Scotland's Burning

Last updated

A drinking fountain next to the Monument to the Great Fire of London, showing the song's words London's Burning fountain.jpg
A drinking fountain next to the Monument to the Great Fire of London, showing the song's words

"Scotland's Burning", also known in England as "London's Burning", is a variant of a song and nursery rhyme popular with children.

Contents

Words

The song can be sung as a round when each part starts two bars after the previous one. It may be an example of a nursery rhyme with tragic or violent themes. The London lyrics are said to be about the Great Fire of London, a five-day fire in the city of London in 1666. [1] The first notation of a round in this theme dates from 1580. [2] The Scotland lyrics are said to be about the Burning of Edinburgh in 1544, ordered by Henry VIII of England. [3]

The lyrics are alluded to in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew , Act 4, scene 1, when Grumio asks Curtis to prepare a warm fire for guests. [4]

In the Netherlands the song is known as "Brand in Mokum  [ nl ]" ("Fire in Amsterdam") [5] [ circular reference ], which is said to refer to the Amsterdam revolt against Napoleon in 1813. [3]

Musical scores

References

  1. 1 2 Margaret Read MacDonald & Winifred Jaeger (2006). The Round Book: Rounds Kids Love to Sing, p.73. August House. ISBN   9780874837865.
  2. 1 2 Lindahl, Greg. "Scotland, It Burneth", Ravenscroft Songbook. Cites Vlasto, Jill. "An Elizabethan Anthology of Rounds", Musical Quarterly XL (1954) 222–234. Retrieved 25 August 2015.
  3. 1 2 Bert van Zantwijk, Brand in Mokum (2016)
  4. ↑ (1902). "Music of Shakspere's Time", Lippincott's Monthly Magazine: A Popular Journal of General Literature, Volume 69, p.243-4. J.B. Lippincott. pre-ISBN.
  5. ↑ Dutch Wikipedia, Brand in Mokum
  6. ↑ Mason, Lowell (1837). Parley's Magazine, Volume 5, p.191.
  7. ↑ Kaye Pottie, Vernon Ellis, Kathy Kaulbach (1992). Folksongs of the Maritimes: From the Collections of Helen Creighton and Other Distinguished Maritime Folklorists, p.12. Formac. ISBN   9780887802003.
  8. ↑ Newman Ivey White, Jan Philip Schinhan; eds. (1977). The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC Folklore: Vol. V: The Music of the Folk Songs, p.115. Duke University. ISBN   9780822382850.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.