Annotation:Una's Lock (1)

Back to Una's Lock (1)

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UNA’S LOCK [1]. AKA and see “Cumberland (The),” “Miss Gibson (2).” Scottish, Air. There is an air called "Onagh's Lock" or “Oonagh’s Waterfall" to which Robert Burns set his lyric "Sae flaxen were her ringlets," published in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum where it identified as "an Irish Air." Burn's himself knew the tune as "Oonagh's Waterfall." The air to the song is different from the present reel, and what the connection between the titles might be is unknown. See note for “Annotation:Onagh’s Lock” for more thorough explanation. The lyric begins:

'Twas on a sweet morning,
When violets were a-springing,
O The dew the meadows adorning,
The larks melodious singing,
O The rose-trees, by each breeze,
Were gently wafted up and down,
And the primrose, that there grows,
Bespangled nature's verdant gown.
The purling rill, the murmuring stream,
Stole gently through the lofty grove:
Such were the hours when Darby stole
Out to meet his barefoot love.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Johnson (The Scots Musical Museum), No. 447.

Recorded sources:

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