Annotation:Tibby Fowler o' the Glen (2) (The)

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X:1 T:Tibbie Fowler of the Glen [2] M:C| L:1/16 R:Strathspey B:Robert Ross – Choice Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances B:& Strathspeys (Edinburgh, 1780, p. 14) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Ador G2|AAA2 A4 G6B2|AAA2 (A3B) TG3E EG3|AAA2 (A3B) (G3A) B3(d|e3A) A3B G3E E2:| |:a2|g3e eg3 g3d dB3|g3e ea3 g3b e3(B|d3e) g3d Te3d Bb3|AAA2 T(A3B) G3E E2:| |:g2|aaa2 a4 g6b2|aaa2 (a3b) Tg3e eg3|aaa2 a4 g3a g3(b|b)a3 a3b Tg3e e2:| |:a2|Tg3e e3g gd3 dB3|g3e ea3 gb3 e3B|d3e g3d e3d Bb3|AAA2 A3B TG3E E2:|]

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TIBBY/TIBBIE FOWLER O' THE GLEN [2], THE. AKA - "Tibby Fowlerin the Glen," "Tibby Fowler O'er the Glen." AKA and see "Dunrobin Castle (1)," "Fouller's Rant," "Genty Tibby," "Mary Harvey at the Guard," "Owing at Her," "Seme Rune Tallanach." Scottish; Reel or Slow Strathspey (whole time). G Dorian (Young): D Dorian (Young/MacFarlane): A Dorian (most versions). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900, p. 198) says there is "a very good version of the melody in The Musick for the Scots Songs in the Tea-table Miscelanny, c. 1726 entitled "Genty Tibby." Although Allan Ramsay did not direct any air for his song "Genty Tibby and Sonsy Nelly" in his first volume of the Tea-Table Miscellaney it is thought to be associated. An "imperfect" version of the song was published earlier in David Herd's Jacobite Relics (1776).

James Johnson used a version of the dance tune for the song "Tibbie Fowler o' the Glen" in his Scots Musical Museum, vol. 5 (1797, Song 440). The words tell of a wealthy woman beset by suitors, and go:

Tibbie Fowler o' the glen, there's o'er mony wooin at her,
Tibbie Fowler o' the glen, there's o'er mony wooin at her.

Chorus:
Wooin at her, pu'in at her, courtin at her, canna get her:
Silly elf, it's for her pelf, that a' the lads are wooin at her.

Ten cam east, and ten came west, ten came rowin o'er the water;
Twa came down the lang-dyke side, there's twa-and-thirty wooin at her.

There's seven but, and seven ben, seven in the pantry wi' her;
Twenty head about the door, there's ane-and-forty wooin at her.

[She sits amang them like a queen, Ilka chiel expects to get her;
Gin she but let her thimble fa', they're like to knock their heads together]. ... [verse from Robert Ford]

She's got pendles in her lugs, cockle-shells wad set her better;
High-heel'd shoon and siller tags, and a' the lads are wooin at her.

Be a lassie e'er sae black, an she hae the name o' siller,
Set her upo' Tintock-tap, the wind will blaw a man till her.

Be a lassie e'er sae fair, an she want the pennie siller;
A flie may fell her in the air, before a man be even till her.

William Nappier also published the song, five years before Johnson's Museum, in his Selection, vol. 2 (1792), with two additional stanzas. These are perhaps the "modern stanzas" the Victorian era antiquary William Stenhouse excoriated in Illustrations (p. 392) as the work of a "filthy snort of a man", but who published them anyway:

In came Frank wi' his lang legs,
Gard a' the stair play clitter clatter;
Had awa, young men, he begs,
For, by my sooth, I will be at her.

Fye upon the filthy snort,
There's o'er mony wooing at her;
Fiften came frae Aberdeen;
There's seven and forty wooing at her.

Paul Stewart Cranford (1995) and Dunaly & Greenberg (1996) believe “Alec Dan MacIsaac's” to be a Cape Breton variant of this piece. See note for "annotation:Tibby Fowler o' the Glen (1)" for more.

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