Annie Laurie
The Scottish love song to Lady John Scott's tune, for 2 to 4 singers: two verses, slow and tender. The soprano sings the melody, which dips to middle C, the alto sings under it, joining it on the low notes and stepping above it at the cadences, the tenor fills in the chord and the bass sings the low line.
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The first verse
Words: an older Scottish song, said to be by Douglas of Fingland, reworked by Lady John Scott (1810-1900), who altered its second verseTune: Lady John Scott (Alicia Ann Spottiswoode, 1810-1900)
Maxwelton braes are bonnie,Where early fa's the dew;And it's there that Annie Laurie,Gie'd me her promise true.Gie'd me her promise true,Which ne'er forgot will be;And for bonnie Annie Laurie,I'd lay me down and dee.
About Annie Laurie
Annie Laurie grew from an older Scottish song. C. K. Sharpe's Ballad Book says that song is "said to" be by Mr Douglas of Fingland, for Anne, a daughter of Sir Robert Laurie of Maxwelton, though "the Lady afterwards married Mr Ferguson of Craigdarroch". Lady John Scott told the editor Alfred Moffat that the tune was her own, and that she altered the second verse and wrote all of the third. The song's earliest known printing, without her name, is in The Vocal Melodies of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1838). Our arrangement is read from an early New York printing, with Jenny Lind on its cover, that names no composer or poet, in C, with four parts of our own. "Dee" is Scots for "die". This is the first two verses for 2 to 4 singers, slow and tender.
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