The Skye Boat Song has gained the reputation of a traditional Scottish song recalling the escape of the young pretender Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) after his defeat at Culloden in 1746: he escaped from Uist to the Isle of Skye in a small boat with the aid of Flora MacDonald. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. A pretender is a claimant to an abolished throne or to a throne already occupied by somebody else For the US politician see Charles E Stuart For "Betty Burke" see The 'Forty-Five' below The Battle of Culloden (Blàr Chùil Lodair (16 April 1746 was the final clash between the French-supported Jacobites and the Hanoverian Uist (ˈjuːɪst/ /ˈuːɪst or The Uists (Uibhist ˈiviʃtʲ are the central group of islands in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Skye or the Isle of Skye ( Scottish Gaelic An t-Eilean Sgitheanach əɲ tʰʲelan s̪kʲiə Flora MacDonald ( Gaelic: Fionnghal NicDhòmhnaill) (1722 &ndash March 4, 1790) Jacobite heroine was the daughter of Ranald He was disguised as a serving maid. The 19th century adherents of Scottish romantic nationalism (which included sentimental Jacobitism) enlarged the anecdote to a legend. Romantic nationalism (also National Romanticism, organic nationalism, identity nationalism) is the form of Nationalism in which the state derives Jacobitism was (and to a limited extent remains the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to
The lyrics were written by Sir Harold Boulton, Bart. (1859 - 1935), to an air collected by Miss Annie MacLeod (Lady Wilson) in the 1870s. The song was first published in Songs of the North by Boulton and MacLeod, London, 1884, a book that went into at least fourteen editions. In later editions Miss MacLeod's name was dropped and the ascription "Old Highland rowing measure arranged by Malcolm Lawson" was substituted. It was quickly taken up by other compilers, such as Laura Alexandrine Smith's Music of the Waters (published 1888).
According to the collector of folk music lore, Andrew Kuntz, Miss MacLeod was on a trip to the isle of Skye and was being rowed over Loch Coruisk (Coire Uisg, the "Cauldron of Waters") when the rowers broke into a Gaelic rowing song "Cuachag nan Craobh" ("The Cuckoo in the Grove"). Miss MacLeod set down what she remembered of the air, with the intention of using it later in a book she was to co-author with Boulton, who later added the section with the Jacobite associations. Jacobitism was (and to a limited extent remains the political movement dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland " As a piece of modern romantic literature with traditional links it succeeded perhaps too well, for soon people began "remembering" they had learned the song in their childhood, and that the words were 'old Gaelic lines'," Andrew Kuntz has observed (see link).
No Scottish traditional or semi-traditional singer had this sentimental favourite in repertory until very recently, nor is it in any older books of Scottish songs, though it is in most miscellanies like The Fireside Book of Folk Songs. It is often sung as a lullaby, in a slow rocking 6/8 time. A lullaby is a soothing Song, usually sung to Children before they go to sleep Meter or metre is a concept related to an underlying division of time characteristic of western music
One of the few renditions to be a hit was Roger Whittaker's duet version with Des O'Connor released in 1986, which combined O'Connor's vocals with Whittaker's whistling version which was part of his repertoire since at least the mid-1970s. Roger Whittaker (born March 22 1936 in Nairobi, Kenya) is an English - Kenyan Singer / Songwriter and Desmond Bernard O'Connor, CBE (born as Conrad Desmondson on 12 January 1932 is a well-known veteran English Television personality.
Lyrics
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the bairn that's born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.
Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air;
Baffled, our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they will not dare.
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the bairn that's born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.
Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep,
Ocean's a royal bed.
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
Watch by your weary head.
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the bairn that's born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.
Many's the bairn fought on that day,
Well the claymore could wield,
When the night came, silently lay
Dead in Culloden's field.
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the bairn that's born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.
Burned are their homes, exile and death
Scatter the loyal men;
Yet e'er the sword cool in the sheath
Charlie will come again.
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the lad that's born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.
External links
- Andrew Kuntz, The Fiddler's Companion: A Descriptive Index of North American and British Isles Music for the Folk Violin and Other Instruments: authentic origins of the "Skye Boat Song"
- Pop Archives: Covers of "The Skye Boat Song"
- Download free MP3 An arrangement of the tune by Richard M S Irwin in a version used in the hymn "Spirit of God"
- Harvard Glee Club: The Glee Club sings an arrangement by their conductor Jameson Marvin; click on the third song in the application in the upper right corner.
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