"Flower of Scotland" (Scots: Flouer o Scotland, Scottish Gaelic: Flùr na h-Alba) is a Scottish song, used frequently at special occasions and sporting events. Although there is no official national anthem of Scotland, "Flower of Scotland" is one of a number of songs which fulfil this role, along with the older "Scots Wha Hae", and "Scotland the Brave", amongst others. Roy Williamson of the folk group the Corries wrote both the words and music for the song. The lyrics refer to the victory of the Scots, led by Robert the Bruce, over England's Edward II at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
Video Flower of Scotland
Lyrics
The song was composed and is sung in English, typically with Scots pronunciation of a few words (e.g. "Tae" as opposed to "To").
Maps Flower of Scotland
Popular use
The song has been used as a National Anthem by the Scotland national rugby union team, ever since the winger, Billy Steele, encouraged his team-mates to sing it on the victorious Lions tour of South Africa in 1974. The song was adopted as the pre-game anthem during the deciding match of the 1990 Five Nations Championship between Scotland and England, which Scotland won 13-7 to win the Grand Slam. The Scottish Football Association adopted "Flower of Scotland" as its pre-game national anthem in 1997 although it was first used by them in 1993. Usually only the first and third verses are sung. At any home International Scotland Rugby union test match the first verse is accompanied by bagpipes followed by the third verse unaccompanied by any instrument.
When sung at sporting events, crowds will often call back after certain lines: after the words "and stood against him", "England" or "Gainst who?" may be heard.
The song was sung at boxer Jim Watt's fights.
The song was used as the victory anthem of Team Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 replacing "Scotland the Brave". This trend continued to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where it was again Team Scotland's anthem and was sung following a Scottish first place. (notably it was sung 4 times when Team Scotland won 4 gold medals in the opening day). This usage continued at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
The tune was originally composed on the Northumbrian smallpipes, which play in D and have the benefit of keys on the chanter to achieve a greater range of notes.
Ewan McGregor performed the song in Magadan in Russia in 2004 for the filming of the TV show Long Way Round.
In July 2006, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted an online poll (publicised by Reporting Scotland) in which voters could choose a national anthem from one of five candidates. 10,000 people took part in the poll in which Flower of Scotland came out the winner. The results were as follows:
Scottish pirate metal band Alestorm have performed a cover of it live and recorded it, which is on their album Captain Morgan's Revenge. In addition, the Canadian Scottish-influenced Celtic Punk band The Real McKenzies have included the song on the album "Loch'd & Loaded" as well a staple in their live performance among many other traditional Scottish ballads.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, the song was sung at Edinburgh Castle by 53 Scottish children selected from schools across Scotland.
References
External links
- Flower of Scotland - The website "Cantaria" has a page dedicated to the song, featuring the lyrics and an MP3 file of the song sung by Wild Mountain Thyme.
- The Flower of Scotland - The website "Modern History Sourcebook" also has a page on the song, featuring midi files.
- The Flower of Scotland - Translation of lyrics into Scots Gaelic.
- Page with eight National Anthem candidate songs, with lyrics and comments
Source of article : Wikipedia
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