Loch Lomond - arr. Ralph Vaughan Williams

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 wont to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

'Twas there that we parted, in yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side o' Ben Lomond,
Where in soft purple hue, the highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.

O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

The wee birdies sing and the wildflowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping.
But the broken heart it kens nae second spring again,
Though the waeful may cease frae their grieving.

O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland a'fore ye,
But me and my true love will never meet again,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomond.

. . .

Loch Lomond, Scottish folksong about love and farewell, appears for the first time in a collection called "Vocal Melodies of Scotland" in 1841. It certainly predates that year, and the music was sung, with a different text, during the Jacobite rising and invasion of England of 1745 by Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie* Prince Charlie") and his army, then defeated in the Battle of Culloden on April 1746. A popular version attributes the words "O ye'll tak' the high road, and I'll tak' the low road" to a Jacobite soldier who has been captured after the battle and, awaiting his execution in the Carlisle prison, speaks with a person that will be released. According to the Celtic mythology, the souls of the dead soldiers return home quicker along ‘the low road’ than do living people walking along ‘the high road’ - hence he will get to Scotland first. Various settings were done of this evocative song: here is presented the setting for unaccompanied male choir arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1921.

*in Scottish language "bonnie" means "beautiful, attractive".

source: https://www.classical-music.com/articles/l...

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London Madrigal Singers
Ian Partridge, Christopher Bishop
1995

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photos: Loch Lomond https://www.nationalparks.uk/park/loch-lom...
Ralph Vaughan Williams with his cat Foxy, 1942 c.