Thursday 29 December 2016
Tune of the Day: Green Grow the Rashes
Traditional Scottish tune
The first strain of this old air is said to have appeared in the now lost Straloch lute manuscript as early as 1627; by the 1760s, when the whole tune was printed in Neil Stewart's Reels and in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth, it was already considered ancient.
The “Green Grow the Rashes” title is from Scotland national poet Robert Burns's reworking of the poem sung to a tune called “The Grant's Rant”.
This tune is often confused with the similarly titled “Green Grow the Rushes, O”, which is commonly sung as a Christmas carol. They are, however, totally distinct.