Annotation:Logie of Buchan (1)

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LOGIE O' BUCHAN [1]. AKA and see "Before I Was Married (1)," "March of the Corporation of Tailors (The)." Scottish, Air or Country Dance (3/4 time). C Major (Neil): D Major (O'Farrell): F Major (Saunders). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. This version of the air (there are several) is attributed to Napier (1792). It was derived from "The March of the Corporation of Tailors" or "The Tailor's March," a guild tune usually played at the annual meeting when they chose their deacons and other officers of the society (Stenhouse, Illustrations of the lyric poetry and music of Scotland, 1853, p. 206). John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies), however, disbelieves Stenhouse's assertion, and suggests that the "Tailor's March/Taylor's March/Tailor's Old March" may in fact have derived from "Logie o' Buchan". Glen further states:

A tune in the Atkinson Manuscript, 1694, called "Tak tent to the ripples gudeman," is supposed to be the parent melody, but we think this rather too far fetched. Oswald, however, gives an air in the Caledonian Pocket Companion, book xi., entitled "Beware of the Ripples," which is identical with "The Taylor's March" in Aird, minus the embellishments.

The words to the ballad were written by George Halket, a schoolmaster at Rathen and an ardent Jacobite (for another song he wrote describing king George II in league with the devil, the Duke of Cumberland offered a reward of 100 pounds for his head). "Logie O' Buchan" is the tale of love and longing for Jamie (James Robertson, in real life a gardener at the mansion-house of Logie, in the parish of Crimond, belonging to Gordon of Logie and near Halket's home), despite the lure of rich Sandie. The heroine was Isobel Keith, who died in 1826 at the age of 89.

O Logie O' Buchan, O Logie the laird,
They hae ta'en awa Jamie, that delved in the yaird,
Wha play'd on the pipe, an' the viol sae sina'
They ha'e ta'in awa' Jamie, the flow'r o' them a',
He said 'Think na lang, lassie, th' I gan awa',
For I'll come and see thee in spite o' tham a'.
Though Sandie has owsen, has gear and has kye,
A house, an' a' hadden, and siller forbye,
Yet I'd tak' my ain lad, wi' his staff in his hand,
Before I'd ha'e him, wi' his houses and land,
But simmer is comin', cauld winter's awa
And he'll come and see me in spite o' them a'.

Burns contributed the second and fourth verses to an older song to the Scots Musical Museum. A more "earthy" lyric set to the tune is the song "The Tailor Fell Through the Bed, Thimble an' a'."

See also Franis O'Neill's version "Before I Was Married (1)."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796, No. 110, p. 44. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1), c. 1805; p. 37. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 81, p. 109. Riley (Flute Melodies, vol. 1), 1814; p. 10. Saunders (New and Complete Instructor for the Violin), Boston, 1847; No. 59, p. 35. Sime (Edinburgh Musical Miscellany, vol. 2), 1793; pp. 364–366.

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