NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

No. I." ALACE YAT I CAME OWR THE MOOR, AND LEFT MY LOVE BEHIND ME."

"RAMSAY," says Burns, "found the first line of this song, which had been preserved as the title of the charming air, and then composed the rest of the verses to suit that line. This has always a finer effect than composing English words, or words with an idea foreign to the spirit of the old title. Where old titles of songs convey any idea at all, it will generally be found to be quite in the spirit of the air." It appears, however, that Ramsay was scarcely so fortunate. What he found was something much less poetical-" The last time I came o'er the moor"--but a poor substitute for the empassioned ejaculation-" Alas! that I came o'er the moor;" and therefore not very inspiring to the genius of the poet, who has certainly not educed from it any thing more than a very namby-pamby sort of ditty. The subject was one which would have better suited the ardent temperament of Burns; and had he known the original title, and the expressive melody with which it was associated, they would, doubtless, have elicited one of his most spirited and pathetic effusions.

It will be at once perceived that the same deteriorating influence which has defaced the title has extended itself to the air; and if tradition has been truly represented to be a species of alchemy, which converts gold into metal of an inferior quality, the proposition could hardly be better illustrated than by comparing the genuine copy of this beautiful and characteristic melody with the modern version.

a Cromek's Select Songs, vol. i. p. 22.

Even before Ramsay's time, " The last time I came o'er the moor" appears to have superseded the old title, as we find the air under the former name in Mr Blaikie's MS. of 1692. e The reader will find a copy of the modern air in the Appendix.

In the latter, while the general outlines are retained, all the finer traits of the modulation have disappeared. Our musical readers will at once perceive to what we allude. In the ancient melody, which appears to consist of the first sixteen bars, (the rest being a sort of symphony,) the first measure, from the outset, may be considered to be in the relative minor of the key to which the air properly be longs-a strain admirably expressive of the sentiment of the song-it then rises into the dominant, at the commencement of the second part, and concludes in the tonic; while, in the modern version, the empassioned tones with which the original song commences are exchanged for a few unmeaning notes, and, throughout, little more is perceptible than the ordinary modulation between the dominant and the tonic. The flow of the ancient melody is also more smooth and equable, and perfectly free from the formality of the modern, which looks as if it had been got up by some songwright of the last century, who, being totally insensible to its natural beauties, had reconstructed it upon a plan of his own, concluding, in the artificial manner of the day, by a regular cadence and shake,-a style of embellishment now happily dispensed with in these artless compositions, and reserved for music of a scientific character.

No. II." PEGGIE IS OVER YE SIE WITH THE SOULDIER."

The modulation of this air is perfectly national, and in the second part it bears a resemblance to the lively Scotish tune, "Hey Jenny come down to Jock." The words, if it ever had any, are no longer extant.

No. III." TO DANCE ABOUT THE BAILZEI'S DUBB."

Contrary to what might be expected from the name, this does not seem to have been a dance-tune, but a slow air, and one which, strangely enough, re-appears in the collections of the last century under the name of "Wae's my heart that we should sunder;" though, according to custom, protracted to double its original length. Still more singularly, the air in the Skene MS. (No. XII.) called, "Alas this night that we should sinder," though it corresponds in name with that now mentioned, is essentially different, and, like many others in this collection, perfectly new to the present age. From this we may learn how unsafe it is, in enquiries of this sort, to infer the antiquity of a tune from that of the words.