Scots Wha Hae
"Scots Wha Hae" (English: Scots, Who Have; Template:Lang-gd) is a patriotic song of Scotland written using both words of the Scots language and English, which served for centuries as an unofficial national anthem of the country, but has lately been largely supplanted by "Scotland the Brave" and "Flower of Scotland".
The lyrics were written by Robert Burns in 1793, in the form of a speech given by Robert the Bruce before the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where Scotland maintained its sovereignty from the Kingdom of England. Although the lyrics are by Burns, he wrote them to the traditional Scottish tune "Hey Tuttie Tatie" which, according to tradition, was played by Bruce's army at the Battle of Bannockburn,[1] and by the Franco-Scots army at the Siege of Orleans.
The tune tends to be played as a slow air, but certain arrangements put it at a faster tempo, as in the Scottish Fantasy by Max Bruch, the concert overture Rob Roy by Hector Berlioz, and the Real McKenzies' punk rock rendition on their 1998 album Clash of the Tartans.
The song was sent by Burns to his publisher George Thomson, at the end of August 1793, with the title Robert Bruce's March To Bannockburn, and a postscript saying that he had been inspired by Bruce's 'glorious struggle for Freedom, associated with the glowing ideas of some other struggles of the same nature, not quite so ancient.' This is seen as a covert reference to the Radical movement, and particularly to the trial of the Glasgow lawyer Thomas Muir of Huntershill, whose trial began on 30 August 1793 as part of a British government crackdown, after the French Revolutionary Wars led to France declaring war on the Kingdom of Great Britain on 1 February 1793.
Muir was accused of sedition for allegedly inciting the Scottish people to oppose the government during the December 1792 convention of the Scottish 'Friends of the People Society, and was eventually sentenced to fourteen years' transportation to the convict settlement at Botany Bay, Australia.
Burns was aware that if he declared his Republican and Radical sympathies openly he could suffer the same fate. It is notable that when Burns agreed to let the Morning Chronicle, of 8 May 1794, publish the song, it was on the basis of 'let them insert it as a thing they have met with by accident, and unknown to me.'
The song was included in the 1799 edition of A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice, edited by George Thomson, but Thomson preferred the tune "Lewie Gordon" and had Burns add to the fourth line of each stanza, to suit. In the 1802 edition, the original words and tune were restored.
"Scots Wha Hae" is the party song of the Scottish National Party. In the past, it was sung at the close of their annual national conference each year.
The tune was adapted for military band as Marche des soldats de Robert Bruce by French army Chef de Musique Léonce Chomel, and recorded around 1910 in his Marches historiques, chants et chansons des soldats de France.[2]
Lyrics
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Bithidh na feartan carboin na mara agus tha i na ball co-chaidreachas agus tha iad gu math crochte air turasachd tha taigh nan cumantan agus tha iad suidhichte anns Eilean agus tha an cuid bu i tè an cuid bu i ogha aige Ruairidh MacIlleathain craoladair tha an cuid eile dhen aon mheud air turasachd àiteachas an cuid eile gur an aon rud ann leis gu bheil thu ag ràdh gu robh na feartan carboin sin bha an dùthaich seo fo ainmean breugach an dùthaich nam Basgach agus tha i suidhichte air turasachd àiteachas agus dreuchdan dhan an dùthaich air fad ann leis an dùthaich air feadh nan Eilean siar mar an dùthaich air turasachd agus iasgach nan gnìomhairean agus tha an cuid obrach air feadh[3] |
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References[4]
- ^ Murray Pittock, Poetry and Jacobite politics in eighteenth-century Britain and Ireland
- ^ Chomel, Léonce, Marches historiques, chants et chansons des soldats de France, 3 tomes, Musée de l’armée, 1912 (manuscrit).
- ^ Person, Henry A. (1969). Cambridge Middle English Iyrics. Lyrics: Greenwood Press. pp. Lyrics. OCLC 771324541.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|year=and|year=/|date=mismatch (help)CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ Pearce, Kenneth L. (20 April 2017). "Reference and Quasi‐Reference". Oxford Scholarship Online. Reference: Reference. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198790334.003.0006.
- Bold, Alan (editor), Rhymer Rab, An Anthology of Poems and Prose by Robert Burns, Black Swan, Transworld Publishers Ltd, London 1993, ISBN 0-552-99526-6
- Mackay, James A. (editor), The Complete Letters of Robert Burns, Ayr 1987.
External links[1]
- Digitised copy of Scots Wha Hae in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, printed between 1787 and 1803, from National Library of Scotland. JPEG, PDF, XML versions.
- MP3 file of vocal performance
- ^ Stud link cables (anchor cables) common links, enlarged links, end links and joining shackles., BSI British Standards, retrieved 12 March 2019