Annotation:Captain Cook's Death
X:1 T:Captain Cook's Death T:My Mary dear, departed shade(Burns) C:Lucy Johnston of Hilton M:C L:1/8 R:Johnson - Scots Musical Museum, vol. 3 (1790, No. 279, p. 288) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Eb GA|B2 (c>B) B2 (ec)|B2 (GE) F2 (GA)|B2 (c>B) B2 (e<B)| (B<G) F>G E2 (GA)|B2 (c>B) B2 (ec)|B2 GE F2 (G>A)| B2 (c>B) B2 (e<B)|(B<G) F>G E2||(B>c/4d/4)|(ed) (cB) B2 (Ac)| B2 (GE) F2 (Bc/d/)|ed cB B2 Ac|(B<G) F>G E2 B>c/4d/4| (ed) (cB) B2 A>c|B2 (GE) {E}F2 (GA)|Bc BA (GB) !fermata!e c|(B>G) F>G E2||
CAPTAIN COOK'S DEATH. AKA and see "Highland Mary (4)." Scottish, Air (whole time). E Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Captain Cook's Death" is attributed to Lucy Johnston of Hilton (later Mrs. Oswald of Auchincruive). It is the air to which Burns's song "Thou lingering star with lessening ray" ("My Mary dear, departed shade") was set, published by James Johnson and Robert Burns in the Scots Musical Museum, vol. 3 (1790). The modern air to which the song is now usually sung, however, is a composition of Scots fiddler-composer John Lowe, called "Mary's Dream." Lowe was a Galloway divinity student and minor poet who died in America in 1798. The melody was entered into the large 1840 music manuscript collection of multi-instrumentalist John Rook (Waverton, Cumbria) as "Highland Mary (4)." See notes for "Annotation:Miss Johnston of Hilton's Fancy" and "Annotation:Mrs. Oswald of Auchincruive (1)" for more on the Oswalds.