Annotation:Rory Dall's Port (1)

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X:1 T:Rory Dall's Port [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow" B:Oswald - Caledonian Pocket Companion vol. 8 (1760, p. 24)\ N:Printed by John Walsh c. 1760 as "Rosey Doll." Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G G>AB TB2g|d>cB TA2B|G>AB TB2g|d>cB [A,2A2][G,G]:| |:g>ab d2B|g>ab (c2A)|g>ab e>fg|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:(G/A/B/c/d) Bgb|(A/B/c/d/e) cac'|(G/A/B/c/d) Bgb|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| g2 (3b/a/g/ [D2d2]-[B,B]|g2 (3b/a/g/ [C2c2]-[A,A]|g2 (3b/a/g/ E>FG|Te>dB TA2G:| |:[G2B2][GB] [E2c2][Ec]|[G2B2][GB] [D2A2][DA]|[G2B2][GB][E2c2]e|{e}Td>cB TA2G2:| |:[B2g2][Bg] [c2e2][c2]|[^c2a2][ca] [d2f2][df]|[B2g2][Bg] e>fg|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:(G/<B/)TB2 (g/<b/) TB2|(G/<B/) TB2 (g/<B/)TA2|(G/<B/)TB2 (g/<d/)TB2|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:(b/<g/) (dB) (b/<g/)(ec)|(b/<g/) (dB) (b/<g/) (cA)|(b/<g/)(dB) (b/<g/) (eg)|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:(B/G)(B/G/)(c/A/) (B/G/)(c/A/) (d/g/)|(B/G/)(B/G/)(c/A/) (B/G/)(B/G/)(A/F/)|(B/G/)(B/G/)(c/A/) (B/G/)(c/A/) (d/g/)|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:(b/g/)(b/g/)(d/B/) (b/g/)(b/g/)(e/c/)|(b/g/)(b/g/)(d/B/) (b/g/)(b/g/)(c/A/)|(b/g/)(b/g/)(d/B/) (b/g/)(b/g/)(e/g/)|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:.[GB].[GB].[GB] .[Ec].[Ec].[Ec]|.[GB].[GB].[GB] .[DA].[DA].[DA]|.[GB].[GB].[GB] [E2c2]e|Td>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:.[Bg].[Bg].[Bg] .[ce].[ce].[ce]|.[^ca].[ca].[ca] .[df].[df].[df]|.[Bg].[Bg].[Bg] e>fg|d>cB T[A,2A2][G,G]:| |:(b2g) (c'2a)|(b2g) (a2d)|(b2g) (c'2a)|d'>c'b Ta2g:| |:B2 (g/<e/) c2 (a/<f/)|d2 (b/<g/) e>fg|(B2G) (c2A)|d>cB TA2G:|]

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RORY DALL'S PORT [1]. AKA and see "Rosey Doll." Scottish, Air (6/8 time). G Major (Johnson): E Major (Emmerson): F Major (Purser). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Emmerson): AB (Purser): AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLL (Johnson). The title may refer to Rory Dall (Blind Rory), AKA Roderick Morison (c. 1656-c. 1714), who 'was born a gentleman' and who lived much of his live at Dunvegan, Isle of Skye, where he was harper to John Breac, Laird of MacLeod. He was said to have been 'the last person in this country who possessed the talents of bard and harper, of poet and composer of music, in an eminent degree'. Gaelic Scotland's last minstrel' and wrote both verse and music. The tune has also been attributed to Rory dall O'Cahan, a famous Irish harper who lived primarily in Scotland in the 17th century, some seventy years before the Scottish Rory Dall. Musicologist John Purser (1992) attributes the melody to Rory dall O'Cahan (who visited the court of James VI and was not a stranger to Scotland), and observes that the tune appears a decade or two later than this period in the 1627-29 lute book of Robert Straloch of Gordon, evidencing the fact that some harp (clarsach) tunes were translated to early lute manuscripts. Musicologist David Johnson's (1984) candidate for the tune's composer is Scottish cellist and composer James Oswald (in his later London period), who published several of his compositions under pseudonyms and who originally titled the c. 1756 piece "A Highland Port (tune) by Rory Dall." John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900) also traced it only to Oswald and London publisher John Walsh (1757). Irish musicologist William Henry Grattan Flood wrote about the tune in his The Story of the Harp, and typically concluded that it was composed by the Irish Rory Dall (and not the later Scottish harper). He cites its appearance in John Playford's Dancing Master of 1670 (presuming a teenage Scottish Rory could not have composed it), however, no tune by that name can be found in Playford's volume, and Grattan Flood's attribution remains a mystery. He fails to make any connection between the tune and the Irish harper.

A melody also called "Rory Dall's Port" appears in the Skene Manuscript (1615-20) for the mandura under the title "Port Ballangowne," but it is a different tune.

Poet Robert Burns wrote his song "Ae fond kiss and then we sever" to this tune, and directed it be played "slow and tender." Burns's song was published in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, volume IV (Song 347, p. 358) of 1792 with "Rory Dall" as the air, but later the words were set to the air of "Hi Oro 'S Na Horo Eile," which is the more familiar version nowadays. "Rory Dall's Port (1)" also appears in London publisher John Walsh's Country Dances of 1750, and, in a later Walsh publication entitled Country Dances Selected (c. 1760) it appears as "Rosey Doll."