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X:1 T:Portmore T:My Heart's in the Highlands O:Aberdeenshire M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Briskly" B:William Christie Jr. - Traditional Ballad Airs, vol. 2 (1881, pp. 180-181) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Emin (G>A)|B2 (B>A) (G>F)|E2G2 (D>B,)|(A,>B,) D2 (F>E)|E3 z (G>A)|{G}B2 (B>A) (G>F)| E2G2 (D>B,)|(A,>B,) (F>E)|E2 z2 (G>A)|B2B2 (B>A)|A4 {A}(G>F)|G2d2 (G>B)| {B}d3z (B>d)|e3-dBA|G2E2 D>B,|(A,>B,) D2 (F>E)|E3 z|| P:Chorus: (E>D)|D2E2 (G>A)|B2B2 {B}(A>G)|G2d2 (G>B)|{B}d3 z B>d|e2 (d>c)(BA)| G2E2 (D>B,)|(A,>B,) D2 (F>E)|E3z (G>E)|D2E2 (G>A)|B4 {B}(A>G)| G2d2 (GB)|d3z B>d|e2 {fe}(dc)(BA)|G2E2 (D>B,)|(A,>B,) (D>E) (F>E)| E3 z||



PORTMORE. AKA - "My heart's in the Hielans." Scottish, Air (3/4 time). A Minor (Gilchrist): E Minor (Christie). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "This was presumably a ballad, as Colonel Balfour describes it as the fairy king's attempt to lure an Orkney maiden from her home to be his queen in fairyland. The tune is apparently a distinct variant of the air known as "The Strong Walls of Derry," "Portmore, or My Heart's in the Highlands," also "Failte na Miosg" (The Musket's Salute). See [Scots Musical] Museum, No. 259, and Christie, ii, 180, also "The Hunting of Ruberslaw," Miscellanea of the Rymour Club, Part iv, Feb. 1909. These tunes are all rhythmically if not melodically connected, and probably of the same parentage." [Gilchrist, p. 245]. She references William Christie Jr.'s Traditional Ballad Airs, vol. II (Edinburgh, 1881, pp. 180-181) where the words to the ballad begin:

"O Donaldie, Donaldie, whar hae ye been?"
"A-hawking and hunting, gae mak' my bed seen;
Ge mak' my bed seen, and stir up the strae,
My heart's in the Hielan's wharever I gae.

Chorus:
Let's drink and gae hame, boys, let's drink and gae hame;
Gin we stay ony longer we'll get a bad name;
We'll get a bad name, and fill oursel's fou,
And the lang woods o' Derry are ill to gae through.

Christie also notes the air was originally called "Strong Walls of Derry" and supposes it has an Irish provenance, although he was not able to locate it in any of the Irish works he had access to. He notes that poet Robert Burns took a fragment of the words and expanded on it, although was not altogether successful in his effort. Christie's air and words were taken from "the singing of a native of the Parish of Monquhitter (Aberdeenshire). It can be traced through her forefathers far into the last (i.e. 18th) century." The same words to the ballad were printed in Peter Buchan's Ballads of the North, vol. II (1828, p. 158), wherein Donald Cameron was credited at the author of the song. Buchan's version was recited to him by "a very old person" and he supposes that it is the whole version of which Burns had but a fragment.


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Gilchrist and White, "Ancient Orkney Melodies," Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. 3, no. 4, 1939, p. 245 ([1]).






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