Date: 2017
The Skye Boat Song is a romantic and political song about the escape of Bonnie Prince Charlie from the English across the "ocean" (little more than a mile or two!) after the battle of Culloden in 1746. This a new arrangement of the traditional Scottish folksong for 4-part male voice barbershop choir by Philip Le Bas is intended to be reasonably straightforward to sing, but with plenty of dramatic intensity. There is sense of tragedy in the song, but notice the final dark threat that "Charlie will come again..."
Links: pdf - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib
Chorus:
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the lad that's born to be King
Over the sea to Skye.
1.
Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air;
Baffled, our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they will not dare.
2.
Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep,
Ocean's a royal bed.
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
Watch by your weary head.
3.
Many's the lad fought on that day,
Well the claymore could wield,
When the night came, silently lay
Dead on Culloden's field.
4.
Burned are their homes, exile and death
Scatter the loyal men;
Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath
Charlie will come again.
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