This used to be considered Scotland\u2019s national anthem; now several songs are in contention for that honour. It is the first tune that many people learning the bagpipes play, as it features in the College of Piping Tutor Book 1.<\/p>\n
Robert Burns called this stirring song \u2018Robert Bruce\u2019s March to Bannockburn\u2019, using the ancient tune \u2018Hey Tutti Taitie\u2019. He imagined what ‘one might suppose to be the gallant Royal Scot\u2019s address to his heroic followers on that eventful morning’.<\/p>\n
Scots, wha hae wi Wallace bled<\/p>\n
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led<\/p>\n
Welcome to your gory bed<\/p>\n
Or to victorie!<\/p>\n
Now’s the day, and now’s the hour<\/p>\n
See the front o battle lour<\/p>\n
See approach proud Edward’s power –<\/p>\n
Chains and slaverie!<\/p>\n
Wha wad be a traitor knave?<\/p>\n
Wha can fill a coward’s grave?<\/p>\n
Wha sae base as be a slave?<\/p>\n
Let him turn and flee!<\/p>\n
Wha for Scotland’s King and Law<\/p>\n
Freedom’s sword wad strongly draw<\/p>\n
Freeman stand or freeman fa’,<\/p>\n
Let him follow me!<\/p>\n
By Oppression’s woes and pains<\/p>\n
By your sons in servile chains<\/p>\n
We will drain our dearest veins<\/p>\n
But they shall be free!<\/p>\n
Lay the proud usurpers low!<\/p>\n
Tyrants fall in every foe!<\/p>\n
Liberty’s in every blow!<\/p>\n
Let us do, or dee!<\/p>\n
We probably know what tune was played for Robert the Bruce\u2019s troops as they marched to the battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Robert Burns wrote in a letter, ‘There is a tradition, which I have met with in many places in Scotland, that [\u2018Hey Tuttie Taitie\u2019] was Robert Bruce\u2019s march at the battle of Bannockburn.’ Burns took the tune and slowed it down.<\/p>\n
\u2018Hey Tuttie Taitie\u2019 is a very old tune. We do not have a document from 1314 that says the tune was used at Bannockburn. But there is, we are told, a document in the French Ch\u00e2teau Royal de Blois that says the tune was played as a march by Joan of Arc’s Scottish soldiers when she entered the city of Orleans on 29 April 1429. It was called a Scottish march then. It has been played as part of the annual Joan of Arc memorial celebrations in the town of Orleans, where they called it \u2018Marche des Soldats de Robert Bruce\u2019 (\u2018March of the Soldiers of Robert Bruce\u2019).<\/p>\n
\u2018Hey Tuttie Taitie\u2019 demonstrates the problems of trying to put a simple label on a tune. It was used as a march. It is in the form of a strathspey. Burns gave two sets of lyrics for the tune – he wrote \u2018Scots Wha Hae\u2019 and wrote or added to \u2018Landlady, Count the Lawin\u2019, a song about drinking all night. So \u2018Hey Tuttie Taitie\u2019 is a march, a strathspey dance tune, and the tune of a patriotic song and a drinking song.<\/p>\n
These are the lyrics of ‘Landlady Count the Lawin’.<\/p>\n
Landlady, count the lawin
\nThe day is near the dawin
\nYe\u2019re aa blind drunk, boys
\nAnd I\u2019m but jolly fou<\/p>\n
Hey, tutti, taiti
\nHow, tutti, taiti
\nHey, tutti, taiti
\nWha\u2019s fu noo?<\/p>\n
Cog an ye were aye fu
\nCog an ye were aye fu,
\nI wad sit and sing tae you
\nIf ye were aye fu.<\/p>\n
Weel may we aa be,
\nIll may we never see,
\nGod bless the guidwife
\nAnd the company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"