Scotland, I would remind you that Burns himself acknowledges that he owed much to the earlier song writers, such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Ferguson and James Thomson, whose poems served as models to work on. It has been said that the poet is like the bird on the tree. He sings because he eannot help it. But can you imagine Burns persisting in writing songs and poems had they not been appreciated by his fellow countrymen ? The earlier song wnters had prepared the ground tor the seed which Burns was to sow, and they had diffused among the people a poetical taste which enabled them to appreciate the poetry of the lie appeared. As Goethe says; Now take up Bums. How is ttrongh the circumstance that the whole songs of his predecessors dived in the mouths of the people—-t-hiat they were, so to speak at Ins cradle; that, as a boy, he grew up amongst them, and the high' v.xcJlence of these models so pervaded him that he had therein a living basis °LJ hlQh u U> - C i° uld P rocee d further.” Ar t !:- why ls he great but from this own songfi at ooeo found susceptiMe ears amongst his compatriots; by reaper ® and shealthe 1 field tV f - t greeted 'him in the held. It is not- too much to snv then, that but for the earlier songwriters we would have had no Burns’ and it would be a bold map p-ho Burns. esuinato how much we owe to