Like the Clown in Twelfth Night, it can sing both high and low: but the note is unmistakable whether it sing high:
O cocks are crowing on merry middle-earth;
I wot the wild fowls are boding day.
(Clerk Saunders)
Half-owre, half-owre to Aberdour,
’Tis fifty fathoms deep;
And there lies gude Sir Patrick Spens,
Wi’ the Scots lords at his feet!
(Sir Patrick Spens)
‘O Earl Bran’, I see your heart’s bloud!’—
Ay lally, o lilly lally
‘It’s na but the glent o’ my scarlet hood’
All i’ the night sae early.
(Earl Brand)
or low
Then up bespake the bride’s mother—
She never was heard to speak so free:
‘Ye’ll not forsake my only daughter,
Though Susie Pye has cross’d the sea.’
(Young Beichan)