Flowers Of Edinburgh: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

“Flowers Of Edinburgh” is a reel from the Scottish Lowlands, and its earliest known printing is in John Walsh’s Caledonian Country Dances, volume 2 (London, about 1737), where the first word of the title is singular, “Flower.”[1] James Oswald set the melody as a song, “My Love’s Bonny When She Smiles On Me,” in a collection of Scots tunes dated about 1742, and later reissued it in his Caledonian Pocket Companion.[1] Some later collectors credited Oswald with composing it, although he made no such claim himself.[1][2]

Early photograph of Highland soldiers in feather bonnets and kilts gathered around a cannon

Hill and Adamson, The 42nd Gordon Highlanders, Edinburgh Castle, salted paper print from paper negative, 1843–47. Shown for its Edinburgh setting; it has no connection to the tune.

The meaning of the title is uncertain, and the sources consulted here offer only competing guesses: in 1817 Nathaniel Gow suggested that the “flowers” were the town’s magistrates rather than its young women, while others have proposed less flattering readings.[1]

In Ireland it is usually played as a hornpipe, most often in G major.[1][3] It reached America early: Giles Gibbs of Connecticut wrote it into his 1777 fife manuscript, where it also bears the name “Darling Swain,” the New Hampshire dancer Clement Weeks entered it in a handwritten dance book in 1783, and George P. Knauff printed it in Baltimore in 1839 as “Old Virginia Reel.”[1] Bayard reported in 1944 that it was well known among Pennsylvania fiddlers, while Drew Beisswenger observed in 2008 that, though Southern musicians knew it, it never grew very popular there.[1] The fiddler John Baltzell recorded it for Edison in New York on April 9, 1928, with John F. Burckhardt on piano.[4] Larry Conger includes it in Twice As Nice: Mountain Dulcimer Duets, a book of melody-and-harmony duets for two standard dulcimers in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Flowers Of Edinburgh"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Flowers of Edinburgh (1)".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:My love's bonny when she smiles on me".
  3. irishtune.info: "Flowers of Edinburgh" (tune #647).
  4. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Edison matrix N-176. Flowers of Edinburgh / John Baltzell ; John F. Burckhardt".
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, Twice As Nice: Mountain Dulcimer Duets".
  6. Image: Hill and Adamson, The 42nd Gordon Highlanders, Edinburgh Castle, salted paper print from paper negative, 1843–47. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

← Back to Browse By Song