Annotation:There'll never be peace 'til Jamie comes hame
X:1 T:There'll ne'er be peace till Jamie come hame M:3/4 L:1/8 B:David Young – “A Collection of Scotch Airs with the latest Variations” (AKA - The B:McFarlane Manuscript (c. 1741, No. 83, p. 132) F: https://rmacd.com/music/macfarlane-manuscript/collection/pdfs/there_ll_ne_er_be_peace_till_jamie_come_hame.pdf N:The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland K:Amin AB|{AB}c3B Ac|B2 TA2G2|(D/E/^F) G2G,2|G4 AB|c2 dc TBA|B2 cB (c/B/A/G/)| E2A2 (AB)|A4 AB|(cB c)d e^f|(ga g)^f e2|(d/g/^f/g/) (B/g/f/g/) (A/c/B/A/)| G4 AB|(cB c)d e2|T^G3 E D2|E2A2T^G2|A4:| |:ab|(a/b/c') Tb2a2|b2 c'b ag|(eg/^f/ g)G Bd|g4 ab|(a/b/c') Tb2a2|b2 c'b Tag| (ea/^g/ a)A ce|a4 AB|cB (c/B/c/d/) (e/d/e/f/)|g>a (g/a/g/f/) (e/f/e/d/)|(B/A/B/c/) (d/e/d/c/) (B/c/B/A/)| G3B AB|c2 (d/c/B) (c/B/A)|e>f (e/d/c/B/) (c/B/A/G/)|E2A2 (AB)|A4:|]
THERE’LL NEVER BE PEACE ‘TIL JAMIE COMES HAME. Scottish, Air (3/4 time). G Minor (Gow): A Minor (O’Farrell). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The song "There'll never be peace 'til Jamie comes hame" was published by James Johnson in his Scots Musical Museum IV (1791) with words by Robert Burns, probably rewritten from fragments of an older song, perhaps the Jacobite "Bonny Moor-hen (The)" (an allusion to Bonnie Prince Charlie, the "New Pretender", although the James in the song refers to James VIII of Scotland, the "Old Pretender"). Burns knew the melody as that of an old Jacobite air called “There are few good fellows when Jamie’s awa”, but wrote "I never have been able to meet with anything else of the song than the title." Burns wrote the song in 1791 (the year of Mozart’s death), and was inspired by the just completed French Revolution, which also served to feed Jacobite sentiment in Scotland, never very dormant in Burns' time.
Burns's first stanza goes:
By yon castle wa' at the close of the day,
I heard a man sing tho' his head it was grey;
And as he was singing the tears down came,
There'll never be peace 'till Jamie comes hame.
The Church is in ruins, the state is in jars,
Delusions, oppressions, and murderous wars,
We dare na weel say't, but we ken wha's to blame,
There'll never be peace 'till Jamie comes hame.
See also the related Irish song tunes “There's an End to My Sorrow” and “My sorrow is greater than I can tell.” A similar Scottish air is “Nuair chì thu caileag bhòideach.”
