Annotation:Allan Water

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ALLAN WATER. AKA – "Allen Water." Scottish, Air. F Major (Bowie MS): G Major (McGibbon, Oswald, D. Young's Set). AA'BB' (McGibbon): ABCD (Bowie MS): AABBCCDD (Young). The River Allan is a tributary of the Forth of Firth that flows through Perthshire and Stirlingshire before it empties into the Forth near Bridge of Allan. The air first appeared in Blaikie's Manuscript, 1692, and first seems to have been printed in Original Scotch Tunes, 1700, a collection of Scottish melodies issued by Henry Playford. Early versions also appear in the Bowie MS., the McFarlane MS. (1740, in a setting by David Young), and in a c. 1705 fiddler's MS. book in the collection of Francis Collinson (one of the earliest fiddler's MS. books extent). Young's variations were written based on the tune that appears in the Bowie MS., and "are to be played rather slower than the simple set of the tune (in Bowie). For the work of a literate composer in 1740 they are extremely old-fashioned, and keep the tune's pentatonic mode almost intact" (Johnson, 1983).

The title comes from a song set to the air, the words of which were given in Martha Brown's music-book of 1714. It begins:

Bridge over the River Allan with Roofless Cathedral, by M. McLean

Allan Water's wide and deep,
And my dear Annie's very bonnie. ... (Johnson/Brown)

The fiddle tune, however, does not fit exactly these lyrics, and needs be simplified and altered to fit. The Scots poet Robert Burns wrote a love song (appearing in Thomson's Scottish Airs) to the tune "Allan Water" that begins:

By Allan-side I chanc'd to rove,
While Phoebus sank beyond Benledi;
The winds were whispering thro' the grove,
The yellow corn was waving ready....

Burns told Thomson that he wrote his words for the air because the words to it in the Scots Musical Museum seemed unworthy. He added: 'I may be wrong, but I think it is not in my worst style.'

Printed sources: Johnson (Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century), 1984; p. 23 (from the Bowie MS.) and p. 102 (from the McFarlane MS). McGibbon (Collection of Scots Tunes, vol. 3), 1762; p. 80. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 4), 1760; p. 25. Playford (A Collection of Original Scotch-Tunes), 1700, No. 27, p. 12.

Recorded sources:

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