Sung by ASHMOOR BURCH(Baritone)
Minnie Song .. (Freebooter Songs)
The Rebel...... (Freebooter Songs)
Son of Mine ... (Freebooter Songs)
Up in the Saddle Rest Thee. My Bird (from 'Lords of the Sea)
The Swordsman ..... Lords of the Sea
MANY Composers have started careers in some other profession than music, either of their own choice, or under pressure from parents.
Some forty or fifty years ago the Scotsman, William Wallace, graduated with honours as Doctor of Medicine at Glasgow University, and entered the medical profession. But he soon gave up medicine and entered the Royal Academy of Music, London. From that time onward he has placed music first in his life, except, during the War. He held important posts in the medical service from August, 1914, to 1919. As a British Composer, Wallace was something of a pioneer, for his Passing of Beatrice (1892) was one of the earliest Symphonic Poems by one of our own writers. He has had a considerable output, among which probably the greatest success is these Freebooter Songs, ballads of the days when the moss-troopers (outlaws) roamed the Scottish border and made fierce forays upon those whose hands were against them.

The Minnie Song (or 'Mother Song') is a mother's stern reminder to her boy that 'thy father lies on the heath, a rebel he lived and a rebel he died; ... 'tis time to awaken the steel.' So the lad set forth and drove home the steel into the body of a foe; but when he came home:
... my Minnie lay chill, and the wheel stood still,
No sleep for the knife in its sheath.
The Rebel is the stirring song of the freebooter, who respects no law but that of the foray, and envies none save the eagle and the hawk.
Son of Mine is the cradle song of a hunted father to his babe, who, he proudly declares. shall himself some day lead the broken clan.