Annotation:Had Away Frae Me Donald

Back to Had Away Frae Me Donald

---

HAD AWAY FRAE ME, DONALD. AKA - "Had Awa' Frae Me, Donald," "Haud Awa' Frae Me Donald." Scottish, Air (whole time). The song, anciently contained in the Roxburghe Collection of ballads, is ascribed to Daniel Grant in the McLean Collection (1772, p. 1), and a derivative was published in the late 18th century by James Johnson in Edinburgh ("Thou art gane awa'"). The tune, however, was first published by and Henry Playford in his Dancing Master (seventh edition, 1690) under the title "Welcome Home Old Rowley. Around the same time (c. 1692) it was entered into the Scottish Blaikie Manuscript as "Hold away from me Donald." John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900, pp. 167-168) considers it a Scottish tune that Playford adopted for a dance called "Welcome Home Old Rowley." The melody subsequently appeared, with considerable embellishments, in the second edition of Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius (1733). Glen says that biography:Pietro Urbani at Edinburgh is said to have introduced the modern set of the melody in his Selection of Scots Songs... Improved and with Simple and Adapted Graces (1792-1794), but that Corri published it nine years before Urbani's work appeared. The 'modern' version of the melody was also printed by Johnson in the Scots Musical Museum (No. 338 & No. 339) where it is the vehicle for another song called "Thou art gane awa," with anonymously written words.

X:1
%
T:Thou are gane awa'
M:C
L:1/8
R:Air
B:Thompson - Scots Musical Museum
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:A
c>B|(A>G) (AF) A3 (G/F/)|(E>F) (EC) E2 c>B|A3F (EF) (AB)|
c2 (B>A) A2 (c>B)|(A>G) (AF) A3 (G/F/)|(E>F) (EC) E2 c>B|
A3 F (EF) (AB)|c2 {c}(B>A) A2 zA|(A>B) (cd) e3f|
{f}e2 (cA) B2 zE|(A>B) (cd) e3f|e2 (d>c) B2 zA|(A>B) (cd) e3f|
{f}e2 (dc) {c}!fermata!B2 (c>B)|(A>G) (AF) (EF) (AB)|c2 {c}(B>A) A2z||

The first verse of the old song (given in Joseph Ritson's Scottish Songs, 1714) goes:

O Will you hae ta tartan plaid,
Or will you hae ta ring, mattam?
Or will you hae ta kiss o' me?
And dats ta pretty ting, mattam.
Had awa', bide awa',
Had awa' frae me, Donald,
I'll neither kiss nor hae a ring,
Nae tartan plaids for me, Donald.

The song was also printed in Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany (1750, p. 152). The

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 3), 1760; p. 17.

Recorded sources:

---