Annotation:Shepherd's Wife (The)

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X:1 T:Shepherd's Wife, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Lively" B:William Napier - Selection of Scots Songs, vol. 3 (1794, p. 29) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Eb P:"Vocal air" V:1 B,|E2F G2A|B2e {e}d2B|(cd) e (BA) G|(FG) E {E}D2B,| E2F G2A|B2e {e}d2B|(Bc) e f>e d|e3 E2|| e|g>ag (f>e)d |(e>f) e e d B|(cd) e (BA) G|(EF) E D2B,| g>a g (fe) d|(e>f) e {e}d>c B|(c>d) e f>e d|e3 E2|| P:"Violin part by Haydn" V:2 B,|E2D E2F|G2G F2E |E3- EDE|C3 B,2z| G,/B,/E/B,/A,/B,/ G,/B,/E/B,/A,/B,/|G,/B,/E/B,/G/E/ GF B,/E/|C/E/D/F/E/G/ [CF]z[A,D]|[G,E][G,E][G,E] [G,2E2]|| z|EGB DFB|CG=A B2G|_A3 GFE|A,2 =A, B,2z| [G3e3] [Fe]d[Fd]|([Ed]c)[Ec] ([Dc]B) _D/B/|C/B/A/=D/E/G/ A,/F/G,/E/A,/D/|E/B,/G,/B,/G,/B,/ G,2||

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SHEPHERD'S WIFE [1], THE. AKA and see "Hesitation Waltz" (America?). English, Waltz; Scottish, Slow Air (6/8 time). G Major (Kennedy, Raven): E Flat Major (Gow). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Kennedy, Raven, Silberberg): ABB (Gow): AA'B (Matthiesen). "The Shepherd's Wife" is an air, perhaps a slow dance tune, sometimes used as a waltz in modern times. It was printed in Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum (vol. IV, song 362, pp. 372-373) as the vehicle for the song “The Shepherd’s Wife,” with pastoral but comic verses by poet Robert Burns. They begin:

The shepherd's wife cries o'er the knowe,
'Will ye come hame, will ye come hame?'
The shepherd's wife cries o'er the knowe,
'Will ye come hame again e'en jo?'
'O what will ye gie me to my supper,
Gin I come hame, gin I come hame,
'O what will ye gie me to my supper,
Gin I come hame again e'en jo?

The song consists of a husband answering his wife's questions. Poet Robert Burns re-wrote an older song, the original of which Robert Chambers traced back to David Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs, vol. ii (1775). The 19th century antiquarian Stenhouse, in his notes to the Scots Musical Museum, suggested that the original tune for the song was "Bab at the Bowster"/"Babbity Bowster", AKA "Country Bumpkin (The)," a rather better-known melody, while Chambers thought the "Shepherd's Wife" melody could also be traced to Herd. John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900, p. 175), disagrees with both conclusions, saying that there is no evidence of precursor melodies or earlier appearances in print. Glen finds that the first appearance of the tune was in William Napier's Selection of Original Scots Songs, vol. 3 (1794, p. 29).

A jig or quadrille version of the tune appears as "Tennessee Hornpipe" in Bayard's 1981 collection (No. 499, p. 458), collected in southwestern Pennsylvania.