Turn Ye To Me

DESCRIPTION: "The stars are shining cheerily, cheerily, Horo, Mhairi Dhu, turn ye to me. The seamew is moaning drearily, drearily...." "Hushed be thy moaning, lone bird of the sea.... Thy home is the angry wave, mine but the lonely grave...."
AUTHOR: Words: John Wilson ("Christopher North")
EARLIEST DATE: reportedly written 1816
KEYWORDS: love separation bird
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (5 citations):
GirlScouts-SingTogether, pp. 64-65, "Turn Ye to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
ChansonsDeNotreChalet, pp. 34-35, "Turn Ye to Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
SongsOfManyNations, "Turn Ye to Me" (1 text, 1 tune) (CC edition, pp. 48-49, with a 4-page insert in the middle of the song!) (12th edition, p. 44)
DT, TURNYEME*
ADDITIONAL: cf. Kenneth Norman MacDonald, "The Gesto Collection of Highland Music," 1895 (reprinted 1997 by Llanerch Publishers), p. 19, "Ho Ro Mhairi Dhu" (1 Gaelic text, 1 tune)
Roud #23557
NOTES [112 words]: This song by Christopher North was beautifully recorded by Gordon Bok; although I am far from sure it is traditional, I've included it on that basis. The interesting question is the tune. The Gesto Collection of Highland Music has a Gaelic tune, "Ho Ro Mhairi Dhu," or "Black Mary" (i.e. "dark-haired Mary"). It doesn't appear to be the same song, but the form implies that it might have been the original of the tune. Or might not, of course.
This wound up in GirlScouts-SingTogether in 1949, with a tune close to Bok's, but it doesn't seem to have caught on in Scout circles (too slow and too adult, I would think), though it's still found in a few Scout collections. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.3
File: DTturnye

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography