Useful info and links below.
If there is anything that the Rally and Brigade can do for you, to help with your preparation - please ask.
Important News:
- By now you should have at least a singable grasp on all 12 songs. Not perfect, but perfectible and something you can sing at a run-through.
- People who are flying to NEHB - it's not just a good time to finalize your travel arrangements, but it's a great time to tell us what they are!
- Run-throughs have been a little light this year. Please host, please attend. Not only are they fun mini-brigade-rallies in their own right, but they are the best way possible to improve your preparation.
- One of our attendees has asked us to remind you that there are alternate lyrics for Grow Old With You, if you don't want to sing about drinking too much. From the end-note on the sheet music: "[T]he arranger has provided alternate lyrics for the Tenor in measures 27-28: "I could be handy, honey, what do you think?"
- Reminders:
- The 2020 Rally will be one week earlier in the calendar than in previous years - to accommodate the Jewish holidays. If your calendar-system always blocks the 3rd weekend, remember to shift it to the 2nd weekend for 2020. We will revert to the 3rd weekend for 2021.
- Additional part learning tracks are available for your personal use only. $20 per part, contact our Treasurer to purchase.
- Attend and host run-throughs - please attend or host. We are now on songs 1-12. To schedule a run-through, email Rob Sheridan. You can access the calendar on the web, add it to your own online calendar or find it on the NEHB web site.
I've put the song discussion at the end this week - it's a little long. Not only will you learn about the song, you get a little English-Scottish history and some insight into the Scottish language.
Useful Info And Links
- The Preparedness Blog
- Geomap of participants
- If you MUST skip the rally, the withdrawal form
- Our Guest Quartet and Judges will be Rooftop Records! Get to know them on Facebook, their website, or their most recent performance at the SUN District this spring.
- The New England Harmony Brigade Home Page
- The NEHB Application Page
- A Video Retrospective of the 2018 Rally (credit Jim Schumacher)
- Getting Rides To The Rally, Rides Home From The Rally.
- Run-throughs
- Volunteer by sending email to Rob Sheridan
- See the calendar on the NEHB web site
- Add the calendar to your own.
Challenge Song - The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond
Words and Music - Traditional Scottish
Arrangement - Jonathan Quick
Loch (Lake) Lomond is Scotland’s largest natural lake, part of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park in Scotland which also contains the famous hill, Ben Lomond, and is known for the beautiful purple blooms of heather in the spring. About 30 minutes north of Glasgow. It is a major tourist attraction for water sports, golf, hiking, biking, fishing. It’s known for its distilleries (legal and formerly illegal). This song isn’t really about the Loch.
There is a famous index of English speaking folk tunes, called the Roud Folk Song Index - which tracks multiple traditional references to the song Loch Lomond. The Roud Folk Song Index traces songs back as far as the Middle Ages. This song isn’t about the Index.
What is this song about? No one knows for sure, but theories beckon. :-)
What we now know as the United Kingdom (which includes Britain, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland). While a great and peaceful nation now, and one of the largest national economies in the world, it has a very long and tumultuous history of world-wide conquest, colonization and war.
It has an equally long history of internal strife and religious conflict. Some of that goes back centuries - some as recently as 1998 and the Irish Troubles. This song relates to one of those internal struggles. It’s important to realize that while the theories about the meaning are about cruel treatment of men, the song became popular long after the uprising, and so the stories were considered more about romantic love, than violent death.
King James II was deposed by Parliament in 1688. His removal changed the line of succession, and also had a repressive religious dimension. For almost 100 years afterwards, there were a series of armed revolts called the Jacobite Rebellions. (Latin for James is Jacobus.) The final internal-struggle was in 1745, by descendants of the Jacobian line attempting to return Bonny Prince Charles to the throne. It’s hard to believe how vicious and ugly the uprising and its suppression were.
The song lends itself to a few interpretations, many of which trace to the treatment of Jacobite prisoners and references to the King’s Road (the High Road) and the locals and peasants using other roads (The Low Road).
One interpretation is that the song is sung by a wife or lover left home in Scotland, whose man was killed in the rebellion and his head paraded on a pike along the High Road. Another references the victorious sides “game”: pairing two captured soldiers and requiring that they choose which was to die, and which was to be released. The dead soldier would be paraded on the High Road.
It may also simply be that, since the forces arrayed against the Crown were drawn from both lowland and highland areas of Scotland, that these are the high and low roads. Nevertheless, the song is about a keening sense of loss. The word “Bonny” (beautiful) are somewhat ironic.
In our arrangement, the end of the song is lyrically modified to be a bit more uplifting - but I’m including both the original lyrics and a loose American translation.
Lyrics
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Translation
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By yon bonnie banks,
And by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love
Were ever want to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
Oh! ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
'Twas then that we parted In yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond,
Where in purple hue
The Highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.
Oh! ye'll take the high road and I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
The wee birdie sang
And the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping,
But the broken heart it kens
Nae second Spring again,
Tho' the waeful may cease frae their greeting.
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By the beautiful banks
And by the beautiful hillside
Where the sun shines bright on Lake Lomond
Where me, and my true love
Were always wanting to go
On the beautiful, beautiful banks of Lake Lomond
Oh, you’ll take the King’s Road, and I’ll take the old road.
And I’ll be in Scotland before you;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the beautiful, beautiful banks of Lake Lomond
Was then, that we parted in that shady glen
On the steep steep side of Mount Lomond
Where in purple hue, the Highland hills we view,
And the moon comes out in the twilight.
Oh, you’ll take the King’s Road, and I’ll take the old road.
And I’ll be in Scotland before you;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the beautiful, beautiful banks of Lake Lomond
The small birdy sang
And the wild flowers bloomed
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping
But the broken heart, it knows
No second spring, ever
Though the woeful may cease from their greeting.
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VIDEO LINKS
Benny Goodman - pretty upbeat, isn’t it?
Chanticleer - because any great a capella will do
Runrig - a Scottish Rock Band, known for using this as a closer for their shows
Realtime - Barbershop
Moonstruck - Barbershop
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