Annotation:Lowlands of Holland (2)
X:1 T:Lowlands of Holland [2], The M:C L:1/8 R:Air B:Johnson - Scots Musical Museum, vol. 2 (1788, No. 115, p. 118) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:F F|C>D F>G F2 F d|c A G F D3 F/D/|C D F>G F2 Fd|c d/e/ f A c3|| c|f e d c dc B A|G>A (B/A/) (G/F/) D2 D>F|(C>D) F F F2 F>d|c<A G>A F3||
LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND [2]. Scottish. The air, different than "Low Lands of Holland (1)", was published in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 2 (1788). Robert Gilfillan (b. 1789, Dunfermline) used an adaptation of the melody for his popular song "O Why left I my Hame," c. 1800, sometimes known as "The Exile's Song." Stenhouse asserts that William Marshall added a second part to this air and created one of his most famous pieces, "Miss Admiral Gordon’s Reel," from which "Major Graham of Inchbrakie" was derived. John Glen (1891) demurs, and maintains the air (for which he says there is no evidence of antiquity) published in the Museum was in fact derivative of Marshall's original air and produced by Urbani. Poet Robert Burns reports that someone close to Marshall told him that Marshall took the idea of "Miss Admiral Gordon’s Reel" from a tune called "German Lairdie (The)."
The lyric in the Museum begins:
The love that I have chosen, I'll therewith be content,
And the salt sea shall be frozen before that I repent;
Repent it shall I never until the day I dee,
But the lowlands of Holland has twined my love and me.
