My Love Is An Arbutus waltz

This tune is not a waltz, but a slow air

Source: Buttons & Bows - jackie daly, seamus & manus mcguire
Transcription. gmp

Just curious. What is an “Arbutus”? I only ask because in Maryland, it is a name of a town not too far from where I live. I’ve never heard the word in any other context.

An arbutus is a bush or small tree with blossom and fruit.
The song "My Love

My love’s an arbutus
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye’s sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.

But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh’s pearly dower.

Alas, fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time’s jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You’ll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree . . .

Thanks for the clarification. Don’t know why, but before I knew what an Arbutus was, I was almost thinking the song was a bit farcical. For some reason I was thinking “brute”, kinda sounds a little like “arbutus”. Ah nevermind 🙂. Definitely makes more sense now.

Collected by John Ward, (Chicago) words are attributed to Alfred Perceval Graves. My copy has words for only two verses. And the music is noted in F.

Hey, Pants, is “Machree” an actual lyric, or should it be “mo chroi”? (Gaelic for “my heart”)

I have no idea, sorry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbutus_unedo

It looks to me like it’s in D Mixolydian, not G Major.

It looks to me that it’s in G major, not D mixolydian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5faVrT5Kr0

play video

(Some phrases happen to end on a low D, but that alone doesn’t make it Mixolydian.)