Annotation:Yellow Haired Laddie (2)

Back to Yellow Haired Laddie (2)

---

YELLOW HAIRED LADDIE [2]. AKA and see "Brown Haired Boy (1) (The)." Scottish, English; Air or Waltz. F Major (Neal): G Major (Carlin): D Major (Gatherer, Huntington, Mulhollan, O’Farrell, Sumner). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Gatherer): AABB (Neal, Sumner/Gibbons): AA'BB' (Carlin, Huntington, O’Farrell): AA'BB'CC (Mulhollan). A very popular and rather old air, dating at least to the early 18th century, although John Glen (1900) was of the opinion that the song must have been written in the late 17th century. George Farquhar Graham concurred, though qualified the 'the present form of the air' stems from the late 17th century, and thought it "more than probable that there existed an earlier, simpler, and more Scottish version" (Songs of Scotland, p. 95). The melody was published by John & William Neal in Dublin in their Collection of the Most Celebrated Scotch Tunes (1724) and in the same year in Alexander Stuart's Music for Allan Ramsay's Collection of Scots Songs. It was used three times for songs in Allan Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany (c. 1724) and was printed in Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius (c. 1725) and Adam Craig's Collection of the Choicest Scots Tunes (1730, p. 15). Cunningham (Scottish Songs, 1825) says that Ramsay "saved [the song] from oblivion and imitated." Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900) mentions that Stenhouse found it in Mrs. Crockats Music Book, written in 1709. It subsequetly appears as both an air and a song in nearly every song collection thoroughout the rest of that century, and well into the 19th century. Robert Chambers, in his Songs of Scotland Prior to Burns (1862, p. 314) gives the song, the first two stanzas of which go:

The yellow haired laddie sat on yon burn brae,
Cries, Mild the ewes, lassie, let nane o' them gae;
And aye she milked and aye she sang,
The yellow haired laddie shall be my guidman.

The weather is cauld, and my claithing is thin,
The ewes are new clipped, they winna bught in;
They winna bughtin, although I should die,
O yellow-haired laddie, be kind unto me.

The air was the vehicle for songs in 18th century ballad operas, including Ciber's Patie & Peggy, or the Fair Foundling (1730), Phillips' The Mock Lawyer (1731), Thompson's The Disappointed Gallant, or Buckram in Armour (1738), The Jovial Crew (1731), and Allan Ramsay's The Gentle Shepherd. Chappel, rather predictably, claims an English provenance for the song, but this is disputed by Glen who sees no evidence for the assertion.

Source for notated version: the 1823–26 music mss of papermaker and musician Joshua Gibbons (1778–1871, of Tealby, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire Wolds) [Sumner].

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 6), 1803; No. 116, p. 45. Alexander (Alexander’s New Scrap Book vol. 6), c. 1845; No. 847, p. 9. Carlin (Master Collection), 1984; No. 178, p. 103. Gatherer (Gatherer's Musical Museum), 1987; p. 27. Hamilton (Select Songs of Scotland), 1848. Howe (Musician's Onmibus, No. 2), p. 116. Huntington (William Litten's Fiddle Tunes, 1800–1802), 1977; p. 45. McGibbon (Collection of Scots Tunes, vol. 3), 1762; p. 85. Mulhollan (Selection of Irish and Scots Tunes), Edinburgh, 1804; p. 10. Napier (Scots Songs, vol. 1), c. 1790; p. 66. Neal (Collection of the Most Celebrated Scotch Tunes for the Violin), Dublin, 1724; p. 11. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 2), c. 1806; p. 153. O’Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 3), c. 1808; p. 36. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 155, p. 27. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 2), 1760, p. 12. Ritson (Scottish Songs, vol. 1), pp. 125 126. Sime (The Edinburgh Musical Miscellany), pp. 52 53. Sumner (Lincolnshire Collections, vol. 1: The Joshua Gibbons Manuscript), 1997; p. 53 (originally set in the key of F major, noted for two instruments). Thomson (Orpheus Caledonius), p. 12. Thumoth (12 Scotch and 12 Irish Airs), London, 1742, pp. 4–5.

Recorded sources: Alasdair Fraser – "Legacy of the Scottish Fiddle vol. 2."

---