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Joseph HAYDN (1732-1808)
Folksong arrangements - Volume 2
Scottish Songs for George Thomson II
Peggy, I must love thee (Hob. XXXIa: 167) [2.45]
The bonny grey-ey'd morn (Hob. XXXIa:101bis) [1:26]
The minstrel (Hob. XXXIa:115bis) [2:59]
Deil tak' the wars (Hob. XXXIa:229) [2:44]
Gramachree (Hob. XXXIa:13bis) [2:55]
Up and war them a' Willy (Hob. XXXIa:233) [3:56]
I canna come ilka day to woo (Hob. XXXIa:140bis) [1:55]
Langolee (Hob. XXXIa:235) [3:35]
Hey tutti taiti (Hob. XXXIa:174) [2:59]
Kellyburn braes (Hob. XXXIa:148bis) [4:33]
The Poet's ain Jean (Hob. XXXIa:230) [2:09]
Gil Morris (Hob. XXXIa:196) [5:01]
The last time I came o'er the muir (Hob. XXXIa:199) [4:36]
The mucking o' Geordie's byre (Hob. XXXIa:51bis) [3:26]
The happy trio (Hob. XXXIa:243) [4:19]
The wish (Hob. XXXIa:245) [2:19]
Killiecrankie (Hob. XXXIa:169) [3:44]
My apron deary (Hob. XXXIa:189) [3:43]
The brisk young lad (Hob. XXXIa:46bis) [3:57]
Whistle o'er the lave o't (Hob. XXXIa:76bis) [1:52]
Fy gar rub her o'er wi' strae (Hob. XXXIa:7bis) [4:19]
My Love she's but a lassie yet (Hob.XXXIa:194) [1:24]
My Nanie, O (Hob. XXXIa:37quater) [2:40]
Cauld kail in Aberdeen (Hob. XXXIa:55bis) [2:44].
An thou wert mine ain thing (Hob. XXXIa:164) [3:54]
The boatman (Hob. XXXIa:246) [3:11]
Jingling Johnie (Hob. XXXIa:263) [3:06]
Muirland Willy (Hob. XXXIa:242) [5:26]
Variations on Bannocks o' barleymeal [3:24]
The tears of Caledonia (Hob. XXXIa:201) [5:04]
Variations on Maggie Lauder [3:30]
Queen Mary's lamentation (Hob. XXXIa:161) [3:39]
The soldier laddie (Hob. XXXIa:60bis) [2:14]
Highland Air. The lone vale (Hob. XXXIa:175) [2:07]
Roslin Castle (Hob. XXXIa:191) [4:18]
Green sleeves (Hob. XXXIa:112bis) [1:40]
Variations on Saw ye my father [2:31]
A Jacobite Air. Phely & Willy (Hob. XXXIa:231) [3:33]
Hooly and fairly (Hob. XXXIa:237) [1:45]
Young Jockey was the blythest lad (Hob. XXXIa:64bis) [1:59]
The shepherd's wife (Hob. XXXIa:128bis) [1:08]
Mary's dream (Hob. XXXIa:1bis) [5:39]
Oonagh (Hob. XXXIa:249) [2:42]
The auld gudeman (Hob. XXXIa:184) [2:30]
Strathallan's lament (Hob. XXXIa:145bis) [2:36]
Polwarth on the green (Hob. XXXIa:265) [1:44]
Bonny wee thing (Hob. XXXIa:102ter ) [3:30]
The auld wife ayont the fire (Hob. XXXIa:195) [1:18]
The birks of Invermay (Hob. XXXIa:187) [2:47]
Auld Rob Morris (Hob. XXXIa:192) [4:03]
My deary an thou die (Hob. XXXIa:166) [1:59]
Jenny's bawbee (Hob. XXXIa:252) [3:18]
Highland Mary (Hob. XXXIa:159) [3:51]
Variations on Killiecrankie [3:40]
If a body meet a body (Hob. XXXIa:80bis) [3:19]
Auld Robin Gray (Hob. XXXIa:168) [5:46]
Bessy Bell and Mary Gray (Hob. XXXIa:178) [2:15]
The weary pund o' tow (Hob. XXXIa:129bis) [2:26]
Maggie Lauder (Hob.XXXIa:35bis) [3:11]
Sensibility (Hob. XXXIa:173) [3:00]
Edinburgh Kate (Hob. XXXIa:69bis) [1:32]
Woo'd and married and a' (Hob. XXXIa:38bis) [1:42]
Tak your auld cloak about ye (Hob. XXXIa:180) [2:25]
Waes my heart that we should sunder (Hob. XXXIa:155) [2:37]
Johnie's grey breeks (Hob. XXXIa:154) [3:17]
Fy let's a' to the bridal (Hob. XXXIa:20bis) [1:31]
Let me in this ae night (Hob. XXXIa:61bis) [3:50]
Galashiels (Hob. XXXIa:179) [3:48]
Ay waking, O! (Hob. XXXIa:157) [2:55]
Tears that must ever fall (Hob. XXXIa:186) [4:21]
The birks of Abergeldie (Hob. XXXIa:58bis) [3:03]
The looking glass (Hob. XXXIa:158) [1:46]
Ettrick banks (Hob. XXXIa:151) [4:38]
O'er bogie (Hob. XXXIa:16bis) [1:05]
Barbara Allan (Hob. XXXIa:11bis) [3:55]
The blue bell of Scotland (Hob. XXXIa:176) [4:48]
Saw ye my father (Hob.XXXIa: 5bis) [3:17]
The braes of Ballenden (Hob. XXXIa:200) [4:26]
John o' Badenyon (Hob. XXXIa:24bis) [3:02]
Fee him, father (Hob. XXXIa:156) [2:05]
The ewie wi' the crooked horn (Hob. XXXIa:116bis) [2:56]
Pinkie House (Hob. XXXIa:183) [3:16]
Bonny Jean (Hob. XXXIa:172) [3:29]
Bannocks o' barleymeal (Hob.XXXIa:171) [2:35]
Green grow the rashes (Hob. XXXIa:8bis) [2:49]
The blathrie o't (Hob. XXXIa:162) [3:02]
My mither's ay glowrin o'er me (Hob. XXXIa:70bis) [1:24]
Scornfu' Nansy (Hob. XXXIa:185) [2:41]
I wish my Love were in a myre (Hob. XXXIa:177) [4:32]
The death of the linnet (Hob. XXXIa:138bis) [2:06]
Rothiemurcus rant (Hob. XXXIa:165) [2:20]
Lorna Anderson (soprano)
Jamie MacDougall (tenor)
Haydn Trio Eisenstadt
rec. October 2003, May, October 2004, Haydn Hall, Esterházy Palace, Eisenstadt
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 92542 [4 CDs: 73.14 + 72.26 + 68.04 + 67.38]


Haydn’s Scottish Folksongs, rather like Beethoven’s, sit at the periphery of his song repertoire. They haven’t been ignored entirely but their sheer bulk makes them rather daunting. Haydn in fact wrote around four hundred of them for three Scottish publishers, dating compositionally from 1792 and 1795 – during the two trips he made to London in these years he rattled off no less than 250 settings – and in1799 he added to their number by producing some for George Thomson. Thomson (1757-1851) was a collector and publisher who sought the best possible standard of composition, approaching not only Haydn but also Beethoven, Hummel and Weber as well. New poems were written, new engravers engaged for the publications and Haydn sent Thomson 208 new settings and six sets of variations. It seems likely that Haydn never saw the poems but was just sent the melody line of each air along with a tempo indication and maybe, it’s conjectured, some idea of the poem.

The songs in volume two of Brilliant’s compendious edition date from the years 1800-1802. They comprise the expected range of themes and feelings – love and loss, Jacobite songs, dialect ditties, seduction and intrigue. The variations are played as vocal pieces, as Haydn wrote them, with the sole exception of Killiecrankie, which proved too long and is played as a piano trio instead.

The two soloists are the experienced pairing of Lorna Anderson and Jamie MacDougall; the former is well versed in baroque singing, which is where I know her, whilst MacDougall, resplendent in a kilt on the cover photograph (I suppose it amuses the Viennese) has essayed plenty of folk song settings in his time. I remember for instance his Britten Hyperion album with great admiration. Accompanying them is the fine Haydn Trio Eisenstadt.

Whether solo or in duet the two singers acquit themselves admirably. MacDougall is manly and martial in The bonny grey-ey’d morn with its bustling accompaniment and Anderson covers the Scottish snap of Gramachree with great vigour. Together they’re well-matched. Try the duet Up and war with its vivacious accompanying figures. Amidst the frolic, the sportive play and the Jacobite political sentiment we do encounter the wistful My Nanie, O as we do the fresh passion of Jingling Johnie (better and less rude than it sounds). Anderson clearly enjoys the rhythmic vitality of Muirland Willy – though neither she nor MacDougall are ever guilty of archness or over expressive gilding of lilies. The Tears of Caledonia is quite melancholy enough without being made more, inappositely, so. Green Sleeves [Hob.XXXIa:112 bis] is taken at a quick step; the words however will be better known as Charming Chloe (at least they were when such as Heddle Nash sung it, to a different tune than Greensleeves of course.) Here Chloe has been replaced by the charming Anne.

It’s a good job for the notes, texts and the footnotes to some obscure dialect, which helpfully allows one to follow the poems unimpeded by linguistic and textual doubts. I‘d have been done for without them when listening to Jenny’s bawbee. MacDougall lays aside decent vocal manners for a bodice-ripping Bessy Bell and Mary Gray and he does his Cock o’ the Walk in John o’ Badenyon. Not to be outdone Anderson contributes a suitably athletic performance of Fee him, Father.

These folksongs should be savoured like chocolate mints, a few at a time. Any more and indigestion is assured. They reveal Haydn’s lyric generosity as well as his pure fecundity. And they are sung with great assurance and selective expression by two outstanding young singers, accompanied by the not-to-be–overlooked finesse of the Trio.

Jonathan Woolf


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