The very early
There’s nae lark dates from Barber’s seventeenth year. The text is one of A C Swinburne’s imitations of Scots border lyrics, and Barber crafts a lyrical melodic line in imitation of Scots folksong with its ardent upward leaps of a ninth or an octave. (His model could well have been the tune to which Robert Burns’s
My Love is like a Red Red Rose is traditionally sung.)
from notes by Calum MacDonald © 2007
