Annotation:Sean Trews (1)

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X:1 T:Shaun Truish Willichan M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:Robert Bremner – Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances (1757) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Ddor A,|D/D/D D>F E2 A,>F|F2 (ED) G/F/E/D/ CE|D/D/D D>F E2 A>E|F2 TED CA,A,:| |:G|A>cAF G>AGE|F>GFD G/F/E/D/ CG|A>cAF G>AGE|FD G/F/E/D/ CA,A,:| |:A|d/d/d d>f Te2 A>e|{de}f2 ed g/f/e/d/ ce|d/d/d d>f Te2 ce|fd g/f/e/d/ Tc>AA:| |:g|aa _b/a/g/f/ gg a/g/f/e/|ff g/f/e/d/ eccg|aa _b/a/g/f/ gg a/g/f/e/|fd g/f/e/d/ TcAA:|]

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SEAN TREWS [1] (Seán Triubhas). AKA and see "Gin Ye Kiss My Wife I'll Tell the Minister," "Seann Triubhas," "Shauntreuse," “Shaun Truish Willighan/Willichan” (Willie’s auld Trews), "Shaun Truish," "Dr. William Grant." Shetland, Scotland; "Double Hornpipe," Strathspey or Rant. D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Martin): AABBCC (Bremner): AABB'CCD (Emmerson). Alan Cunningham in Scottish Songs (1825) refers to this piece as a 'popular hornpipe air'. Scottish step dances to native common-time tunes were termed 'double hornpipes' in the late 18th and early 19th centuries (Emmerson, 1971). O’Neill (1922) notes: “With this tune is associated a special Highland dance, commonly referred to as ‘Sean Truis’, but occasionally as ‘Willichan’." However there are a plethora of spelling and word variants of the title (and will be variously titled here).

John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the melody in Robert Bremner's 1757 (publication dates vary) Second Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances (as "Shaun Trush Willichan"), followed by the James Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768, as "Shan Trowes"), Captain Simon Fraser's Airs and Melodies (1816), and, in a different form, in London dancing master Thomas Wilson's Companion to the Ball Room (1816). After Robert Bremner's death in 1789 his collections were reprinted by Preston, a London music publisher. Emmerson (1972) calls it a set of “De'il Stick the Minister (2).” A version, almost note-for-note with Wilson’s Companion to the Ball Room (1816) was entered into the music manuscripts of American painter William Sydney Mount, also a fiddler.

The Scottish solo dance Sean Triubhas is performed in tartan trousers rather than plaid kilts. According to Scottish dance writers Flett and Flett, the earliest mention of a "Shant Trews" being danced is in Musselburgh Town Hall, Midlothian, in 1793 in Mr. Salmon's dance class. Whether it is actually a Highland dance is conjectural at this point, although it has been adopted into Highland dance tradition. According to Emmerson (1972), as a competitive dance Seann Triubhas was first introduced at the Braemar Games in 1853 alongside the Highland Fling, Reel of Tulloch, and Gille Chaluim. There are various pieces of lore associated with the dance, including that it was an expression of resistance to the 1747 Dress Act which forbade the wearing of the kilt, or that it was attached to celebrations of the repeal of the Act in 1782. As has been pointed out, however, much of this is speculative or It is today commonly associated with the air "Whistle o'er the Lave O't" and features a distinctive 'side-cutting' step.