Annotation:Cromlet's Lilt

Back to Cromlet's Lilt

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CROMLET'S LILT. Scottish, Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Robin Williamson dates the tune from the 1590's but notes that it was first found in print in the Reverand William Geddes' Saints' Recreation, 1683. It later appeared in James Oswald's Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (c. 1739) as the fourth figure of his 'Sonata of Scots Tunes'. D'Urfey printed the song in Tea Table Miscellany (1724) with the signature 'X', supposedly to denote all songs the editor thought were English in origin (Chambers). Robert Chambers (Scottish Songs, vol. 2, 1824) prints verses under the title "Cromlet's Lilt", directed to be sung to the tune of "Robin Adair". They begin:

Since all thy vows, false maid,
Are blown to air,
And my poor heart betray'd
To sad despair;
Into some wilderness
My grief I will express,
And thy hard-heartedness,
Oh, cruel fair!

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 1), 1760; p. 25.

Recorded sources: Flying Fish FF358, Robin Williamson - "Legacy of the Scottish Harpers, vol. 1

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