A Note on the Project

There are numerous songs in Pagan's collection that have the name of a tune below their title. This project aims to recover those tunes and place them alongside Pagan's work, which was not meant to be silently read off of a page. When MIDI files and musical scores--both with just the skeleton of the melody for these tunes-- accompany Pagan's "poems," they can be read with a slightly better understanding of how the original audience experienced them.

Wednesday

A New Song ("Adieu Muirkirk...")

Tune -- Bush Aboon Traquair
http://www.box.net/shared/uogf52aw4s

Adieu Muirkirk now for a while,
Since I'm resolv'd to leave ye,
Since my relations mourn for me,
'Tis that which most I grieve.
But if that fortune on me smile,
There's hopes of my returning,
If expectation do not fail,
There is no cause for mourning.

O we should thank the gentleman,
Gave me this invitation,
Altho' at distance I must gang,
And leave my native nation.
Yet while my family's in health,
I chearfully enjoy it,
I bode no scant, nor fear no want,
As long's I'm well employed.

Muirkirk may say when he's away,
He scarce has left his marrow,
For decency in each degree,
Thus I repeat with sorrow.
He was a noble friend to me,
For which I do regard him,
For kindness and humility,
May the powers above reward him.
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