AULD STEWART'S/STUART'S BACK AGAIN. AKA and see "Old Stewart's Back Again." Scottish, Reel. D Mixolydian. Standard. AAB (Gow, Vickers): AABB' (Athole). According to John Glen the piece was first published in Neil Stewart's 1761 collection (pg. 23), however, the tune appears to be popularly known somewhat earlier than that, as evidenced by this excerpt from a letter written by Ralph Bigland in 1749 of an entertainment on the London stage (quoted by Emmerson, 1972):
***
I have since I came here [London] been lately two or three times at the play
and what invited me most was to see a new dance called the Scots Dance
consisting of about 20 lads and lasses dress'd after the Highland fashion. The
scene represents a very romantic, rocky, or mountainous country seemingly,
at the most distant view you behold a glorious pair (which far surpass all the
other actors) sitting among the rocks, while the rest are dancing below among
groves of trees. Some are also representing with their wheels a spinning; all
the while the music plays either Prince Charlie's minuet or the Auld Stewarts
Back Again. At last descends from the mountains the glorious pair which to
appearance is a prince and princess. Then all the actors retire on each side
while the royal youth and his favourite dance so fine, in a word that the
whole audience clap their hands for joy. Then in a moment the spinning
wheels are thrown aside and every lad and lass join in the dance and jerk
it away as quick as possible while the music briskly plays--Over the Water
to Charlie, a bagpipe being in the band. In short it was so ravishing seemingly
to the whole audience that the people to express their joy clap their hands in a
most extraordinary manner indeed.
***
Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 525. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 2, 1802; pg. 37. Seattle (William Vickers), 1987, Part 3; No. 516. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 102.
T:Auld Stewart's Back Again, The
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Reel
B:The Athole Collection
K:D
=c|BGAG F>GA=c|BGAF BEE=c|BGAG F>GAg|fdec dDD:|
|:g|f>gaf gabg|f>gaf beeg|1 f>gaf gabg|fdec dDD:|2 fgaf gabg|faef dDD||
BALQUHIDDER LASSES. English, Country or Morris Dance Tune (4/4 time). England, Northwest. E Minor. Standard. ABCD. The tune is used for a polka step dance in the Northwest England morris dance tradition./ There is some resemblance of this tune and the 'B' part of "Johnny Cope." Wade (Mally's North West Morris Book), 1988; pg. 11. F&W Records 5, Canterbury Dance Orchestra--"Mistwold."
BERWICK LASSES. English, Country Dance Tune (4/4 time). England, Yorkshire. D Major. Standard. AABB. The editors identify this tune as a variant of the Lowland/Border tune "Carrick's Rant," which itself is a variant of "Mary Scott." The Old English name Berwick has to do with a dwelling place or outlying farm involved with barley. The town of Berwick-on-Tweed the northernmost town in England and was constantly the scene of disputes with the neighboring Scots, so much so that it changed hands thirteen times since it was founded in 870 before passing finally to England in 1482. Queen Elizabeth I began a fortification of the city in 1558 (completed in 1565) called the Elizbethan Wall. Source for notated version: a MS by fiddler Lawrence Leadley, 1827-1897 (Helperby, Yorkshire) [Merryweather & Seattle]. Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 124, pg. 65.
BONNY GREEN GARTERS [1]. AKA and see "The Rollicking Irishman," "Top Of Cork Road," "Cork Road," "The Yorkshire Lasses," "Father O'Flynn." English, Morris Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard. AB (Karpeles, Raven): AAAAB ad lib (Mallinson). The traditional farewell tune during a morris dance performance. This version was collected from the village of Headington, in England's Cotswolds, and is commonly played following the Bampton version (#2) in the processional off the dance site ('morris off'). Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974; pg. 193. Karpeles & Schofield (A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; pg. 38. Mallinson (Mally's Cotswold Morris Book), 1988, Vol. 2; No. 55, pg. 27. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 74.
T:Bonny Green Garters [1]
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:G
G|d>cB AGF|G>AB cde|d>ed dcB|B3 A2d|d>cB AGF|G>AB cde|
d>ed dcB|A3G3||d>cB AGF|G3A3|d>cB AGF|G3A3|d>cB AGF|
G>AB cde|d>ed dcB|A3 G2||
BUNG YOUR EYE. AKA and see "Bang Your Eye," "Brisk Young Lads," "High Cauld Cap," "The Jolly Old Man," "Mary the Maid." Scottish, Jig. A Minor. Standard. ABB (Sharp): AABB (Gow, Karpeles, Kennedy, Williamson). This melody was published in the "Bodleian MS" (1740) {named for the library in which it resides--the Bodleian Library, Oxford} and is inscribed A Collection of the Newest Country Dances Performed in Scotland written at Edinburgh by D.A. Young, W.M. 1740. Originally set by Young as a country dance (to which he gives directions), Karpeles notes that this tune is also suitable as an accompaniment to Rapper Sword Dance. Glen (1891) reported he found the tune earliest in print in Robert Ross's 1780 collection (pg. 1), and evidently did not know of the Bodleian MS. Samuel Bayard (1981) believes the piece to be a "recognizable version" of a tune family that includes "Lanigan's Ball," "Lumps of Pudding," "Kittly Alone," "Muirland Willie," and "O As I Was Kist Yestreen." Close variants of the "Bung Your Eye" strain of the family are: "Off to the Hunt", "The Antrim Lasses," "Tatter Jack," "The Boys of Carrigallen," "Mount Your Baggage," and "Bonnie Strathmore."
***
The term 'bung your eye' means to 'shut your eye', a meaning taken from the bung or cork used to stopper a hole in a cask, for example. In the song "The Bold Irishman," an early 19th century broadside sheet ballad which relates the perils of an immigrant in a new land, the phrase 'bung your eye' implies a threat to beat the protagonist until his eyes are shut:
***
A blustering bully with a head like a Turk
Says welcome from Ireland, sweet Paddy from Cork
Arrah turn you round Pat, for I've been a kin
For I never yet see a coat buttoned behind
***
A beef headed butcher was then standing by
Cries Paddy you rogue I'll bung up your eye
Such blustering words made my heart ache
For fear of my eyes not a word dare I speak
***
Paddy prevails in the end, turning the tables on the two bullies:
***
The bully that said he'd bung up my eye,
I tipt him a grinder as I passed by,
I let him to know as he lay in his gore,
That an Irishmans coat was buttoned before
***
See also note to "Lanigan's Ball." Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; pg. 21. Karpeles & Schofield (A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; pg. 26. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 42 (appears as "Mary the Maid"). Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909/1994; pg. 58. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976, pg. 50.
T:Bung your Eye
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:Gow - 1st Repository
K:A Minor
E|ABA c2d|e(dc) B2A|GAG B2c|dge dBG|ABA c2d|edc Bcd|e2A AB^G|A3 e2:|
|:B|c>de/f/ g2a|gec gec|G>AB/c/ d2e|dge dBG|c>de/f/ g2a|gec de^g|a2A AB^G|A3 e2:|
CLOGHER REEL, THE. AKA and see "Athens," "The Dublin Lasses," "The Dublin Reel," "Jackson's Reel," "Miss Daly's," "The Shuffle Reel," "The Twelve Locks," "The Twister," "The Union Reel," "Victor Wild," "The Westmeath Hunt," "Country Girls Fortune," "Dan McCarty's Fancy," "The Flowers of Red Hill" [2].
CLYDESDALE LASSES. Scottish, Reel or Country Dance. F Major. Standard. AAB. Another tune in honor of some Scottish local girls (like "Lothian Lasses," "Ayrshire Lasses," "Lasses of Duns," "Lasses of Stewarton," etc.), published by Nathaniel Gow in 1822. In ancient times the River Clyde marked the frontier of the old Celtic British kingdom in the north with the Picts. The name Clyde comes from the Brittonic Cluth. MacDonald says the melody can be played as a reel or a strathspey. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; Set 22, No. 2, pg. 14. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 139. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 204. Celestial Entertainment CECS001, Brenda Stubbert (Cape Breton, N.S.) - "In Jig Time!" (1995).
T:Clydesdale Lasses
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Reel
B:The Athole Collection
K:F Major
c|:AFcF dFcF|AFcF ABcB|AFcF dFcA|1 BAGA BcdB:|2 BAGA Bcde||
fgag f2 cf|gfga baga|fgag fcAc|BAGA Bcde|fgag f2 cf|gfga baga|fgaf gefc|
BAGA BcdB||
COME LASSES AND LADS [1]. English, Air (6/8 time). D Major (Raven): G Major (Kerr). Standard. AB (Raven): AABB (Kerr). Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 404, pg. 44. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 121.
COMING THROUGH THE FIELD(S). AKA and see "Miss Thorton's (Reel)," "Thro the Fields," "The Boat Street Lasses," "The Maid of the Forest," "Lady Anna Hope," "The Creeping Mouse," "Down the Street," "Spike Island Lasses," "Salamanca," "O'Loughlin's Reel." The tune listed as having been commonly played at Orange County, New York country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn. New York Folklore Quarterly, pgs. 211-215).
COPPERS AND BRASS [2] (Pinginí is prás). AKA and see "Bliven's Favorite," "The Butchers of Bristol," "By your leave, Larry Grogan," "The County Limerick Buckhunt," "Finerty's Frolic," "Green Sleeves," "Groom," "Hartigan's Fancy," "The Humours of Ennistymon," "The Humours of Miltown," "Larry Grogan," "The Lasses of Melrose," "Lasses of Melross," "Little Fanny's Fancy," "Lynn's Favourite," "Lynny's Favourite," "Pingneacha Rua agus Prás," "Queen of the Rushes," "The Waves of Tramore," "Willie Clancy's." Irish, Double Jig. G Major. Standard. AABBCC (Breathnach): AABBCDD (Mitchell). The melody is known by most traditional musicians now-a-days by the title "Humours of Ennistymon," however, pipers seem to know it better as "Coppers and Brass." Breathnach remarks that the tune was originally printed (by John Walsh before 1736 in Country Dances Book the Second) under the title "Larry Grogan," named for the County Wexford gentleman piper of the early-mid 1700's. Aird's (Selections, vol. II, c. 1790) "The Lasses of Melross" has the same first part. O'Neill prints versions of the tune as "Hartigan's Fancy" (a poor version, states Breathnach), "By your leave, Larry Grogan," "Little Fanny's Fancy," and "The County Limerick Buckhunt." In a later O'Neill publication (Waifs and Strays) it appears as "The Limerick Buckhunt" and "The Waves of Tramore." Joyce (1909) gives it as "Green Sleeves." See also note for "Groom." Sources for notated versions: piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Mitchell]; piper Sean Potts (Ireland) [Breathnach]. Breathnach (CRE I), 1963; No. 4, pg. 4 (appears as "Pingneacha Rua agus Prás"). Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 41, pg. 53. Gael-Linn CEF 045, "Paddy Keenan" (1975).
T:Coppers and Brass [2]
R:6/8
K:G Major
BGB BGB|AFA AFA|~B3 BAB|GBd gdc|BGB BGB|~A3 ABc|ded cAF|1 AGF G2A:|2 AGF G2e||
|:~f3 fed|cAG FGA|Ggg gfg|afd d2e|~f3 fed|cAG FGA|~B3 cAF|1 AGF G2e:|2 AGF G2A||
COUNTRY LASSES. Scottish, Reel. B Flat Major. Standard. AA'BB'. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 172, pg. 20.
CROSS REEL(, DA). AKA and see "Cross Rig," "General Howe," "The Lasses of Stewarton." Shetland, Reel. D Major/G Major. Standard. AABCDAA (Brody): AABB (Anderson). According to Cooke (1986) the tune is a counsin to the Scottish tune "The Lasses of Stewarton" (Stewartown, Stewingtown) {also the name of a country dance first published c. 1794}, though the Shetland versions are usually asymmetrical and the Scottish not. "One Shetland version is shown in Ex. 12 and it is likely that it is derived from the Scottish tune but that fiddlers and dancers modified it in early days so that it fitted their preference for asymmetrical structures. The tune was danced in Whalsay (the tune is also known on that island as "General Howe") during this century, where I was told that to perform it they had to do a 'double dancing turn' (i.e. dance for twice as long)" (Cooke, 1986). Source for notated versions: Tom Anderson (Shetland) [Brody], Bobbie Peterson (Tingwall Mainland, Shetland) [Cooke]. Anderson (Ringing Strings), 1983, pg. 61. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 80. Cooke (The Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland Isles), 1986; Ex. 12, pg. 62. Philo 2019, Tom Anderson and Aly Bain- "The Silver Bow."
T:Cross Reel
L:1/8
M:C
K:D
"D"fage f2 f2|"D"ABAF D3 f|"D"gfed "C"=c2 c2|1"C"EDEF "G"G2 e2:|2
"C"EDEF "G"G3 A||
K:G
"G"B2 BG "D"AFAF|"G"B2 BG "D"A3 A|"G"B2 BG "D"AFAD|"D"EDEF "G"G3 D||
K:G
"D"FGAc "G"BGBG|"D"AFAF d4|"D"FGAc "G"BGBG|"D"AFAF "G"G3 A||
K:D
"D"defg afde|"D"fdfg a2 fe|"D"defg afdf|"C"e=cef g2 ge|"D"defg afde|"D"fdfg a2 ag||
DARLING OF THE UIST LASSES, THE (Mac a' Bhaillidh a Uist). Scottish, Reel. D Major. Standard. AAB. This tune "is an air peculiar to the Island of Uist. The baron bailie of a large estate was a man of considerable importance in remote times. The return of his son to his native country is celebrated by the Uist lasses, with whom he seems to have been a peculiar favourite, either as good looking or possessing some other attractive qualification. Formerly in Uist all the dancers sung their own music" (Fraser). Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1874; No. 69, pg. 25.
T:Darling of the Uist Lasses, The
T:Mac a'Bhaillidh á Uist
L:1/8
M:C
S:Fraser Collection
K:D
B|AGFd F/G/A d2|fdAF E/E/E B2|AGFd F/G/A d2|fdAF E2 D:|
g|fdfa bggb|affa geeg|fdfa bggb|afdf e2 dg|fdfa bggb|afdf bgeg|
fgaf gabg|afdf e2 d||
DUKE OF PERTH. AKA and see "Love in a Village" [3], "Da Fashion o da Delting Lasses" (Shetland). Scottish, Reel. G Major. Standard. AAB (Athole, Gow): AABB (Emmerson, Johnson, Kerr, Sweet). Johnson (1983) finds an early version of this famous piece in Stewart's Reels (1761) and believed it to have been written in the mid-18th century. Glen (1891) states the earliest printing to be in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection, however, Emmerson (1971) finds the earliest written record in David Young's 1734 Drummond Castle Manuscript (also called the "Duke of Perth Manuscript"). Another early version is to be found in the 1768 Gillespie Manuscript of Perth. Although called a reel the tune meets the criteria for a rant, however, it is now mostly played at a condisderably slower tempo as a Scottish measure or country dance in 2/4 time. The Scottish country dance performed to the tune was also called Duke of Perth and was very popular around Angus, East Fife and Perthshire, note Flett & Flett (1964), to the extent that it was a feature at various hunt balls in the region. The dance The Duke of Perth is also called Brown's Reel and both these names were used in Perthshire, East Fife and Angus. The same steps went by different names elsewhere in Scotland, to which other tunes were played; in the upper parts of Ettrick it was called Keep the Country, Bonny Lassie, and in Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Arran and Galloway it was known as Pease Strae. Source for notated version: Stewart's Reels (c. 1761-5) [Johnson]. Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String), 1971; No. 41, pg. 136. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; pg. 15. Johnson (Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century), 1984; No. 72, pg. 223. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; Set 16, No. 4, pg. 11. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 171. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 56. Tradition 2118, Jim MacLeod & His Band - "Scottish Dances: Jigs, Waltzes and Reels" (1979).
T:Duke of Perth
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Reel
B:The Athole Collection
K:G
B|G>B dB gBdB|gBdB aAAB|G>B dB gBdB|cAdc BGG:|
f|gage abaf|gage beef|gage abaf|gdec BGGf|gage abaf|
gage beef|gage abaf|gdec BGG||
GLASGOW LASSES, THE [3]. Irish, Air (3/4 time). G Dorian. Standard. AAB. Source for notated version: Patrick MacDowell 1799-1870, distinguished sculptor and collector of Irish music who "drew his stores from every part of the country" (Joyce). Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 545, pg. 290.
GREENSLEEVES [2]. See "The Pirriwig," "Green Sleeves and Mutton Pies." English, Scottish; Song Air, Country and Morris Dance Tune (6/4 or 6/8 time). E Dorian (Chappell). Standard. AB. Williamson prints three tunes under the same name: tune A is in A Minor, form AABB; tune B is in C Major, in form AABB; tune C is in A Mixolydian, form AABB. Musically the melody is not so much a single specific tune, argues John M. Ward, as it is a tune type or descant which can be found in many variations and forms. All seem to conform, however, to the harmonically structured outline of a "ground" or bass progression known as the 'romanesca', which is similar to the 'passemezzo antico' though the initial tone is a third higher (Cazden, et al, 1982). Chappell (1859), Williamson and Alburger (1983) all note that a tune by this name was registered at the Stationer's Company in 1580 as "A New Northern Dittye of the Lady Greene Sleeves" (an early attempt at copyrighting). 'Northern Dittye' here means not Scotland but Northumberland and the Border regions along with the English Midlands; Kidson remarks that during his era (early 20th century) the melody was in the "cherished possession of countrymen in the Midlands, who execute a rustic dance to a traditional survival of it" (pg. 5). Shakespeare wrote in one of his plays, "Let it thunder to the tune of Greensleeves," and again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor when he has Mrs. Ford contrast it with the Hundredth Psalm -'they do no more keep pace together, than the Hundredth Psalm to the tune of Green Sleeves.' Indeed, the tune at the quick tempo Shakespeare suggests has been immensely popular since his time (Emmerson {1971} notes the slow version associated with Christmas scarcely predates the 1940's). Williamson's versions includes two early tunes which were used for a morris dance called "The Bacca Pipes Jig", a dance which features motions with elegant "churchwarden pipes". He says, "the tunes here go in a fast 2/4, which bars them from the category of jigs proper and puts them in the same class of tunes that were called gigs in Wales. The first has a similarity to a Scots tune called 'The Pirriwig.' It's based on the playing of William Kimber. The second tune has a closer resemblance to the well-known song 'Greensleeves'" (Williamson, 1976).
***
Country dance directions to the tune have been recovered from the Holmain MS. (c. 1710-50) from Dumfries-shire. The tune and dance were known in the American colonies in the 18th century (under the titles "Green sleeves" or "Green sleeves & mutton pies"), though there is no reason to believe either was particularly popular as it was not widely reproduced in either MS copy books or dance publications of the period. A American version with the usual 'A' part but quite a different 'B' part appears in Henry Beck's German flute MS of 1786. Kidson (1915) reports the tune was probably an "art-tune" in the 16th century, not a folk-tune, and that both melody and lyrics were immediately popular. It was frequently the vehicle for political dities and for the "scraps of verses that were employed in the early ballad operas" (pg. 27). It was such a common tune in the 17th century that the tune was mentioned by Sir John Hawkins, who recalled disdainfully:
***
...Fidlers and others, hired by the master of the house; such as
in the night season were wont to parade the city and suburbs
under the title of Waits...Half a dozen of fidlers would scrape
"Sellinger's Round," or "John, Come Kiss Me," or "Old Simon
the King" with divisions, till themselves and their audience were
tired after which as many players on the hautboy would in the
most harsh and discordant tones grate forth "Greensleeves,"
"Yellow Stockings," "Gillean of Croydon," or some such common
dance tune, and the people thought it fine music.
***
Kidson (1915) states the air was simplified through the years and that complete passages were eliminated over time. To illustrate he gives a "pure" early 16th century version as well as later "degraded" versions: one from a fiddle MS from 1838, and another from Playford's Dancing Master of 1716, called "Greensleeves and Yellow Lace" (other "degraded" versions mentioned are from The Beggar's Opera {1728}, and D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth). Yet another "degraded" version, devoid of all lilt, can be found on page 16 of violinist Whittier Perkins' Manuscript copybook (Massachusetts, 1790). Chappell (1859) finds the tune in William Ballet's Lute Book and Sir John Hawkins' transcripts of the early 17th century, but he asserts that the ballad had attained popularity before the 1580 date as there was another ballad registered with the Stationers at the same time entitled "A ballad, being the "Ladie Greene Sleeves Answere to Donkyn his frende." The ballad became even more popular immediately after its publication, probably on the strength of the engaging tune, for numerous attempts were made to improve upon the original words which "are neither remarkable for novelty of subject, nor for its treatment" (Chappell, pg. 240). It appears in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768) and in Walsh's Country Dancing Master or 1718. Breathnach (1963) mentions the tune in conjunction with "Pingneacha Rua agus Pras," "The Humours of Ennistymon," " The Waves of Tramore," "The County Limerick Buckhunt," "Larry Grogan," "The Lasses of Melross," "Little Fanny's Fancy," "The Humours of Miltown," "Lynn's Favourite," "Coppers and Brass," "Hartigan's Fancy", and "Finerty's Frolic." Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), Vol. 1, 1859; pg. 239. Kidson (English Folksong and Dance), 1915; pg. 27. Merryweather (Merryweather's Tunes for the English Bagpipe), 1989; pg. 27. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 69. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; pg. 33. Flying Fish FF-407, Robin Williamson - "Winter's Turning" (1986).
GROOM. AKA and see "Bliven's Favorite," "The Butchers of Bristol," "By your leave, Larry Grogan," "Coppers and Brass," "The County Limerick Buckhunt," "Finerty's Frolic," "Green Sleeves," "Hartigan's Fancy," "The Humours of Ennistymon," "The Humours of Miltown," "Larry Grogan," "The Lasses of Melrose," "Lasses of Melross," "Little Fanny's Fancy," "Lynn's Favourite," "Lynny's Favourite," "Pingneacha Rua agus Pras," "Queen of the Rushes," "The Waves of Tramore," "Willie Clancy's." Irish, Jig. The tune is attributed by Goodman to the 18th century gentleman-piper Walker 'Piper' Jackson, of the townland of Lisdaun, parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick. Breathnach remarks that a version was originally printed (by John Walsh before 1736 in Country Dances Book the Second) under the title "Larry Grogan," named for the County Wexford gentleman piper of the early-mid 1700's. Another early printing of a variant of this melody is in Aird's Selections (1780-1803, volume II, 92) where it appears as "The Lasses of Melross." Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, 1909) gives the tune as "Green Sleeves." O'Neill prints several variants: in 1001 Gems (1907) he has it as "Hartigan's Fancy/Little Fanny's Fancy" and "By your leave Larry Grogan"; in Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922) he gives it as "The Limerick Buckhunt" and "Waves of Tramore." Breathnach (1996) finds the titles "Linn's Favourite" in County Longford, "Beamish and Crawford" in Cork, "The Boys of Drumreilly" and "Murphy's Jig" in Leitrim, and "The Humours of Newtown," "The Mooneen Jig," "The Humours of Bruff," and "The Slips/Paddy's the Boy" in Kerry. "Coopers and Brass" is a title Breathnach uses in Ceol Rince na hÉirreann (4), by which name it was usually known in the uilleann pipe repertoire. Goodman, Volume IV, pg. 11.
HARTIGAN'S FANCY (Roga Uí {h-}Artagain). AKA and see "Bliven's Favorite," "The Butchers of Bristol," "By your leave, Larry Grogan," "Coppers and Brass," "The County Limerick Buckhunt," "Finerty's Frolic," "Green Sleeves," "Groom," "The Humours of Ennistymon," "The Humours of Miltown," "Larry Grogan," "The Lasses of Melrose," "Lasses of Melross," "Little Fanny's Fancy," "Lynn's Favourite," "Lynny's Favourite," "Paddy's the Boy," "Pingneacha Rua agus Pras," "Queen of the Rushes," "The Waves of Tramore," "Willie Clancy's." Irish, Double Jig. G Major. Standard. AABB. Francis O'Neill says this jig was unpublished and "new to us," at least in the "Hartigan" form, prior to obtaining it from source Carey, and listed an alternate title as "Little Fanny's Fancy." Despite O'Neill's assertion that it was new, he printed in the same publication another variant called "By your leave, Larry Grogan." Joyce's jig "Green Sleeves," printed in Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909), and Goodman's "Humours of Ennistymon" (volume III, 152) are two of many variants of this large tune family. Breathnach remarks that a version was originally printed (by John Walsh before 1736 in Country Dances Book the Second) under the title "Larry Grogan," named for the County Wexford gentleman piper of the early-mid 1700's. See note for "Groom." Source for notated version: John Carey, a native of Limerick [O'Neill]. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 148, pg. 85. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 816, pg. 152. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1979/1986; No. 3, pg. 17.
T:Hartigan's Fancy
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:O'Neill - 1001 Gems (3)
K:G
D|B2B GBd|cBc ABc|B2B GBd|cAG FGA|B2B GBd|cBc ABc|d/e/fd cAF|AGG G2:|
|:d|f2f fed|cAG FGA|g2g gfg|afd d2 f/g/|fag fed|cAG FGA|B/c/dB cAF|AGG G2:|
HEREFORDSHIRE LASSES. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). G Major. Standard. AABB. Herefordshire is a southern county in England near the border with Wales. Hereford is an Anglo-Saxon name meaning "army ford" and referring to a crossing place on the Severn river that was apparently quite important during times of conflict (Matthews, 1972). The air is from Longman, Lukey & Co.'s Country Dances (1772). Kidson (Old English Country Dances), 1890; pg. 9.
HUMORS OF ENNISTYMON, THE [1]. AKA and see "Bliven's Favorite," "By your leave, Larry Grogan," "Coppers and Brass," "The County Limerick Buckhunt," "Finerty's Frolic," "Green Sleeves," "Groom," "Hartigan's Fancy," "The Humours of Miltown," "Larry Grogan," "The Lasses of Melrose," "Lasses of Melross," "Linn's Favourite," "Little Fanny's Fancy," "Lynny's Favourite," "Paddy's the Boy," "Pingneacha Rua agus Pras," "Queen of the Rushes," "The Waves of Tramore," "Willie Clancy's." Irish, Jig. Ireland, Counties Roscommon, Sligo. G Major. Standard. AABBCC (Flaherty, Mallinson, O'Neill): AABBCC' (Mulvihill). A member of a large tune family whose most famous member is perhaps "Larry Grogan." In the liner notes for the album "Clare Concertinas: Bernard O'Sullivan and Tommy McMahon," Muiris Ó Rochain writes that County Sligo/New York fiddler Michael Coleman adapted the tune "Coppers and Brass" by adding a third part, the whole of which he renamed "The Humours of Ennistymon." Ó Rochain thinks this was in honor of Martin Clancy, a native of Ennistymon. Micho Russell (1915-1944), tin-whistle player and a storehouse of folk tales and traditions, had his own fanciful thoughts and associations about the tune, which he would relate by way of introduction of the music. "There's a jig called 'The Humours of Ennistymon' and Captain O'Neill in Chicago, the music collector, had only two parts got in his collection. So he met a man from Ennistymon and the man from Ennistymon had the third part. So I think that was one of the reasons that it was called 'The Humours of Ennistymon'" (Piggott, Blooming Meadows, 1998). In fact, the tune and title "The Humours of Ennistymon" appears in the Goodman manuscripts (volume III, 152), collected by James Goodman from the playing Munster musicians in the mid-1800's, which predates all the above references. Aird (c. 1790) published a variant as "The Lasses of Melross." Breathnach remarks that the first printed version was by John Walsh before 1736 in Country Dances Book the Second under the title "Larry Grogan," named for the County Wexford gentleman piper of the early-mid 1700's. See also note for "Groom." Source for notated version: fiddler Michael Lennihan (b. 1917, Kilnamanagh, in the Frenchpart area of County Roscommon) [Flaherty]. Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), 1974, Vol. 3, No. 49. Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; pg. 88. Mallinson (Enduring), 1995; No. 54, pg. 24. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 43, pg. 74. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 28. Green Linnet SIF1122, Kevin Burke - "Open House" (1992). Philo 1051, Boys of the Lough - "Good Friends, Good Music" (1977).
JOAN TO THE MAYPOLE. English, Air (2/4 time). G Major. Standard. AB. The tune appears in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1707 & 1719) under this title and also as the tune to "The Disappointment" (1707). Chappell (1859) finds this ballad in the Roxburghe and Douce Collections where it is entitled "May-day Country Mirth; or, The Young Lads and Lasses' Innocent Recreation, which is to be prized before courtly pomp and pastime: to an excellent new tune." In Pepys it is called "Rural Recreation; or, The Young Men and Maids' Merriment at their Dancing around a Country May-pole." The oldest printing is perhaps 1630, and Chappell reports that one of Richard Brathwaite's "Shepherd's Tales" (1621) is "The Shepherd's Holiday, reduced in apt measures to Hobbinall's Galliard, or John (Joan) to the Maypole." Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), Vol. 2, 1859; pgs. 100-101.
KEEP YOUR COUNTRY BONNIE LASSES. AKA and see "Irish Jig" (Shetland), "Neil Gow" (Strathspey). Shetland, Mainland district. The title is virtually the same as "Keep the Country Bonnie Lassie."
LADS OF DUNSE, THE (Buacailli Duinse). AKA - "The Lasses of Dunse," "Lassies of Duns." Scottish, Jig or Country Dance. D Major. Standard. AAB. Directions for the dance to this tune were written down in 1752 by John McGill, dancing master in Girvan (Ayrshire), for his students. McGill sometimes credited with the tune, although it has sometimes been claimed as an Irish air. First publication of the melody was in Daniel Wright's collection, 1735. See note for "Duns Dings A" for more information on the Berwickshire town of Duns. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 28, pg. 33. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 28, pg. 36. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 354, pg. 73. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 136.
X:1
T:Lads of Duns
L:1/8
M:6/8
R:Jig
B:The Athole Collection
K:D Major
B|A2(D D)ED|DED B2A|Bcd AFA|BGE E2d|A2D DED|DED B2A|
Bcd AFd|AFD D2:|
g|fef d2e|fga B2A|Bcd AFA|BGE E2g|fef d2e|fga B2A|Bcd Afd|
AFD D2g|fef d2e|fga B2A|Bcd AFA|BGE E2 f/g/|afa geg|fdf ece|
DcB AFd|AFD D2||
X:2
T:Lads of Duns
L:1/8
M:6/8
R:Jig
B:O'Neill - 1001 Gems (354)
K:D Major
B|AFD DFD|DFD B2A|Bcd AFA|BEE E2 d/B/|AFD DFD|DFD B2A|Bcd AFA|FDD D2:|
|:g|fef d2e|fga B2A|Bcd AFA|BEE E2g|fef d2e|fga B2A|Bcd AFA|FDD D2g:|
|:fef d2e|fga B2A|Bcd AFA|BEE E2g|fga efg|fea B2A|Bcd F2E|FDD D2:|
LADS OF SALTCOATS, THE. AKA and see "Lasses of the Ferry," "Hoch Hey, Johnny Lad." English, Reel. England, Northumberland. A Major. Standard. AABB. Rutherford (Twenty-Four Country Dances for the Year 1758). Seattle (William Vickers), 1987, Part 3; No. 554.
T:The Lads of Saltcots
S:Rutherford's 24 CD's for 1758
Q:80
Z:Bruce Olson
L:1/4
M:C|
K:A
A3/2 c/ B/A/B/c/|A/F/E/F/ B/4B/4B/B|A3/2c/ B/A/B/c/|\
A/F/E/F/ A/4A/4A/A::(e/f/4g/4 a/)c/ ~B/A/(B/c/)|\
e/f/4g/4 a/c/ B/4B/4B/B|(e/f/4g/4 a/)c/ ~B/A/B/c/|\
A/F/E/F/ A/4A/4A/A:|]
LAN(N)IGAN'S BALL (Feis-Rince Ui Lannagain). AKA and see "At the Side of the Road," "Flannigan" (Pa.), "When I Was a Young Man." Irish (originally), American; Double Jig. USA; New England, Maine, southwestern Pa. E Minor/Dorian (most versions): D Minor (Welling). Standard. AABB. The title comes from the comic song by one George or D.K. Gavan set to music by John Candy, according to a note in J. Diprose's songster of 1865 (Cazden, et al, 1982). The song appears in several publication of the 1860's and later decades and appears to be the most wide-spread of this tune genre. Bayard (1981) gives extensive notes on this tune, which he asserts is part of "a British traditional tune-family of widely varying developments and of probable considerable antiquity." He likens this tune family to a family of languages and their cross-currents of relationships of elements, forms, and structures. This family may or may not have developed from a single air. He divides many of the variant airs in this family into groups of related versions, of which the "Lannigan's Ball" tunes resemble all the others in one or more ways. The tune groups are 1) "Lannigan's Ball" (including "Dribbles of Brandy," "Young Francis Mooney," and two untitled jigs in Joyce's 1909 collection {Nos. 824 & 837}). 2) "Lumps of Pudding," which dates from the 17th century (including "Contentment is Wealth," "I'm Content With My Lot" {Ta Me Sasta lem' Staid}, and "The Day After the Fair"). 3) "Bung Your Eye" (including "Off to the Hunt," "The Antrim Lasses," "Tatter Jack," "The Boys of Carrigallen," "Mount Your Baggage," and "Bonnie Strathmore"). 4) "Kitty Alone". 5) "O As I Was Kist Yestreen" (including "House o' Duncan," "My Love is Lost to Me"). 6) Muirland Willie (including "The Northern Lass," "The Auld Maid of Fife," "The Shepherd's Wife," "My Boy Tammy" and "Forty Miles" {In Bayard's 1944 collection he thought "Forty Miles" was similar to "Lannigan's Ball," but in his 1981 collection he reconsidered it as a version of "Muirland Willie"}). The title appears in a list of Maine fiddler Mellie Dunham. The elderly Dunham was Henry Ford's champion fiddler in the mid-1920's. "At the Side of the Road" is given as an alternate title in O'Neill's 1001 Gems, while a set dance, "Hurry the Jug," appears to be an earlier form. Mulvihill (1986) gives the tune as an alternate for the dance The Bridge of Athlone. There was a céilí dance called Lannigan's Ball which was once quite popular. Sources for notated versions: Eben Patterson (elderly fiddler from Allegheny County, Pa., 1930's); Walter Neal (Armstrong County, Pa., 1952); Fred Miller & Glenn Gelnette (Jefferson County, Pa., 1949); Hoge MS (Pa., 1944) [Bayard]; Winston Fitzgerald (1914-1987, Cape Breton) [Cranford]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 541A-D, pgs. 481-484. Cole (1001 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 68. Cranford (Winston Fitzgerald), 1997; No. 194, pg. 76. Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes); No. or pg. 17. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 43. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 9, pg. 36. Mallinson (Essential), 1995; No. 88, pg. 38. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddler's Repertoire), 1983; No. 45. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 20, pg. 123. O'Lochlainn, 1939; No. 52. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 34. O'Neill (1850), 1979; No. 858, pg. 159. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1986; No. 118, pg. 35. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 104. Roche Collection, 1983, Vol. 1; No. 105, pg. 45. Ryan's Mammoth Collection. Spaeth (Weep Some More, My Lady), 1927; pg. 222. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; pg. 29. Welling (Welling's Hartford Tunebook), 1976; pg. 22. White's Excesior Collection, 1907; pg. 10. White's Unique Collection, 1896; No. 16. Folkways 8826, Per's Four--"Jigs and Reels." Victor 20537 (78 RPM), Mellie Dunham (appears as one of tunes in "Medley of Reels"), 1926.
T:Lanigan's Ball
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:E Minor
E2F G2A|B2A B^cd|DED F2G|AdB AFD|E2F G2A|B2A B^cd|edB cBA|BGE E3:|
|:e2f g2e|fag fed|e2f g2e|fdB B2B|e2f g2e|fag fed|edB cBA|BGE E3:|
LARRY BOURN. AKA - "Tor(r)y Burn Lasses." English, Reel. G Major. Standard. AAB. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 12. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 160.
LARRY GROGAN('S) [1] (Lamrais Ua Grugain). AKA - "Larry O'Grogan." AKA and see also "Bliven's Favorite," "Bobbing for Eels," "The Bottle of Punch," "The Butchers of Bristol," "By your leave, Larry Grogan," "Coppers and Brass," "The County Limerick Buckhunt," "Finerty's Frolic," "Fishing for Eels," "Green Sleeves," "Groom," "Hartigan's Fancy," "The Humours of Ennistymon," "The Humours of Miltown," "Ioc an Reicneail," "Jackson's Bottle/Jug of Punch/Brandy," "The Lasses of Melrose," "Lasses of Melross," "Little Fanny's Fancy," "Lynn's Favourite," "Lynny's Favourite," "The Old Man's Jig," "Pay the Reckoning," "Pingneacha Rua agus Pras," "Queen of the Rushes," "The Waves of Tramore," "Willie Clancy's." Irish, Double Jig. G Major (Cole, Roche): G Major/Mixolydian (O'Neill, Seattle/Vickers): C Major (Hardings). Standard. AABB (Cole, Hardings, O'Neill, Roche): AAB (Seattle/Vickers). A two-part version of a melody belonging to a large tune family, perhaps ancestrally derived from "Greensleeves." Lawrence Grogan was an 18th century "gentleman piper" and composer, to whom is attributed the tunes "Ally Crocker" (c. 1725) and "Girl I Love." Grogan was from Johnstown Castle, County Wexford, and was the first performer on the improved Irish pipes called Uilleann or (archaicly) Union of whom there is historical record (O'Neill, 1913). Like many country gentlemen of his day, he was supposed to have been devoted to hunting and horseracing. See also note for "Ally Croker" for more on Grogan. Aird (Selection of English, Scotch, Irish and Foreign Airs), 1778, Vol 1; No. 155. Breathnach (CRE I), 1963; No. 4. Cole, 1940; pg. 61. Harding's All-Round Collection, 1905; No. 126, pg. 40. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 37. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 879, pg. 163. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 132, pg. 37. O'Neill (1913), pg. 182. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion), 1780?, Vol. 2, pg. 98. Roche Collection, 1983, Vol. 1; No. 111, pg. 47. Seattle (William Vickers), 1987, Part 2; No. 297. Walsh (Caledonian Country Dances), 1737, Vol. 2; pg. 23.
T:Larry Grogan [1]
L:1/8
M:6/8
S:O'Neill - 1001 Gems (132)
K:G
d/c/|BGB BGB|AFA ABc|ded cAF|GBd g2d/c/|
BGB BGB|AFA ABc|d/e/fd cAF|GAG G2:|
|:d/e/|=f3 edc|Bcd dBG|=f3 e^fg|A>BA A2 d/e/|
=f3 edc|Bcd dBG|B/c/dB cAF|GAG G2:|
LASS OF PATIE'S MILL, THE. AKA and see "Carolan's Cap," "Peggy's Mill," "I like the fox shall grieve." English, Scottish; Air and Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). D Major. Standard. ABB: AABB (Huntington, Sweet). A "highly popular" air in the 18th and early 19th century, states Bayard (1981). Many sources attribute the song to Allan Ramsay, a Scot, who mentioned his own song in his ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd published (though not performed) in 1725. The tune was heard parodied a few years later in John Gay's 1729 Beggar's Opera (under the title "I like the fox shall grieve"). It also appears in Robert Bremner's 1770 Thirty Scots Songs (pg. 6), Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius editions of 1725 (No. 1) and 1733 (Vol. 1, pg. 1.), the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768), McGibbon's Collection of Scots Tunes editions c. 1768 (pg. 24) and c. 1795 (Vol. 1, pg. 11), Parry's 1761 Collection of Welsh, English, and Scotch Airs (pg. 33), and in David Young's 1740 McFarlane MS., Vol. 2, No. 12 (as a "not completely successful" variation sonata, air-jig-gavotta, according to Johnson {1983}). Thomson credits the tune to David Rizzio in the first edition of his Orpheus Caledonius (1725). Rizzio was secretary to Queen Mary and an accomplished lutenist and singer, but it is generally adjudged doubtful he composed this or any of the other melodies Thomson ascribed to him, and, in fact, Thomson removed the ascription in later editions of his work. The melody was known for dancing by the poet/fiddler John Clare. A strain similar to the first part of Paties can be found in the tunes "Gie the Lasses Mair O't," "The Lass that Winna Sit Down," "The Captain's Maggot," "Lady Dumfries Reel," "(Weel May the) Boatie Row," "The Highlander's Farewell," and a Pennsylvania collected march (Bayard, 1981; No. 289, pg. 242). Under the title "Carolan's Cap" the tune was adapted, re-titled and attributed to the Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan. Henry Beck's Flute Book, pg. 139. Corri (A New and Complete Collection...of Scots Songs), pg. 11. Crosby (Caledonian Musical Repertory), 1811; pg. 264. Gow (Vocal Melodies of Scotland), 1822; pg. 31. Howe (Musician's Omnibus), No. 2. Huntington (William Litton's), 1977; pg. 42. Johnson (Our Familiar Songs); pgs. 585-586. Johnson (The Scots Musical Museum); No. 20, pg. 21. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 7, pg. 21. McGlashan (A Collection of Strathspeys, Reels...), pg. 12. Napier (A Selection of Favorite Scots Songs), Vol. 1, pg. 19. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986; pg. 62. Ritson (Scottish Songs), Vol. 1, pgs. 129-130. Sime (The Edingburgh Musical Miscellany), pgs. 96-97. Smith (Scottish Minstrel), 1820-24; Vol. 3, pg. 29. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 56. Thomson (Orpheus Caledoneus); pg. 1. Beltona BL2128 (78 RPM), The Edinburgh Highland Strathspey and Reel Society (1936). Topic 12TS442, Brass Monkey - "See How it Runs" (1986).
T:Lass of Patie's Mill
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Scots Measure
B:McGlashan - Collection of Scots Measures
K:D
A2|GFED F2A2|d3 e/f/ A3d|Bcdc BAGF|E4 E2A2|GFED F2A2|d3e/f/ A3d|
BcdB cdef|d4 D2:|
|:fg|e3 d dcBA|d3 e/f/ A3d|Bcdc BAGF|E4 E2 AG|GFED FG A2|d3 e/f/ A3d|
BcdB cdef|d4 D2:|
LASSES OF MELROSS, THE. AKA and see "Bliven's Favorite," "The Butchers of Bristol," "By your leave, Larry Grogan," "Coppers and Brass," "The County Limerick Buckhunt," "Finerty's Frolic," "Green Sleeves," "Groom," "Hartigan's Fancy," "The Humours of Ennistymon," "The Humours of Miltown," "Larry Grogan," "Lasses of Melross," "Little Fanny's Fancy," "Lynn's Favourite," "Lynny's Favourite," "Pingneacha Rua agus Pras," "Queen of the Rushes," "The Waves of Tramore," "Willie Clancy's." Irish, Jig. The tune belongs to the large tune family known usually as "Larry Grogan." As "Groom" the tune is attributed by Goodman to the 18th century gentleman-piper Walker 'Piper' Jackson, of the townland of Lisdaun, parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick. Breathnach remarks that a version was originally printed (by John Walsh before 1736 in Country Dances Book the Second) under the title "Larry Grogan," named for the County Wexford gentleman piper of the early-mid 1700's. See note for "Groom." Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), Volume II, 1780-1803; 92.
LASSES/LASSIES OF STEWARTON, THE. AKA - "Lasses of Stewartown/Stewington." AKA and see "The Cross Reel" (Shetland). Scottish, Reel. D Mixolydian. Standard. AABBCCD (Athole, Gow): AABBCCDD' (Kerr, Skye). Another tune commemorating an area's local girls. John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Neil Stewart's 1761 collection (pg. 46). It was published in several collections from 1775 onwards, but is not to be confused with a country dance of the same name. See also the related Shetland tune "Cross Reel." Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; pg. 35. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 24, pg. 5. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 37. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 94. Canadian Broadcasting Corp. NMAS 1972, Natalie MacMaster - "Fit as a Fiddle" (1993). Celestial Entertainment CECS001, Brenda Stubbert (Cape Breton) - "In Jig Time!" (1995).
T:Lasses of Stewarton
L:1/8
M:C|
S:Skye Collection
K:D
g|fdec dA d2|FDDF A3g|fde=c BG c2|E=CCE G2G:|
|:=c|Bd (BG) AFD=c|Bd AF A3=c|Bd AF AB=cA|GE=CE G2G:|
|:=c|BGAF BGAG|FDDF A3=c|BGAF AB=cA|GE=(CE) G2G:|
e|defg afdf|afdf a2 (fe)|defg afdf|ge=ce g2 fe|defg afdf|afdf a2 fe|
defg abaf|ge=ce gbeg||
LIZA JANE [3]. AKA and See "'Lasses Cane," "Poor Liza Jane." Old-Time, Breakdown. USA; Oklahoma, Missouri. A Mixolydian (Brody, Phillips): G Major. AEAE or Standard. ABB (Thede): AABB (Brody, Phillips). Sources for notated versions: Joe Wilsie (Cherokee County; Oklahoma) [Thede]: Carter Brothers and Son (Brody, Phillips). In the repertoire of Uncle Jimmy Thompson (1848-1931) {Texas, Tennessee}. Recorded in 1939 for the Library of Congress by Herbert Halpert from the playing of Newton County, Mississippi, fiddler Hardy Sharp (b. 1884). See also "My Little Dony" for another Mississippi collected version in this song/tune family.
**
I'll go down the new cut road,
And Liza down the lane;
I'll throw my hat in the corner of the fence,
And scare poor Liza Jane. (Thede)
**
I'll go up on the mountain top
And plant me a patch of cane,
I'll make me a jug of molasses
For to sweeten little Liza Jane.
**
Hurry up, pretty little gal,
Hurry up Liza Jane,
Hurry up, poor little gal,
She died on the train.
**
I went to see my Liza Jane,
She was standin' in the door,
Her shoes and stockings in her hand
And her feet all over the floor.
**
The hardest work I ever did
Was a-brakin' on the train,
The easiest work that I ever did
Was a-courtin' Liza Jane (Thomas & Leeder)
**
Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 172. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 1, 1994; pg. 144. Thede (The Fiddle Book), 1967; pg. 44-45. Thomas & Leeder (The Singin' Gathering), 1939; pg. 22. County 520, Carter Brothers and Son (Monroe County, Mississippi) - "Echoes of the Ozarks, Vol. 3". Folkways FA 2491, New Lost City Ramblers- "Gone to the Country." Flying Fish FF260, Alan Jabbour- "Sandy's Fancy." Okeh 45202 (78 RPM), Carter Brothers and Son.
MAGGIE LAUDER. AKA and see "Maggie Laidir," "Moggy Lawther." Scottish, Irish, English, American; Polka or Highland Schottische. USA, New England. D Major. Standard. AB. The Scottish dialect title means "strong Maggie" and dates from the mid-17th century when new words were adapted to the tune by John O'Neachtan about the year 1676. Flood (1906) traces reports of the tune back to 1696 when it was sung by Irish actor Thomas Dogget in his comedy called A Country Wake (who must have liked it for he used it again in 1711 for another play, Hob, or the Country Wake, a variant which appeared in Drury Lane that year). Having found a home in the ballad opera genre, the melody was utilized again in the Quaker's Opera in 1728, by Charles Coffey in 1729 in his Beggar's Wedding (under the title "Moggy Lawther"), and was mentioned by Allan Ramsay in his ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd in 1725. A Scottish version appeared in 1729 in Craigs. A rare, late text of Forbes of Disblair's "Maggie Lauder" variations appears in Perthshireman James Gillespie's 1768 MS. (where it is listed as "Moggie Lawther"). "Maggie Lauder" has also long been known in the north of Britain.
***
The nation of Ireland has often been portrayed euphemistically, personified similar to Uncle Sam for America or John Bull for England. "Strong Maggie" is a euphemism for Ireland, states Hardiman, who published the air in 1831 based on an unknown 1706 transcription. This may be so, however, the 17th century lyric (which Emmerson {1972} attributes to Francis Sempill) tells of a Scottish piper and his serendipitous meeting with a merry dancer in Fife, and may be enjoyed at face value:
***
For I'm a piper by my trade
My name is Rob the Ranter,
The lasses loup as they were daft
When I blaw my chanter.
***
Later:
***
Then to his bags he flew wi'speed,
About the drone he twisted;
Meg up and wallop'd o'er the green,
For brawly could she frisk it.
Weel done, quoth he, play up, quoth she,
Weel bob'd, quoth Rob the Ranter,
'Tis worth my while to play indeed,
When I hae sic a dancer.
***
Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 201, pg. 23. Miller & Perron (101 Polkas), 1978; No. 31.
MAID OF THE MILL [1]. English, Country and Morris Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major (Bacon-Longborough, Carlin, Mallinson): C Major (Johnson): C Mixolydian (Bacon). Standard. AAB (Carlin): AABB, x4 (Bacon-Longborough, Johnson, Mallinson): AABABA (Bacon). Van Cleef and Keller (1980) remark that as a topic the 'Maid of the (or in) the Mill' appears frequently in 17th and 18th century English literature, dating back at least as far as a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher called The Maid in the Mill, performed in 1647 in London. Country dance versions of a tune by the name appear in Playford's Dancing Master of 1698 and in subsequent editions, as well as in Walsh's Country Dancing Master of 1718. A song on the theme is contained in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion (volume VII, London, c. 1750), the tune of which was reproduced in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (volume V, Edinburg, 1796). Still another song called "The Maid of the Mill" was printed in the "Universal Magazine" (volume XLI) in 1767, and another opera on the theme was penned in 1765 by Samuel Arnold.
***
Johnson (1988) dates the contra dance and tune that is usually now known as "Maid of the Mill" from c. 1795, and prints contra dance instructions set to both "Maid of the Mill" and "Money in Both Pockets". The tune predates his estimate, however, as its origins have been found to have derived from a new tune in William Shield's popular opera Rosina (1783), which takes its name from the last line of the first verse of the duet (no. 7) between William and Phoebe beginning:
***
I've kiss'd and I've prattled with fifty fair maids,
And changed them as oft do you see;
But of all the gay lasses that sport on the green,
The Maid of the Mill for me.
***
(A caveat to this as the ultimate source of the usual tune is that Shields could have adapted his air from a folk tune in common currency at the time he was writing, as were many of the melodies used in ballad operas of the 18th century.) As with many popular English melodies, it was quickly transported to America. Just two years after the London appearance of Shield's opera the words his "The Maid of the Mill," varied only slightly from the printed version, were copied along with the tune by a student at Harvard, John Cabot. One Nancy Shepley wrote out the figures for a country dance to the tune which she learned in Pepperell, Massachusetts, around 1794 and German flute student Cushing Eells copied it into his music MS (Norwich, Conn., 1789). Nancy Shepley's MS notwithstanding, Van Cleef and Keller report the title does not appear frequently in American dance sources, and they conclude she copied it from a published collection of dances from England. Oddly enough, the tune, almost identical to Eells' version, was preserved mechanically on two chime clocks of the time manufactured in East Windsor, Connecticut (one of which is at the Wadsworth Atheneum and the other at the Connecticut Historical Society).
***
Morris dance versions survived in tradition in rural England with most villages having a "Maid of the Mill." Those variants closest to the Shield's and the American versions were collected in the villages of Bledington (Gloucestershire), Ilmington (Warwickshire) and Longborough in the Cotswolds. Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974; pgs. 79, 215, 255. Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; No. 52, pg. 39. Johnson (Twenty-Eight Country Dances as Done at the New Boston Fair), Vol. 8, 1988; pg. 7. Mallinson (Mally's Cotswold Morris Book), 1988, Vol. 2; No. 17, pg. 10.
MORPETH LASSES. English, Reel or Country Dance Tune (2/2 time). England, Northumberland. A Minor. Standard. ABB (Sharp): AAB (Stokoe & Bruce). Stokoe & Bruce (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; pg. 178. Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909/1994; pg. 61.
T:Morpeth Lasses
L:1/8
M:C
S:Bruce & Stokoe - Northumbrian Minstrelsy
K:G
E|ABcB EAAc|BAGd BGGB|ABcB EAAe|dBGB cAA:|
e|agea ge a2|gedg BGdB|agea ge a2|gegB A2 Ae|
agea ge a2|gedg BGdB|AcBd ceda|gegB A2A||
NIEL GOW. AKA - "Neil Gow." AKA and see "Irish Jig", "Keep Your Country Bonnie Lasses" (Shetland) {?}. Scottish (originally), English; Strathspey. England, Northumberland. A Major. Standard. AAB (Athole): AABB (Gow, Honeyman, Kerr, Peacock). Composed by Niel Gow. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 482. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; pg. 34. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 2; No. 9, pg. 4. Peacock (Peacock's Tunes), c. 1805/1980; No. 7, pg. 2. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 15.
T:Neil Gow
L:1/8
M:C|
S:Strathspey
B:The Athole Collection
K:A
f|e<c a>e f<B B>f|e<c a>e f2 f>g|a/g/f/e/ a>e f<B B>g|a>fe>c A2A:|
E|A<A c>A B<F F>B|A<A c>e a>ef>a|e>a c<a B<F F>f|a>fe>c A2 A>E|
A<A c>A B<F F>B|A<A c>e a>ef>g|a/g/f/e/ a>e f<B B>g|a>fe>c A2A||
OVER THE WATER TO CHARLIE. AKA - "Charley Over the Water," "Over the River to Charlie," "Over the Water." AKA and see "Ligrum Cush," "Lacrum Cosh," "The Marquis (Marquess) of Granby," "Pot Stick," "Sean Buidhe" (Yellow John) "The Shambuy," "Wishaw's Delight." Scottish (originally), English, American; Air, Jig and Morris Dance Tune (6/8 time, with an irregular measure in the 'B' part). England, Northumberland. A Major (Raven): G Major (Alewine, Kennedy, Kerr, Mallinson). Standard. AABB (x4). A Jacobite (i.e. Highland supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie) tune that was "improbably" introduced into British Guards regiments by 1764 (Winstock, 1970). That Winstock finds this improbable seems to be because the last Jacobite attempt to capture the throne of England was defeated at the Battle of Culloden in 1745, a mere nineteen years prior to the Britsih Guards introduction. However, memories of the rising appeared to have healed even more quickly in the general populace of England, as evidenced by this excerpt from a letter written by Ralph Bigland in 1749 of an entertainment on the London stage (quoted by Emmerson, 1972):
***
I have since I came here [London] been lately two or three
times at the play and what invited me most was to see a
new dance called the Scots Dance consisting of about 20
lads and lasses dress'd after the Highland fashion. The
scene represents a very romantic, rocky, or mountainous
country seemingly, at the most distant view you behold a
glorious pair (which far surpass all the other actors) sitting
among the rocks, while the rest are dancing below among
groves of trees. Some are also representing with their
wheels a spinning; all the while the music plays either
Prince Charlie's minuet or the Auld Stewarts Back Again.
At last descends from the mountains the glorious pair
which to appearance is a prince and princess. Then all the
actors retire on each side while the royal youth and his
favourite dance so fine, in a word that the whole audience
clap their hands for joy. Then in a moment the spinning
wheels are thrown aside and every lad and lass join in the
dance and jerk it away as quick as possible while the
music briskly plays--Over the Water to Charlie, a bagpipe
being in the band. In short it was so ravishing seemingly
to the whole audience that the people to express their joy
clap their hands in a most extraordinary manner indeed.
***
Though the title stems from the Jacobite era, the tune is older and has had many names (given above as alternates--see notes for "Pot Stick" and "Sean Buide"), however, by the 1750's it was appearing in published collections with the "Over the Water" title. Bayard (1981) identifies that at some point the tune was altered and a new group of variations formed using the second half of the "Charlie" tune as the first strain and adding a different second strain. This second group is usually known as "Blow the Wind Southerly" (after song lyrics) or "Kinloch (of Kinloch)" {a title which first appeared in 1798 in John Watlen's Second Collection of Circus Tunes}. Early printings of the tune can be found in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion (book 4, pg. 7, c. 1752), the Gillespie Manusript of Perth (1768) and Robert Bremner's 1757 collection (pg. 16). A three-verse version exists in the Scots Musical Museum (1788) and it appears in Hogg's Jacobite Relics (early 1800's).
***
"Over the Water to Charlie" was employed variously as an accompaniment to dancing in the British Isles and was imported as a dance tune to America. A morris dance version was collected in the village of Bledington, Gloucestershire, in England's Cotswolds, while country dance instructions, but not the melody, appear in the Scottish Menzies Manuscript, 1749 (contained in the Atholl Collection of the Sandeman Library, Perth). The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800 and, in America, the tune appears in Giles Gibbs' MS collection made in 1777 in East Windsor, Connecticut.
***
Words to the melody can be found in several collections. The following are from the Scots national poet, Robert Burns:
Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er,
Come boat me o'er to Cherlie:
I'll gie John Ross anither bawbee
To boat me o'er to Charlie. --
***
Chorus:
We'll o'er the water, we'll o'er the sea,
We'll o'er the water to Charlie;
Come weal, come woe, we'll gather and go,
And live or die wi' Charlie. --
***
I lo'e weel my Charlie's name,
Tho' some there be abhor him:
But O, to see auld Nick gaun hame,
And Charlie's faes before him!
***
I swear and vow by moon and stars,
And sun that shines so early!
If I had twenty thousand lives,
I'd die as aft for Charlie.
***
And these from the Ettick Shepherd, James Hogg (Jacobite Relics):
Come boat me o'er, come ferry me o'er,
Come boat me o'er tae Charlie
I'd hear the call once, but never again,
Tae carry me over tae Charlie.
***
Chorus:
We'll over the water, we'll over the sea,
We'll over the water tae Charlie.
Come weel, come woe, we'll gather and go
And live or die with Charlie.
***
I swear by moon and stars sae bright,
And sun that shines sae Dearly,
I would give twenty-thousand lives
I'd given them all for Charlie.
***
Once I had sons, but now I've gat nane,
I've treated them all sae sairly.
But I would bear them all again,
And lose them all for Charlie
***
Sources for notated versions: John White (Greene County, Pa., 1930's) and Thomas Patterson (Elizabeth, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]. Alewine (Maid that Cut Off the Chicken's Lips), 1987; pg. 28. Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974; pg. 81. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 556A-B, pgs. 494-495. Hall & Stafford (Charlton Memorial Tune Book), 1974; pg. 18. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 38. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 6, pg. 31. Mallinson (Mally's Cotswold Morris Book), 1988; No. 16, pg. 14. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 78 (morris version). Folk-Legacy Records FSI-42, The New Golden Ring - "Five Days Singing, Vol II."
PIPE SLANG, THE (Feadan glan a'Phiobair). Scottish, Pipe Reel. A Minor. Standard. AAB (Athole, Fraser): AABB' (Kerr). "In the words of the pipe slang, the noisy rattling piper of a country wedding draws a ridiculous comparison betwixt his own music and that of the violin, so frequently interrupted by the breaking of strings, tuning, &c., whereas, he appeals to all the bonny lasses, if his chanter was ever known to fail while they continued dancing" (Fraser). Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1874; No. 49, pg. 17. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 2; No. 56, pg. 9. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 46.
T:Pipe Slang, The
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Reel
B:The Athole Collection
K:Aminor
e|cA A/A/A ~A2 AB|cde^f gece|fd d/d/d d2 df|eE E/E/E A2A:|
c|A/A/A a2 gece|f2ed ecAc|A/A/A a2 gece|fdec A2Ac|A/A/A a2 gece|
f2ed ecAc|GEcE GEEc|D/D/D E^G A2A||
PLYMOUTH LASSES. AKA and see "The Sylph." English, Jig. D Major. Standard. AABB. Source for notated version: Donald Woodcock [Phillips]. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 1, 1951; No. 87, pg. 43. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 376. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 105.
T:Plymouth Lasses
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:D
B|AFA dfa|agf e2g|fag fed|cde e2A|AFA dfa|agf efg|fad eac|ded d2:|
|:E|DFA dcB|AGF E2D|FAD FAD|EFE EFG|AFA dcB|
BAG FED|fad eac|ded d2:|
SHREWSBURY LASSES. English, Country Dance Tune (2/2 or cut time). D Major. Standard. AABB. Published before 1730 according to Raven, though Barnes dates it to 1765. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Fleming-Williams & Shaw (English Dance Airs; Popular Selection, Book 1), 1965; pg. 14. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 20.
SILVER STREET LASSES. AKA and see "Loch Laven Castle." English, Reel. England, Northumberland. A Dorian. Standard. AAB. The tune is better known in Scotland and Ireland as "Loch Laven Castle," and is even known by that title in American old-time repertoire. Probably Scottish in origin. Hall & Stafford (Charlton Memorial Tune Book), 1974; pg. 58. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 186.
T:Silver Street Lasses
L:1/8
M:C|
K:A Minor
cB|A^GAB AGEG|A^GAB cBcd|e^fge dedc|B2G2G2 cB|
A^GAB AGEG|AGFG cBcd|e^fge dedB|c2A2A2:|
||eg|agab ageg|agab age^f|gage dedc|B2G2G2 eg|
agab ageg|agab aged|cBcd edcB|c2A2A2 eg|agab ageg|
agab age^f|gage dedc|B2G2G2 cB|A^GAB cBcd|dgdB cBAG|
AcBd cedB|C2A2A2||
TOP OF CORK ROAD, THE [1] (Mullac Botair Corcaig). AKA and see "Bonny Green Garters," "Cork Road," "Father O'Flynn," "Rollicking Irishman," "To Drink With the Devil," "Trample Our Enemies," "Yorkshire Lasses." Irish, American; Double Jig. USA; New England, southwestern Pa., southern N.Y. D Major (most versions): C Major (Joyce). Standard. AABB. Bayard (1981) says that despite its title English versions in print predate Irish ones. He reports that Moffat found no earlier Irish versions that 1798, while Kidson found English versions (as "The Yorkshire Lasses") from 1789 and 1781. Cited as having commonly been played for Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly). Sources for notated versions: Hiram Horner (fifer from Westmoreland and Fayette Counties, Pa., 1960), Hoge MS (a fife MS from Pa., 1944) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 450A-C, pgs. 429-430. Cole (1001 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 56. Harding's All-Round (1905, 1932), No. 176. Harding Collection (1915) and Harding's Original Collection (1928), No. 87. Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes); No. or pg. 17. Joyce, 1873/4th ed.; No. 48, pgs. 48-49. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; pg. 38. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 189. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 4; pg. 22. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddler's Repertoire), 1983; No. 33. Moffat (202 Gems of Irish Melody), pg. 50. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 163, pg. 91. O'Neill (1850), 1979; No. 1031. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1986; No. 244, pg. 54. Robbins, 1933; No. 127. Roche Collection, 1982, Vol. 1; No. 97, pg. 42. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; pg. 198. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; pg. 48. White's Excelsior Collection, 1907; pg. 3.
T:Top of Cork Road
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:D
dAF DFA|Bed cBA|dcd ede|faf ecA|dAF DFA|Bed cBA|dcd ede|fdd d2:|
|:g|fdf fga|ece efe|dcd fed|cAA A2=c|BGB Bcd|AFA ABc|dcd efg|fdd d2:|
TOR(R)Y BURN LASSES. AKA and see "Comely Jane Downing," "Larry Bourn," "Tadie's Wattle." AKA - "Torry Burn," "Torryburn Lasses." Scottish, Reel or Country Dance Tune. G Major. Standard. AAB. Torryburn Lasses is also the name of a Scottish country dance. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 453 (appears as "Torry Burn"). Gow (Complete Repository), Part 2, 1802; pg. 15 (appears as "Torry Burn"). Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 204. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 4, pg. 23. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 98. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 159.
T:Torry Burn
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Reel
B:The Athole Collection
K:G
D|G2BG BddB|c2ec efgB|G2BG Bcdg|edcB A2G:|
d|g2 bg afed|edef geBG|g2bg afed|edef g2ga|bagf gfed|
edef geBG|cBcd efge|dBGB A2G||
WE MUST ALL WAIT TILL MY LADY COMES HOME. AKA and see "The Cock of the North." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard. AABB. England, Northumberland. Kidson declares this to be similar to a melody Shield uses in his opera "Robin Hood" for the song "The lasses are mad." He thinks Shield, being from the north of England, may have had knowledge of the tune and so employed it in his work. Kidson obtained the tune from a Northumbrian pipe MS of about 1816. Kidson (Old English Country Dances), 1890; pg. 21.
WEARMOUTH LASSES. AKA and see "Yarmouth Lasses." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). England, Yorkshire. A Major. Standard. AABB. The editors point out the tune appears in many northern English manuscripts. Source for notated version: an MS collection by fiddler Lawrence Leadley, 1827-1897 (Helperby, Yorkshire) [Merryweather & Seattle]. Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 78, pg. 47 (appears as an untitled jig).
WHAT THE DEVIL AILS YOU [2]. AKA and see "Hi Lo Schottsiche," "Rochester Schottishe," "The Cat Up the Plum Tree," "Jack Up the Plum Tree," "Sparrow/Birdy in the Treetop." American, Schottische. USA, western Pennsylvania. D Major. Standard. AB. Bayard (1944) says the title of this very popular schottische also is very often is not known among western Pennsylvania fiddlers. His source for the title, Charles Armstrong, husband of the player, recalled two lines of a rhyme which was attached to the tune in tradition:
**
What the devil ails you, what the devil ails you?
Why the hell can't you tell, what the devil ails you?
**
There are some resemblances to the following tunes in Irish tradition: "The Shannon Breeze," "Roll Her on the Banks," "Roll Her in the Ryegrass," "Punch for the Ladies," "The Piper's Lass," "McCaffrey's Reel," "Maureen Playboy," "Old Molly Ahern," "The Rathkeale Hunt," "The Railway Station," "The Telegraph," "Strac an Mhuc an Leine," "Sean-Mhaire Ni Eachthighearn," "The Ladies Tight/Top Dress," "The Lady on the Railroad," "The Connachtman's Rambles," "Kitty Got a Clinking," "Boil the Kettle Early," "The Brown Red Girl," "The Kilfinane Reel," "Love Among the Roses," "The Listowel Lasses." Sources for notated versions: Mrs. Sarah Armstrong (Derry, Pa., 1943) [Bayard, 1944]: eight southwestern Pa. fiddlers [Bayard, 1981]. Adam, No. 61 ("Hi Lo Schottische"). Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 39. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 424A-H, pgs. 402-404. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 60, (appears as "Rochester Schottishe"). Howe (Diamond School for the Violin), 1861; pg. 56.
WIND THAT SHAKES/SHOOK THE BARLEY, THE [1] ("An Ghaoth a Bhogann," "An Ghaoth/Gaot a Chroitheann/Corruideann an Eorna" or "An Gaot A Biodgeas An T-Orna"). AKA and see "Duncan Davidson," "(An) Gaoth A Chroitheanna an Eorna," "I Sat (with)in the Valley Green," "The Kerry Lasses," "Rolling Down the Hill." Irish, Scottish, Shetland, American, New England; Reel. D Major (most versions): G Major (Hardings): D Mixolydian (Carlin). Standard. AB (Allan's, Breathnach, Cole, Honeyman, Mallinson, O'Neill/1850, Stanford/Petrie, Sweet, Tubridy): AAB (Athole): AA'B (O'Neill/Krassen, 1915): AAB (Brody, Carlin, Flaherty, Hunter, Kerr, Neil, Skye): ABB (Phillips): AABB (Hardings, Miller & Perron). The Irish musicologist Father Henebry considered this tune originally Scottish (as did Breathnach), but Bayard (1981) finds almost no Scottish traditional forms; he found numerous versions in Irish and Irish-American currency. Emmerson (1971), however, states the tune is "substantially a set of the 'Fairy Dance,'" which is definately Scottish and whose full title is "Largo's Fairy Dance," composed by Nathaniel Gow.
***
"The Wind that Shakes the Barley" was cited as having commonly been played for Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly)./ "The (Provance) version...contains a feature common enough in old-country reels, but seldom encountered in American variants: namely, the 'circular' construction, which provides for the tune's going on indefinitely without coming to a complete cadence. F.P. Provance stated that he learned this set 'among the Dutch' in eastern Fayette and western Somerset Counties--an interesting evidence of how the German settlers have adopted the tradition of the Irish whom they encountered on their arrival in Pennyslvania" (Bayard, 1944).
***
The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800.
***
The tune was the vehicle for the Donegal house-dance the Barnas Mór Reel, writes Fintan Vallely in his book Blooming Meadows (1998), interviewing Donegal fiddler Vincent Broderick of the townland of Tangaveane in the Croaghs (Blue Stack Mountains). Broderick remembered: "They would let hands to, d'you see, every other bar or so...and they done this step dance every one of them on their own and then they would join hands again, go around again."
***
A romantic song to the tune with words by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) commemorating the uprising of 1798 led by the Society of United Irishmen was originally published c.1880 in Ballads of Irish Chivalry. It is also called "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" and goes:
***
I sat within a valley green
I sat there with my true love
My sad heart strove the two between
The old love and the new love
The old for her, the new
That made me think on Ireland dearly
When soft the wind blew down the glen
And shook the golden barley.
***
'Twas hard the woeful words to frame
'Twas worse the tide that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us
And so I said "The Mountain glen
I'll seek it morning early
And join the bold United Men
While soft wind shakes the barley"
***
While sad I kissed away her tears
My fond arms 'round her flinging
The foeman's shot burst on our ears
From out the wild wood ringing
The bullet pierced my true love's side
In life's young spring so early
And on my breast in blood she died
While soft wind shakes the barley.
***
I bore her to some mountain stream
And many's the summer blossom
I placed with branches soft and green
About her gore-stained bosom
I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse
Then rushed o'er vale and valley
My vengeance on the foe to wreak
While soft wind shook the barley
***
Then blood for blood without remorse
I've taken to Oulard Hollow
I've laid my true love's clay cold corpse
Where I full soon will follow
And 'round her grave I wander here
Now night and morning early
With a breaking heart when e'er I hear
The wind that shakes the barley.
***
Oulart Hill, referred to in the song as "Oulard Hollow," is located in County Wexford and was the site of the United Irish rebels' first significant success. On Whit Sunday, the 27th of May, 1798, they ambushed and annihilated a body of Government troops-the infamous North Cork Militia-numbering around one hundred. There are said to have been but three survivors, despite the fact that the militia was Irish to a man. Another song set to the tune is called "The Little Bag of Tailors." O'Neill prints the tune as "Wind that Shakes the Barley" and "I sat in the Valley Green."
***
Sources for notated versions: Kevin Burke (Co. Clare) [Phillips]; Michael Kennedy (Ireland) [Carlin]; F.P. Provance (Point Marion, Pa., 1943; learned from fiddlers playing it in eastern Fayette and western Somerset Counties, Pa.) [Bayard, 1944]: J Bryner (Pa., 1946), F King (Pa., 1960), and Shape (fiddler from Pa., 1944) [Bayard, 1981]; fiddler Sean Keane (Ireland) [Breathnach]; fiddler Michael Lennihan (b. 1917, Kilnamanagh, in the Frenchpark area of County Roscommon) [Flaherty]; S. O'Daly [Stanford/Petrie]. Allan's Irish Fiddler, No. 68, pg. 17. Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 23. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 162A-C, pgs. 99-100. Breathnach (CRE III), 1985; No. 202, pg. 90. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 293. Burchenal (Rinnce na h-Eireann), pg. 120. Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; No. 195, pg. 116. Cole (1001 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 22. DeVille, 1905; No. 74. Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; pg. 91. Greenleaf, No. 186. Hardings All-Round Collection, 1905; No. 129, pgs. 40-41. Harding's Original Collection, 1928; No. 130. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; pg. 9. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 223. Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes); No. or pg. 15. JFSS, VII, 172 (a Manx vocal set, "Crag Willee Syl"). Kerr, Vol. 1; Set 3, No. 2, pg. 4. Levey, No. 49. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 35. Mallinson (Essential), 1995; No. 24, pg. 11. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddler's Repertoire), 1983; No. 92. Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 188, pg. 243. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 155. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 257, pg. 133. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 1518, pg. 280. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 737, pg. 129. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; pg. 52. Robbins, 1933; No. 25. Roche Collection, 1982, Vol. 1; No. 199, pg. 75. Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; Nos. 320 & 321, pgs. 80-81. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 89. Surenne, 1852; pg. 41. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 64. Sym's Old Time Dances, pg. 27. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; pg. 24. Welling (Hartford Tunebook), 1976; pg. 26. White's Excelsior Collection, pg. 35. Columbia C 33397, Dave Bromberg Band - "Midnight on the Water" (1975). Columbia Legacy CK 48693, "The Best of the Chieftains" (1992). Front Hall 014, John McCutcheon - "The Wind that Shakes the Barley" (1977. Learned from the Smathers Family). Front Hall 015, Jake Walton and Roger Nicholson- "Bygone Days." Gael-Linn Records CEF 022, Seamus Ennis, John Joe Gannon, Sean Keane - "Seoda Ceoil II" (1969). Ghe Records GR1001, Mike Cross - "Child Prodigy" (1979). Green Linnet SIF1110, Tony DeMarco - "My Love is in America: The Boston College Irish Fiddle Festival" (1991). Homespun Tapes, Kevin Burke. Shanachie 79006, Mary Bergin- "Traditional Irish Music." Shanachie 79011, Planxty- "Cold Blow the Rainy Night." Shanachie 78010, Solas - "Sunny Spells and Scattered Showers." Bob Smith's Ideal Band - "Ideal Music" (1977). "Fiddlers Three Plus Two."
X:1
T:Wind that Shakes the Barley
L:1/8
M:C|
R:Reel
B:The Athole Collection
K:D
A|F(AA)B AFED|B2BA B2d2|F(AA)B AFED|gfed B2d:|
e|f2fd g2ge|f2fd Bcde|f2fd g2gb|afed B2 d>e|f2fd g2ge|
f2fd Bcde|fafd gbge|afed B2d||
X:2
T:Wind that Shakes the Barley
L:1/8
M:C|
K:D
A2 AB AF ED| B BA Bc d2|A2 AB AF ED|gf ed Bc dB|
A2 AB AF ED|B2 BA Bc dB|A2 AB AF ED|gf ed B2 d2:|
|:f2 fd g2 ge|f2 fd ed BA|f2 fd g2 ge|af ed B2 de|f2 df g2 eg|
f2 fd ed BA|de fg af ba|gf ed B2 d2:|
YARMOUTH LASSES. AKA and see "Wearmouth Lasses." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard. AABB. James Merryweather and Matt Seattle (1994) point out that this melody appears in several northern English manuscripts, and that the name 'Yarmouth' is a misreading of the old spelling 'Warmouth'. Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 78, pg. 47 (appears as an untitled jig). Northumbrian Pipers' Tune Book, 1970. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 117.
YORKSHIRE LASSES [1]. AKA and see "The Rollicking Irishman," "Top of Cork Road," "Cork Road," "Father O'Flynn," "To Drink With the Devil," "Trample Our Enemies," "Bonny Green Garters," "The Irish Lilt." English, Jig. D Major. Standard. AABB. Despite the numerous Irish alternate titles, the tune seems to have first been printed in English collections, under the given title. Moffat and Kidson have located the tune in collections of 1779 and 1781, while the first Irish printing seems to have been in 1798. Longman and Broderip's Compleat Collection of 200 Favorite Country Dances, Cotillions and Allemands, Vol. 2 (pg. 84) printed in London in 1781 appears to be one of the Moffat and Kidson sources. Nevertheless, ascription's to Irish origins persist. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 37 (appears as "The Rollicking Irishman"). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 101.
T:Yorkshire Lasses [1]
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:D
A|dAG FGA|Bcd c2A|def efg|fdf edc|dAG FGA|Bcd c2A|def efg|fdd d2:|
|:g|fdf faf|ece eac|dcd Bed|cAA A2=c|BGB BdB|^cAc cec|dBd eag|fdd d2:|