Annotation:Doon da Rooth

Tune properties and standard notation

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DOON DA ROOTH. Shetland, Dance Tune (21/8 time!). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This tune, which is probably a spinning tune, according to Shetland composer and teacher Tom Anderson, has abrupt changes in metre that are perhaps better notated broken down into 12/8 and 9/8 portions. "The 'rooth' is an Unst (island) word for the leather part that holds the 'flee', where the thread goes in, on a spinning wheel" (Anderson & Georgeson, 1970). Jack Campin [jc@purr.demon.co.uk] identifies the tune as one of many variants of "The Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow," a Lowland Scots tune which also coincidentally was originally a women's spinning song. Nigel Gatherer, however, maintains "Doon da Rooth" is a Shetland version of Gow's "Drown Drouth," and that the Shetland title has less to do with a spinning connection than it does with a particular pronunciation of Gow's title.

Source for notated version: J.J. Stickle (Shetland) [Anderson & Georgeson].

Printed sources: Anderson & Georgeson (Da Mirrie Dancers), 1970; p. 16.

Recorded sources:

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Tune properties and standard notation