Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/536

524 doubt sufficiently commonplace in style, but a few are really fine melodies worthy of a place in our present collections, and worthy of the attention of rising poets. In some instances the airs are in a simple unadorned vocal state, a few being even pentatonic; of which Lady Rothiemay's Lilt, Lady Laudian's Lilt, and the first part of 'Kilt your coat, Maggie,' may be named as examples. In most cases the first half strain of the air is simple, the repetition more florid; this is frequently followed by variations—or divisions as they were then called—consisting of scale and other passages well fitted to show the dexterity of the player. Like many other Scotish tunes, a considerable number of the airs take some trouble to avoid the key-note as a close. [See, p. 446.] They have also that almost invariable characteristic of Scotish melody, the occurrence of phrases constructed on the harmony of the subdominant—the fourth of the scale; while in the national airs of most other countries a preference is given to phrases on the dominant—the fifth of the scale; both of course being subordinate to phrases on the tonic, usually the most numerous in popular music. The occurrence of the subdominant harmony is the more singular when we consider that the fourth is one of the sounds often omitted in Scotish music. The explanation seems to be that the sixth is of frequent use as an emphatic note, and though sometimes it has to be treated as the relative minor, more frequently it is accompanied as the third of the subdominant.

The fact of so many duplicates being found in the MS. has caused the remark to be made that the seven parts must have belonged to different individuals. Nothing can be inferred as to the date of either part. Part III. however differs from the others in certain respects, and not improbably belonged to some other member of the family. It is written for a lute tuned CFADG. all the others being for a lute tuned ADADA. The only air that is said to bring the MS. down to a later date than has been claimed for it (1635) occurs in Part VI. and is named 'Peggie is ouer the sie with the souldier.' This is the tune of an English ballad included in the catalogue issued by Thackeray in 1689. There is a copy of the ballad, printed about 1655, in the Euing collection of Glasgow University, and a still earlier copy in the Roxburgh Ballads; and we learn from Mr. Chappell's list of the publishers of black-letter ballads that its date is from 1620 to 1629, both prior to the date claimed for the MS. The simple Skene versions of some of our old melodies, two of which have already been given in this work, show how little we really know of the early forms of our airs. [See 441b, 445b, 446a.] The discovery in this MS. of these and of some other tunes, otherwise unknown until the middle of the following century, proves that first appearance in print is no guide whatever to actual age. The appearance also in it of so many as 25 previously unknown airs leads to the belief that the loss of ancient melodies may have been as great even as that of songs, in regard to which Ritson, in a letter to George Paton, after enumerating about 120, adds that he believes he has the names of as many more, none of which he had ever been able to recover. Several of the parts of the Skene MS. contain airs which date themselves; such as Ostend (taken 1604); Prince Henry's masque (1610); Lady Elizabeth's masque (1613).

The first row of figures shows the order in which they appear in the original; the second is that of Mr. Dauney's volume. The asterisks point out the duplicates, and the figures after the names show their place in the MS. The omitted tunes are marked by daggers. The double dagger in the first line of figures between 29 and 30 shows the place of a tune omitted in Mr. Dauney's list.