Ye Banks And Braes O’ Bonnie Doon jig

I picked up this tune as a jig on a Jimmy Shand album and have tried to reproduce his version here. It is actually the tune of a Burns song beginning with these words, which is sung in slowish 3/4 time, so it is a fine waltz tune.
As such, it would go thus:

X:1
T:Ye Banks And Braes O’ Bonnie Doon
M:3/4
L:1/8
R:Waltz
K:G Major

|D2||:G4 G2|A2 G2 A2|B2 d2 B2|A2 G2 A2|
B3 A G2|G2 E2 D2|D2 E2 G2|A4 D2|G4 G2|
A2 G2 A2|B2 d2 B2|A2 G2 A2|B3 A G2|
G2 E2 D2|D2 E2 G2|1 G4 D2:|2 G4 B2||

||:d4 e2|d2 B2 G2|d4 e2|d2 B2 G2|d2 B2 G2|
d2 B2 G2|e3 d cB|A4 BA| G4 G2|A2 G2 A2|
B2 d2 B2|A2 G2 A2|B3 A G2|G2 E2 D2|
D2 E2 F2|1G4 B2:|2 G4 ||

I was actually going to post this as a waltz last month, but completely forgot about it. It seems played a bit differently in Cape Breton.

So slainte, you’ve done the work already, where’s the results?

I would guess you could still post it afresh here on site, rather than just as a footnote to this JIG?! You could always then link to the related tunes, as you usually do… 😉 I look forward to the submission…

Well, the version I picked up from Jennifer Wrigley and Simon Thoumire’s budget CD is virtually the same as the one nicholas put above. I can’t remember how the Cape Breton version goes.

it’s a lovely wee jig…
i could learn to like it.

Jig my arse - listen to the song. Have any of you ever heard it sung ?

One of us is going to have to add the waltz here. I think I have a Cape Breton recording of it. I’ll check…

Ye banks and braes o’ bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair:
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary, fu‘ o’ care!
Thou’ll break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons through the flowering thorn:
Thou minds me o’ departed joys,
Departed - never to return!

Oft hae I roved by bonny Doon
To see the rose and woodbine twine;
And ilka bird sang o’ its luve,
And fondly sae did I o’ mine.
Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose,
Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree:
And my fause luver stole my rose,
But, ah! he left the thorn wi’ me.

The above is the second of two similar poems Robert Burns wrote under the heading “The Banks Of Doon”, and the one which is sung to the 3/4 tune I’ve submitted above in ABC’s.

My Burns book contains a note prefacing the poems:

“This song illustrates a genuine experience. The heroine, a lovely and accomplished woman, the daughter of a gentleman of some fortune in Ayrshire, was deserted by her lover, the son of a wealthy landed proprietor, after she had borne a son to him.”

I don’t know if this was written by Burns or an editor.

I should have mentioned, each part of the waltz tune is sung once, not twice, if being used to sing the song.

It’s also the tune to ‘The Foggy Dew’ - which sounds suspiciously similar to Bonnie Doon. Don’t know which came first, though.

Instead of the D E F# G endings, try E D E G instead. I’m not saying it’s better, but different in an interesting way because then there are no F#s at all.

…and also no C’s, it seems, making this tune pentatonic, which inclines me favour muspc’s variation before even playing this one. Also, there’s no high G, which means that I should keep this tune in mind should I ever break the middle finger of my left hand.

Right!!!! - I am sorry bc but this is not the tune to The Foggy Dew! They are very different tunes and thanks to your adding of “The Foggy Dew” into the other names section they are going to be permenanty linked - poo poo to you!!

Anyway - were you serious when you said you didn’t know which tune came first. Ye Banks and Braes is a Robert Burns song. That kinda predates a song about a 20th century Irish squabble by a few centuries.

Anyway rant over.