Wednesday 13 October 2010
Tune of the Day: Comin' Thro' the Rye
Traditional Scottish song
Robert Burns “Comin' Thro' the Rye” is well known as a traditional children's song, with the words set to the Scottish tune “Common' Frae the Town”. This is a variant of the tune to which “Auld Lang Syne” is usually sung, but with very different rhythm and tempo.
This song provides the title of J.D. Salinger's famous novel The Catcher in the Rye. The main character, Holden Caulfield, mishears the lyric, “Gin a body meet a body/ comin' through the rye”. Thinking it is, “Gin a body catch a body/ comin through the rye”, he imagines a field of rye and kids playing in the field.