A Red, Red Rose
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Red, Red Rose is a 1794 song in Scots by Robert Burns based on traditional sources. The song is also referred to by the title My Love is Like A Red, Red Rose or Red, Red Rose and is often published as a poem.
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[edit] Origins of the song
Burns worked for the final ten years on projects to preserve traditional Scottish songs for the future. In all, Burns had a hand in preserving over 300 songs for posterity, the most famous being Auld Lang Syne. He worked on this project for James Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum (1787-1803) and for George Thomson's five-volume A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice. Burns had intended the work to be published as part of Thomson's selection. However, he wrote to a friend that Thomson and himself disagreed on the merits of that type of song. "What to me appears to be the simple and the wild, to him, and I suspect to you likewise, will be looked on as the ludicrous and the absurd."
Instead, Burns gave the song to Scots singer Pietro Urbani who published it in his Scots Songs. In his book, Urbani claimed the words of The Red Red Rose were obligingly given to him by a celebrated Scots poet, who was so struck by them when sung by a country girl that he wrote them down and, not being pleased with the air, begged the author to set them to music in the style of a Scots tune, which he has done accordingly. In other correspondence, Burns referred to it as a "simple old Scots song which I had picked up in the country."
The lyrics of the song are simple but effective. "My luve's like a red, red rose/That's newly sprung in June" describe a love that is both fresh and long lasting. David Daiches in his work describes Burns as "the greatest songwriter Britain has produced" for his work in refurbishing and improving traditional Scots songs including "Red, Red Rose" which he described as a "combination of tenderness and swagger."
[edit] Musical performances
Urbani published the song to an original tune that he wrote. The song appeared in Johnson's Museum in 1797 to the tune of Neil Gow's "Major Graham" which was the tune that Burns wanted. In 1799, it appeared in Thomson's Scottish Airs set to William Marshall's Wishaw's Favourite with the lyric "And fare thee weel awhile" changed to "And fare thee weel a little while".
The song became more popular when Robert Archibald Smith paired it with the tune of "Low Down in the Broom" in his Scottish Minstrel book in 1821. This has become the most popular arrangement. The song has been widely performed by a range of artists in the 20th and 21st centuries including Emmylou Harris, Jean Redpath, Pat Boone, the Fureys, Eddi Reader, and Camera Obscura. Three modern choral arrangements include a four-part, a cappella version by David Dickau, an intimate, Irish folk music-influenced setting, also SATB a cappella, by Matthew Brown ("A Red, Red Rose," published by Santa Barbara Music), and an accompanied, broader version by American composer René Clausen. Clausen's arrangement incorporates a piano, two violins, and a four-part chorus. (SATB)
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ letter from Burns to Alexander Cunningham, cited in The Burns Encyclopedia article on Pietro Urbani
- ↑ Urbani in Scots Songs Burns Encyclopedia op. cit.
- ↑ letter from Burns to Alexander Cunningham 1794 Burns Encyopedia op. cit.
- ↑ David Daiches, British Writers Volume 3 British Council 1980 pages 310-323
[edit] Trivia
- New York Times-bestselling author Steven Brust referred to the poem in a blog post about "simile faces".
[edit] Bibliography
- Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 109: Eighteenth-Century British Poets, Second Series. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by John Sitter, Emory University. The Gale Group, 1991. pp. 33-54.
- Robert Burns encyclopedia article on Pietro Urbani containing the history of the song
- Allmusic.com song search for Red, Red Rose [5] and "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" [6]
- David Daiches, British Writers Volume 3 British Council 1980 pages 310-323 Scribner Writers Series
- Andrew Noble and Patrick Scott Hogg (editors) The Canongate Burns 2003 pages 412-413 ISBN 1-84195-380-6
- David Daiches, Robert Burns Spurbooks Edinburgh 1981 ISBN 0-7157-2093-7
