Ho Ri, Ho Ro
Ho Ri, Ho Ro (alternative titles: Tiree Love Song, or Heaven on Earth), 2-3 octaves, level 1, 2007, From The Top Publishing, 20171.
This traditional Gaelic melody is from the Isle of Tiree, the most westerly island of Scotland's Inner Hebrides, situated twenty-two miles west of the mainland of Scotland and the twentieth largest island in the British Isles. It is at the same latitude as southern Alaska yet with the moderating influence of the Gulf Stream has a mild climate with some of the highest levels of sunshine recorded anywhere in the British Isles. The song is often credited to Alexander MacLean Sinclair, who collected and published many collections of Gaelic cultural material in the 19th century. He was the grandson of John MacLean of Tiree, known generally as the Bard MacLean, the last professional Gaelic poet in Scotland. The melody has been set to the modern hymn text by John Bell and Graham Maule, The God of Heaven is Present on Earth, published by the Iona Community. The words Ho-Ri Ho-Ro (pronounced hoe-ree hoe-row) are vocables, or words that don't necessarily have any meaning but are often used in Highland Scots music.
The words of the Tiree Love Song (Ho Ri Ho Ro) are:
1. Ho-ri, ho-ro my bonnie wee girl.
Ho-ri, ho-ro my fair one.
Will you come away my love.
To be my own my rare one.
2. Smiling the land, shining the sea.
Sweet is the smell o' the heather.
Would we were younger you and me.
The two of us together.
Chorus
Ho-ri, ho-ro my bonnie wee girl.
Ho-ri, ho-ro my fair one.
Will you come away my love.
To be my own my rare one.
3. All the day long, out on the peat.
Then on the shore in the gloaming.
Stepping it lightly with dancing feet.
And then together roaming.
Chorus
4. Laughter above, singing below.
Tripping it lithsome and airy.
Could we be asking of life for more.
My own my darling Mary.
Chorus
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