Blue Bonnets Over the Border / O'Sullivan's March

[gaconnochie]

Since disocvered that Scott's song was simply new words for an existing song and tune called General Leslie's March To Longmarston Moor and it is a Scottish Covenanting song dealing with the Scottish invasion of northern England in the Civil War period during their struggle against Charles I

[jetty6363]

O'Sullivan's March is Scottish and its supposed to be played much slower. It's a march not a jig

[gaconnochie]

I don't know about the tune itself but the words to the song Blue Bonnets Over The Border were written by Sir Walter Scott and are in his novel The Monastery referring to the Reformation period of the mid 16thC and they invoke the men of Teviotdale etc (ie Scottish Borderers) to cross into England in the name of the Scottish Queen. Presumably either Mary Queen of Scots or her mother Mary of Guise! Some people now use King in the words instead of Queen and suggest it is Jacobite but it isn't.

[chirritutiplen]

Esta chulo ese primer tema Paco, nunca lo habia oido antes. Le estoy dando al fiddle ultimamente, me da por rachas, a ver si algun dia me grabo algo. Saludos

Fernando

[Tadhg64]

6/8 doesn't preclude a tune from making it a march, and it doesn't automaticaly make it a jig. There's more to a tune than the time signature, I think the time signature is kind of irelevant because it doesn't tell you much. The main difference between a 6/8 march and a 6/8 jig is the tempo, and that doesn't come though in the time signature.

[PaddyGonzalez]

@Tadhg64 Good point. As in many other aspects, there are no standard rules to Irish Traditional Music, but that's precisely one of the features that make it so fascinating

[istariteru]

Also played by a british company the D day.

[mikser]

O'Sullivan's March commemorates the hardship and suffering endured by Donal Cam O'Sullivan and his followers on their retreat to Leitrim and his eventual exile to Spain in or around 1603.

[PaddyGonzalez]

Wow! I didn't know that. Thanks for the info!! I like the tune even more now :-)

[PaddyGonzalez]

Amazing, I have alwasy wondered why was it called "a march" if it's a jig, I have just read the whole story, his involvement in the 9 years war and the fact that he was murdered here in Madrid, in Plaza de Santo Domingo in 1618 by an English spy!!!. That's where one of my favourite boozers in Madrid is, so I go there quite a lot...:-). History is fascinating.

[mikser]

You're welcome Paddy. I know Madrid very well. I go there at least 3 times a year. One of my favourite places! Great violin playing by the way. We usually call it the fiddle.

[BinCheese]

May I ask where you got the music? Something tells me it's different than mine. xD

I'd really like to learn this version.

[PaddyGonzalez]

Blue Bonnets Over the Border It's roughly taken from Alisdair Fraser's 'The Driven Bow' album (he plays it a lot slower and way nicer, of course :-). He also plays the O'Sullivan's March in the same set, but I played it before, I think learnt it from the Chieftains.