ADMIRAL BENBOW. English, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard. AB. Walker (History of Music in England, 1924) dates the tune to about 1700. He points out that the melody is also known as a religious carol {"The Land o' the Leal" (Church of England, English Hymnal, 1906), which is simply "Scots wha hae" sung slowly.} Admiral Benbow was an English admiral who defeated a fleet of French warships in West Indian waters at the turn of the 16th century, the only thing marring the victory was the fact that four of this men-of-war refused to join the fight, instead standing-too to watch. The commanders of those ships did not fare well; two were executed, one imprisoned for life, and the last died before punishment could be meted out. The "Admiral Benbow" is the inn in which we first meet Long John Silver in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Kidnapped." See also note for the air "Benbow, the Brother Tar." Chappell collected the ballad from Dale's collection, i. 68. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Times), Vol. 2, 1859; pg. 92.
T:Admiral Benbow
L:1/8
M:3/4
K:G
G>D|G2B2d2|d>c B2 G>A|B2 cB A>G|G4:|
F>G|A2E2 A>G|F>E D2 GD|G2 GABG|c4 BA|
G2B2d2|d>c B2 GA|B2 cB A>G|G4||
BOYNE WATER, THE [1] (Briseadh na Bóinne). AKA and see "As Vanquished Erin," "The Battle of the Boyne Water," "Bayne Water" (W.Va.), "Barbara Allan" (Pa.), "The Bottom of the Punch Bowl," "Boyne Water Quickstep," "Cameronian Rant," "The Cavalcade of the Boyne," "Come Kiss Wi' Me, Come Clap Wi' Me," "Findlay," "King William's March," "Lass If I Come Near You," "Leading/Driving the Calves," "Leading the Calves in the Pasture," "Native Swords," "One Pleasant Morning Beside the Glen," "Playing Amang the Rashes," "Praises of Limerick," "The Rashes," "Rosc Catha na Mumhan," "Sheila Ni Gowna," "Song of the Volunteers," "Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation," "To Look for My Calves I Sent My Child," "The Wee German Lairdie" "Wha the Deil Hae We Gotten For a King," "When the King Came O'er the Water." Irish, Air or March (4/4 time). A Dorian (Breathnach, O'Neill, Perlman, Roche): E Minor (Joyce). Standard. AB (most versions): AA'BB (Breathnach). The name Boyne itself is derived from the name of the goddess Boinn, literally 'cow-white', "a name well suited to a pastoral people whose wealth was chiefly in cattle" (Matthews, 1972). The name of the tune, however, commemorates the Battle of the Boyne (named for the Boyne River in County Meath, eastern Ireland, though the battle itself was fought three miles west of Drogheda), fought July 1st, 1690, in which the English monarch King William III defeated the Irish forces under King James II. "It has always been, and still is, very popular among the Orangemen of Ulster (for it dashed the hopes of the Irish for religious freedom and the Stuarts for Kingship). The ballad follows the historical accounts of the battle correctly enough. The air is well known in the south (of Ireland) also, where it is commonly called Sebladh na n-gamhan, 'Leading the Calves,' A good setting is given by Bunting in his second collection: the Munster and Connaught versions are given by Petrie in his Ancient Music of Ireland, vol. II, p. 12. I print it here as I learned it in my youth from the singing of the people of Limerick, not indeed to 'The Boyne Water' of Ulster, but to other words (given below). My setting differs only slightly from that of Bunting; and it is nearly the same as I heard it played some years ago by a band on a 12th of July in Warrenpoint" (Joyce).
***
Samuel Bayard (1981) believes "Boyne Water" was composed in the seventeenth century, and thinks it has always been more of a vocal air rather than an instrumental tune. As witnessed by the myriad of titles in the beginning of this entry, it has been a popular air in the British Isles and, as Bayard states, "altogether, the forms suggest that it has undergone a long traditional development." He believes the second half may have been the original tune, with the first half being fashioned out of elements from earlier strains. Bronson discerns the origins of the whole tune family in a Scottish melody found in the Skene Manuscript of c. 1615. Flood (1913) dates the tune from c. 1645, long before the famous battle, though how he arrived at this date is obscure. Cowdery (1990) believes it may be from a reference to a melody published by Petrie (1855), called "To Seed for the Lambs I Have Sent My Child," in which the latter writer declared, "in its superior purity of expression, and in its passionate depth of feeling, affords intrinsic evidence of an original intention, and consequent priority of antiquity, which will not be found in that which I consider to be the derived from of it called 'The Boyne Water.'" O'Neill (1913) concludes the same Gaelic airs printed by Petrie are early antecedents of "Boyne Water," Nos. 1529 ("A Long mo Gamain" {To look for my calves I sent my child"}) and 1530 ("An Tuainirc na nGainna". Breathnach (1985), in CRE II (No. 124), gives a polka setting and remarks it was used for the last figure of the Clare polka set, and says that "Rosc Catha na Mumhan" (The Munster War-Cry) is sung to this air.
***
However old it actually is in oral tradition, Bayard (1991) finds the earliest printed appearances of the tune in William Graham's Lute Book of 1694 (as "Playing Amang the Rashes") and in D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (where it appears as an untitled air). The melody remained in popular usage throughout the British Isles for well over two hundred years. Robert Burns set three songs to it in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, and it was the vehicle for the Scots songs "The Wee, Wee German Lairdie" and "Andro and His Cutty Gun" (the latter from Alan Ramsay's 1740 edition of the Tea-Table Miscellany). In Ireland, Sir Thomas Moore used the melody for his c. 1825 song "As Vanquished Erin." The air was widespread in American usage, often heard as the tune the popular song "Barbara Allan" was sung to, which fact has been noted by several writers (Bayard, Cowdery, Cazden). It is, for example, identified by Cowdery (1990) as one of four tunes which carry the tale of "(Bonny) Barbara Allen" (the second strain of both Joyce's version and Bunting's "To seek for the Lambs..." is the portion of the Irish tune which corresponds to the America "Barbara Allen"). As "The Battle of the Boyne" it was included in a Philadelphia chapbook of 1805, and, under the title "The Buoying Water," as an instrumental piece in the 1790 Whittier Perkins Book (Cazden, et al, 1982). According to Bronner (1987), it was used for an 1815 hit American blackface minstrel song by Micah Hawkins called "The Siege of Plattsburgh" or "Backside Albany." Cazden prints it with the Catskill Mountain (N.Y.)-collected song "A Shantyman's Life," which he states can be found in most collections of lumber camp songs. O'Neill (1913) lists "Boyne Water" as one of the "splendid martial airs" of Irish music.
***
The political connotations of "The Boyne Water" long remained attached to the melody, even after it was imported to North America. Bayard (1981) relates that the mere playing of the tune in the presence of Catholic Irish in western Pennsylvania "could bring on a mass attack," and repeats the Fayette County story of an old Irishman digging potatoes in the garden while his wife followed along beside him picking the up in a sack. She absent-mindedly began singing the air, upon which he turned around and, incensed, brained her with one blow of his spade. In fact, Pennsylvania fifers declined to play the tune for Bayard at gatherings, fearing to destroy the harmony of the group with "political pieces." Sources for notated versions: George Strosnider (Greene County), Hiram Horner (Westmoreland County), Mrs. Sarah Armstrong (Westmoreland County) {All Southwestern Pa.} [Bayard]; flute and whistle player Micko Russell, 1969 (Doolin, Co. Clare, Ireland) [Breathnach]; Sterling Baker (b. mid-1940's, Morell, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island; now resident of Montague) [Perlman]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 317A-D, pgs. 271-273. Breathnach (CRE II), 1976; No. 124, pg. 66. Gow (Beauties), 1819. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 151 and No. 377, pgs. 183-184. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 204 & No. 260, pg. 45. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 208. Roche Collection, 1982; pg. 8, Vol. I, No. 4.
T:Boyne Water [1]
L:1/8
M:C
S:Joyce - Old Irish Folk Music
K:E Minor
ED|B,2 B2 B>cdB|AGFE D2 E>F|G2 FE BAGF|(E3D) B,2 E>D|B,2 B2 B>cdB|
AGFE D2 EF|G2 FE B>AGF|E4 E2||E>F|A2B2d2 e>f|e>d cB A3A|B2e2 e>def|
(e3d B2) Bc|dcde d2 cB|A>GFE D2 EF|G2 FE B>A GF|E4E2||
BRIDEKIRD'S HUNTING. AKA and see "Fill up your bumpers high," "Scots wha hae," "Hey Tuttie Taiti." Scottish, Air. A song collected by Kirkpatrick Sharpe (c. 1830) in Annandale, set to the famous tune.
COME YE OWER FRAE FRANCE. AKA and see "The Keys of the Cellar," "The Marchioness of Tweed-dale's Delight." English, Old Hornpipe (3/2 time). G Dorian. Standard. One part. Note: The song is a satire of the Hanoverian King George I ("Geordie Whelps"), who became King of England and Scotland in the 18th century. George transplanted to England an assortment of mistresses and characters, the fromer being impoverished gentlewomen from Germany, providing Jacobite songwriters with a broad target and much ribald glee. Several of these imported characters come in for derision: Madame Kilmansegge, Countess of Platen, is referred to as "The Sow" in many Jacobite songs, while the King's favorite mistress, the lean and haggard Madame Schulemburg (afterwards named Duchess of Kendall) was given the name of "The Goose". She is the
"goosie" in "Come Ye Ower Frae France," while the "blade" is one Count Koningsmark. John, Earl of Mar, was nicknamed "Bobbing John," an interesting character in Scottish history. Mar (1675-1732) was a disaffected Tory minister who had served as one of the Scots commissioners during the Union negotiations (to unite the kingdoms of Scotland and England), however, once it was passed he came to understand it was a terrible mistake. To remedy this he raised the Jacobite standard at Braemar in 1715 on behalf of James, the Old Pretender and became one of the leaders of the rebellion. Opposed by the The Duke of Argyll with 35,000 government troops, Mar and his clansmen fought at Sheriffmuir near Stirling in November, 1715. Although at first it appeared that the 'Highland Charge' would carry the day, the Hanoverian professionals wavered but held and eventually gained the upper hand, driving the Highlanders back into the mountains. By February, 1716, the rebellion was quelled and Mar sailed with James for France and permanent exile.
***
CAM YE O'ER FRAE FRANCE
***
Cam ye o'er frae France?
Cam ye down by Lunnon? (Lunnon = London)
Saw ye Geordie Whelps
And his bonny woman?
Were ye at the place
Ca'd the Kittle Housie? (Kittle Housie = Cat House or Brothel)
Saw ye Geordie's grace
Riding on a goosie?
***
Geordie he's a man
There is little doubt o't;
He's done a' he can
Wha can do without it?
Down there came a blade
Linkin' like my lordie; (Linkin' = tripping along)
He wad drive a trade
At the loom o' Geordie.
***
Though the claith were bad, (claith = cloth)
Blythly may we niffer; (niffer = haggle)
Gin we get a wab, (wab = length of cloth)
It makes little differ.
We hae tint our plaid, (tint = lost)
Bannet, belt and swordie,
Ha's and mailins braid -- (ha's and mailins = houses and farmlands)
But we hae a Geordie!
***
Jocky's gane to France,
And Montgomery's lady;
There they'll learn to dance:
Madame, are ye ready?
They'll be back belyue (belyue = quickly)
Belted, brisk and lordly;
Brawly may they thrive (brawly = well)
To dance a jig wi' Geordie!
***
Hey for Sandy Don!
Hey for Cockolorum!
Hey for Bobbing John,
And his Highland Quorum!
Mony a sword and lance
Swings at Highland hurdie; (hurdie = buttock)
How they'll skip and dance
O'er the bum o' Geordie!
***
Loesberg (Traditional Folksongs and Ballads of Scotland, Vol. 1), No. 1. COOK 038, Ewan MacColl - "Black and White." HR 102, Tannahill Weavers - "The Old Woman's Dance." Ossian OSS 103, Ewan MacColl - "The Jacobite Rebellions." Shanachie 79045, Steeleye Span - "Parcel of Rogues." Dick Gaughan - "No More Forever."
T:Come Ye Ower Frae France
L:1/4
M:3/2
K:G Dorian
BG GD G2|BG GB A/B/c/A/|BG G>D G2|{cB}AF FA A/B/c/A/|
Gg g>^f g2|Gg ga b/a/g|Gg a/g/f/e/ f2|{d}cA FA d/c/B/A/:|
DAY DAWS, THE [4]. English, Scottish. One of the earliest dance melodies mentioned in old accounts. Emmerson (1971) relates it was mentioned in the early 16th century by William Dunbar in Satire on Edinburgh as one of the tunes of the the 'common minstrelis' of that town. Somewhat later Gavin Douglas described minstrels welcoming a June morning with "The joly day now dawis'. Chappell has found English verses on the theme in the Fayrfax MS, while it was often included in early anthologies of old Scots poetry (including "elegant" verses by Alexander Mongomerie *c, 1556-1610). Emmerson (1972) finds mention of it in a poem by Robert Sempill of Beltrees, Renfrewshire (1595-1668), called "The Elegy of Habbie Simpson Piper of Kilbarchan," which goes, in part:
***
Now who shall play The Day it Daws,
Or Hunts up when the Cock he craws?
Or who can for our kirk-woen cause
Stand us in stead?
On bagpipes now nobody blaws
Sin' Habbie's dead.
***
The song did not survive the Reformation, possibly, suggests Emmerson, because the subject matter elaborated on the ancient custom of the lovers' night visit. The music did not survive intact either, and was lost from memory by the 18th century. Why this is so is curious, since it appears to have been a commonly known and well-established tune, a type of reville played by town pipers for several centuries. Believing it unlikely the tune disappeared forever Stenhouse suggested that the missing tune was in fact the melody called "Hey Tutti Taiti," or "Scots wha hae" (from Burns's lyric).
HEY TUTTIE TAITI. AKA - "Hey Tutti Tatti." AKA and see "Scots Wha Hae (Wi' Wallace Bled)," "Fill up your bumpers high," "Bridekirk's Hunting." Scottish, Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard. AABB. A very old Scots air, even at the time it was used (when played slow) by Robert Burns for his song "Scots wha hae." As a vehicle for songs it also served for the Jacobite carousing song "Fill up your bumpers high," and an Annandale-collected song called "Bridekirk's Hunting." The Jacobite version (dated to 1718 through a reference to Charles XII of Sweden, who proposed at that time "an inroad against England") begins:
**
Here's to the king, sir,
Ye ken wha I mean, sir,
And to every honest man
That will do't again!
**
Fill, fill your bumpers high,
Drain, drain your glasses dry,
Out upon him, fye! oh, fye!
That winna do't again!
**
According to Emmerson (1971) the title is supposed to imitated a trumpet, and was likley based on a trumpet motif, though not a trumpet tune (the first sylable of tutie rhymes with 'but' and the first sylable of taiti rhymes with 'gate'; it has been suggested that the stress should go on the second syllable of the words so as to mimic a trumpet sound). Tradition has it that it was played at the battle of Bannockburn in which Robert Bruce won independence for Scotland (see Robert Chambers' Scottish Songs Prior to Burns). Emmerson is concerned with the antiquity of the tune as he belives it has the character of a strathspey, and may be the earliest recorded example of that genre. He quotes Stenhouse's suggestion of a rhyme by mentioned by Fabyan from c. 1328 which appears to go to the tune, and finds a French reference from 1429 which seems to support his and traditional contention of antiquity. Purser (1992) reports that French records (perhaps those referred to by Stenhouse) give that the tune was brought to France by Scottish archers and was heard when Joan of Arc entered Oreleans, "and probably also Rheims for the coronation of the French king whose bodyguard was Scottish." The tune is still played in France. Finally, Emerson suggests "Hey Tutti Taiti" may be in fact the same tune as an early and lost "The Day Dawes" tune, though other melodies have the same title. Robert Burns wrote the following words to the tune (Scots Musical Museum, No. 130):
***
Landlady count the lawin'
The day is near the dawnin'
Ye're a' blind drunk boys
And I'm but jolly fu'
Hey tuttie tatie,
How tuttie tatie,
Hey tuttie tatie,
Wha's fu' noo.
***
Cog an' ye were aye fu'
Cog an' ye were aye fu'
I wad sit an' sing tae you,
An' ye were aye fu'.
(Chorus)
***
Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String), 1971; No. 4, pg. 16. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, iii), 1751.
JOHN COME KISS ME NOW. English, Scottish; Air and Country Dance Tune (4/4 or cut time). England, Northumberland. G Major (Chappell): F Major (Emmerson, Johnson). Standard. One part (Chappell): AB (Emmerson, Johnson). Originally an English tune appearing in the Cuming Manuscript (a fiddle book from Edinburgh, 1723-4), the McFarlane Manuscript, 1740, (in an experimental air-jig-allegro form by William McGibbon), and the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768), the title also appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. "John Come Kiss Me Now" is structured on an imported Italian 16th century form called "passamezzo moderno" (which involved stock chord progressions) and was the most popular tune in that form in both England and Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries (Johnson, 1984). Despite several Scottish appearances, Simpson (in British Broadside Ballads) traces the tune in England to a lute-tablature mansucript of c. 1570. Both a once-popular French tune known as "(Les) Bouffons/Buffons/Buffens" and the morris dance tune "Shepherd's Hey" equal the first (and sometimes sole) part of "John Come Kiss Me Now." The French variant was traced by Ward through European manuscripts back to the year 1552. Bayard notes that the tune was part of the Welsh harpers' tradition under the name "Pen Rhaw" (The Spade Head), but that second strains differ in nearly all sets of the tune he reviewed, and he concludes that the first strain formed the nucleus of the tune with other strains being independently joined. Chappell (1859) prints the first strain, which he finds (with fifteen variations) in The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book (c. 1650, therein credited to the famous English composer William Byrd), Robinson's New Citharen Lessons (1609), Airs and Sonnets, and a MS in the British Museum; another 16th century version appears in a MS book of "Airs and Sonnets" at Trinity College, Dublin, accompanied by verses in 16th century Scots. The first strain appears with a second in several more publications, including Playford's Introduction to the Skill of Music (1654), Musick's Delight on the Cithren (1666), A Book of Lessons for the Cithern & Gittern (1652), Apollo's Banquet for the Treble Violin, D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy, McGibbon's Scots Tunes (1768), and others. Emmerson (1971) reports that "John Come Kiss Me Now" survives in the second strain of the well-known country dance jig "New Rigg'd Ship;" reviewing the common-time version presented by Johnson, however, leads him to say the jig is best described as "a set of the old air." Robin Williamson's version is from Robert Edwards' Music Commonplace Book of 1650. Edwards was minister of Murroes Church in Angus, near Panmure House. Williamson explains that a number of airs were adapted in 16th century to lyrics which satirized the old church, so much so, in fact, that an act of Parliament was passed in 1552 condemning printers of "Ballattis, sangis, blasphematiounis, rymes" whether in Latin or English. The new Church of Scotland was quick to adopt the airs of songs popular at the time for religious purposes, even though many of the original lyrics were bawdy in nature (though what that nature might have been is apparently unknown. Chappell {1859} printed the first four lines but stated that nothing more remained of the original song, at least in English, though, as previously noted Scots versions do exist). The Church's first publication of these rewritten songs was in "Gude and Godlie Ballatis" (see also "Scots Wha Hae") in which "John Come Kiss Me Now" appears in what (to Williamson's mind) is a curiously sanitized version:
***
Johne cum kis me now
Johne cum kis me now
Johne cum kis me by and by
And mak no mair adow
***
which continues in the Church version:
***
The Lord, Thy God, I am
That Johne dois the call,
Johne representit man
Be grace celestiall etc.
***
Chappell finds several references to the tune in the literature throughout the 17th century, and deduces from these that it was used more as a dance than a song. In Thomas Heywood's A Woman killed with kindness, 1600, the tune is mentioned by Sisley, who says, "I love no dance so well as 'John, come kiss me now;" and in Tis Merry when Gossips Meet (1609), by Samuel Rowlands, can be found "Not an old daunce, but 'John, come kisse me now.'" John Hawkins writes disdainfully of the air in Cromwellian times:
***
...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.
***
Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), Vol. 1, 1859; pg. 268. Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String), 1971; No. 2, pg. 14. Johnson, Scots Musical Museum, 1792; No. 305. Flying Fish Records, Robin Williamson - "Legacy of the Scottish Harpers." Maggie's Music MMCD216, Hesperus - "Early American Roots" (1997).
T:John Come Kiss Me Now
L:1/8
M:2/4
S:Chappell - Popular Music of the Olden Times
K:F
F>G AG/F/|GD GA/G/|F>G A/G/A/B/|cC c2|F>G AG/F/|B/A/B/c/ dc/B/|
A/B/c/A/ G>F|F4||
T:John Come Kiss Me Now
L:1/8
M:C
S:Jones - Relicks (1794)
K:F
F3G AGAF|B3A BABG|F>G AGAB|cCEG cBAG|F3G AGAF|B2 B>B BcdB|
c3d cBAG|F2 E2 F4||
LOGIE O' BUCHAN [1]. AKA and see "The March of the Corporation of Tailors." Scottish, Air (3/4 time). C Major. Standard. AB. This version of the air (there are several) is attributed to Napier (1792). It is also "known as 'The March of the Corporation of Tailors' and was usually played at the annual meeting when they chose their deacons" (Neil, 1991). The words to the ballad were written bny George Halket, a schoolmaster at Rathen and an ardent Jacobite (for another song he wrote describing king George II in league with the devil, the Duke of Cumberland offered a reward of 100 pounds for his head). "Logie O' Buchan" is the tale of love and longing for Jamie (James Robertson, in real life a gardener at the mansion-house of Logie, in the parish of Crimond, belonging to Gordon of Logie and near Halket's home), despite the lure of rich Sandie. The heroine was Isobel Keith, who died in 1826 at the age of 89.
***
O Logie O' Buchan, O Logie the laird,
They hae ta'en awa Jamie, that delved in the yaird,
Wha play'd on the pipe, an' the viol sae sina'
They ha'e ta'in awa' Jamie, the flow'r o' them a',
He said 'Think na lang, lassie, th' I gan awa',
For I'll come and see thee in spite o' tham a'.
Though Sandie has owsen, has gear and has kye,
A house, an' a' hadden, and siller forbye,
Yet I'd tak' my ain lad, wi' his staff in his hand,
Before I'd ha'e him, wi' his houses and land,
But simmer is comin', cauld winter's awa
And he'll come and see me in spite o' them a'.
***
Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 81, pg. 109.
SCOTS WHA HAE. AKA and see "Hey Tuttie Taiti," "Fill up your bumpers high." Scottish, Air and Highland Schottische. D Major. Standard. AABB. Kidson (1915) says the tune comes from "remote antiquity;" it was said to have been played at the battle of Bannockburn. "Hey Tutti Taiti" is the air to which Robert Burns set his famous lyric "Scots Wha Hae," having been partly inspired by the French Revolution (Purser, 1992). The Burns song "Scots Wha Hae" appears in the Scots Musical Museum, No. 577. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 3; No. 202, pg. 24.
T: Scots Wha Hae
M: 3/4
L: 1/4
K: F
"C7"C | "F"C2C | "C7"C2D | "F"C2D | F3 \
| "Bb"D2D | D2C | D2E | F2G |
| "F"A2A | "A7"G2F | "Dm"F2G | "A7"A2G \
| "Dm"FD2 | "Bb"D2C | "F"C3- | "C7"C3 |
| "F"A2A | A2G | A2B | c3 \
| "C"G2G | "G7"G2F | "C"G2A | "C7"B3 |
| "F"c2A | "A7"G2F | "Dm"F2"A7"G | A3 \
| "Bb"FD2 | D2C | "F"C3- | "(C7)"C2 |]
STUMPIE/STUMPEY. AKA - "Reel of Stumpie." AKA and see "Butter'd Peas(e)," "Highland Wedding," "Jack's Be the Daddy On't," "The Rosses Highland." Scottish (originally), Canadian, English; Strathspey. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. G Major (Dunlay & Greenberg, Dunlay and Reich, Perlman, Sweet): A Major (Athole, Gow, Honeyman, Hunter, Kennedy, Raven & Skye). Standard. AB (Honeyman): AAB (Dunlay & Greenberg, Dunlay and Reich): AABB (Hunter, Kennedy, Perlman, Raven, Skye, Sweet): AABB' (Athole): AABBCCDDEEFF (Carlin/Gow). "A very old tune" (Gow). The earliest recorded appearances of this double-tonic tune are in John Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances, book 1, c. 1743-44 (under the title "Butter'd Pease"), and in David Young's Duke of Perth Manuscript (AKA the Drummond Castle MS) which predates it, having been printed in 1734. William Stenhouse stated the "Reel o' Stumpie" was in the ballad opera The Female Parson (1729) under the title "Jockey has gotten a wife," though John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, p. 201-2) said that the "Jockey..." tune was an entirely different melody. Bruce Olsen finds they were both right as the titles "Butter'd Peas" (Stumpie) and "Jockey has gotten a wife" were switched around in The Female Parson. It is usually rendered in the key of 'A' Major in Scottish versions, but the Mabou (Cape Breton) version is in 'G' and is played a bit differently (Dunlay & Reich). Some melodic material from "Stumpie" is shared with "Lady Betty Wemyss' Reel;" James C. Dick states they cover the "same subject."
**
The tune was used, as so many famous Scots melodies were, by Robert Burns for one of his revisions of a Scots song (No. 457 in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum {1796}). This song is also published in Dick's The Songs of Robert Burns (1903, No. 205) though he omitted parts he apparently deemed too risqué for the times. Charles Gore gives that the tune (or song) had been previously published as "Hap and row the Feetie o't," and that Burns reworked the material as he did with numerous other older songs. These lyrics appear in The Merry Muses of Caledonia:
**
Wap and row, wap and row,
Wap and row the feetie o't
I thought I was a maiden fair,
Till I heard the grettie o't
**
My daddie was a fiddler fine,
My minnie she made mantie O,
And I mysel a thumpin quean,
And try'd the reel of stumpie O.
**
Lang kail, pease and leeks,
They were at the kirst'nin' o't,
Lang lads wanton breeks,
They were at the getting o't.
Wap and row, &c.
**
The Bailie he gaed farthest ben,
Mess John was ripe and ready o't,
But the Sherra had a wanton fling,
The Sherra was the daddie o't.
Wap an' row, &c.
**
The Burns lyrics go:
**
Hap and row, hap and row,
Hap and row, the feetie o',t
I thocht I was a maiden fair
Till I heard the greetie o't.
My daddy was a fiddler fine,
My minnie she made mankie-o; (mankie=calamanco, a silk-wool material)
And I mysel' a thumpin' quean,
Wha danced the reel o' Stumpie O.
**
Gossip cup, the gossip cup,
The kimmer clash and caudle-O;
The glowin moon, the wanton loon,
The cuttie-stool and cradle-O.
Douce dames maun hae their bairn-time borne,
Sae dinna glower sae glumpie-O,
Birds love the morn and craws love corn,
And maids the reel o' Stumpie-O.
**
Dunlay and Greenberg (1996) report that Scots bagpiper Hamish Moore feels that the modern march "Highland Wedding" was derived from "Stumpie" and that he supplies a Gaelic title for the tune, "'Buail gu dluth le'd chluigean mi', meaning "strike me incessantly with your {?}." Sources for notated versions: Donald Angus Beaton (Mabou, Cape Breton) [Dunlay & Greenberg]; Paul MacDonald (b. 1974, Charlottetown, Queens County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]. Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), Vol. 2, 1782; No. 44. Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 221. Dunlay & Greenberg (Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton), 1996; pg. 93. Dunlay and Reich (Traditional Celtic Fiddle Music of Cape Breton), 1986; pg. 59. Gow (Strathspey Reels), book I, 1784 (appears as "Stumpie Strathspey"). Gow (The Beauties of Niel Gow), Part 3, 1819. Gow (Collection). Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; pg. 34. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 150. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune Book), Vol. 2, 1954; pg. 16. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; Set 6, No. 3, pg. 6. Lowe (A Collection of Reels and Strathspeys), 1842. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 4. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; pg. 188. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 168. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 13. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 57. Also found in many old collections. Beltona BL2128 (78 RPM), The Edinburgh Highland Strathspey and Reel Society (1936). Celtic CX 45, Wilfred Gillis - "Arisaig Airs." CTRAX 073, Hamish Moore - "Stepping on the Bridge/Daansa' air an Drochaid" (1994). DAB4-1985, Donald Angus Beaton- "A Musical Legacy" (1985. Appears as "A Mabou Strathspey"). JC 126, John Campbell- "Cape Breton on the Floor" (1981. Appears as "Traditonal Strathspey"). STEPH 1-94, Stephanie Wills - "Tradition Continued" (1994).
T:Stumpie
L:1/8
M:C
S:Strathspey
B:The Athole Collection
K:A
d|c>e a2 a/g/f/e/ a2|c>e a2 b<B B>d|c>e a2 a/g/f/e/ a2|c>eB>d c<AA:|
|:d|c>e e>d/c/ d>f f>e/d/|c>e e>d/c/ f<B B>d|1 c>e e>d/c/ d>f f>ed|c>eB>d c<AA:|2
c>e a2 b/a/g/f/ a2|c>aB>d c<AA||