Annotation:Auld Wife Ayond the Fire

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AULD WIFE AYOND/AHUNT THE FIRE, THE. AKA and see "Aald Wife Ahunt the Fire," "Old Wife Behind the Fire (The)," "Old Wife Beyond the Fire," "Old Wife Behind the Fire," "Set the old wife beyond the fire," "Welcome Royal Charlie." Scottish, Reel, Slow Strathspey or Country Dance Tune (4/4 time); Shetland, Reel. G Major (Barnes, Bremner, Cranford, Gow, Kerr): F Major (Hunter). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Hunter): AAB (Gow): AABB (Barnes, Bremner, Kerr): AA'BB (Cranford). Once popular throughout Britain, albeit in different versions. According to Glen the tune was first published by Robert Bremner (1757) and Neil Stewart (1761, p. 12), however, the melody appears earliest in the Drummond Castle Manuscript (in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle), inscribed "A Collection of Country dances written for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734." Gentleman-amateur fiddler Capt. Robert Riddell (1755-1794), friend of Robert Burns, included the tune with numerous variation sets in his 1794 publication, but ascribed the composition to William French. This assertion is belied by the printings before French's time.

All the Scottish printings are predated by the tune's appearance in John and William Neal's Choice Collection of Country Dances (Dublin, c. 1726), where the tune is given as "Old Wife Behind the Fire." English appearances in print (with the Neal title) are numerous, including Johnson's edition of Daniel Wright's Compleat Collection of celebrated country Dances (printed by John Johnson, London, 1740), Longman, Lukey & Broderip's edition of Bride's Favourite Collection of 200 Select Country Dances, Cotillons (London, 1776), and Longman & Broderips Compleat Collection of 200 Favorite Country Dances (London, 1781). In manuscript form, the tune was included in the collections of Northumbrian musician William Vickers (1770) and London musician Thomas Hammersley (c. 1790). Known also throughout the Shetlands. Cooke (1986) prints the following text to this dance tune, in oral tradition in the Shetlands in the 1970's:

The aald wife behunt the fire,
The aald wife behunt the fire,
The aald wife behunt the fire,
She deed for want of sneezing
She neether deed for kale or salt
She deed for a werrer fault
She deed for want of sneezing.

Source for notated version: Neal's c. 1726 collection [Barnes].

Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 97. Bremner (Scots Reels), c. 1757; p. 90. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 8. Cranford (Jerry Holland's), 1995; No. 164, p. 47. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; p. 14. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 2, 1802; p. 6 (slow strathspey). Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 43. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2), c. 1880's; No. 115, p. 14. Riddell (Collection of Scotch Galwegian Border Tunes), 1794; p. 34. Wright (Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances), 1740; p. 74 (appears as "Old Wife Behind the Fire").

Recorded sources: Fiddlesticks cass., Jerry Holland - "A Session with Jerry Holland" (1990).

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