Annotation:O'er Bogie

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X:1 T:O'er Bogie M:C| L:1/8 B:Alexander Stuart – “Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection part 5” B:(Edinburgh, c. 1724, pp. 126-127) F: https://digital.tcl.sc.edu/digital/collection/rbc/id/3066 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amin V:1 GA|c>dcA cGGA|c>d (c/d/c/A/) G2 Gc|Ad-dc deg>a|(g/a/g/e/) (g/e/d/)c/ (cA2) A:| |:G/A/| c2 (e/f/g) c2 (e/f/g)|cc d/(c/B/A/) G2 Gc|Addc deg>a|(g/a/g/e/) (g/e/d/c/) A2 A:| V:2 clef = bass z2|CG,E,C, E,G,CC,|CG, E,F, G,G,, C,E,|F,F,, E,E,, F,,C, E,D,|C,E, G,G,, A,E, A,,2:| |:z|E,C, CE, C,G, CC,|E,C, B,,G,, CG, C,2|F,F,, E,E,, F,E,C,D,|E,C, G,G,, A,E, A,,:|

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O'ER BOGIE (WI' MY LOVE). AKA - "Bogey Reel (2)," "Ore Boggy," "Over Bogie." AKA and see "Reel of Bogie (2)." Scottish, English; Reel. England, Northumberland. C Major (most versions): D Major (O'Farrell, Daniel Wright). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Doyle, Kerr, Little, D. Wright): AAB (Gow): ABB (Cranford/Holland, Lowe): AABB (Bremner, O'Farrell). The River Bogie [1] is a tributary of the River Deveron, which it joins near Huntly in Aberdeenshire, and the surrounding area is called Strathbogie (also the setting for the song "Bogie's Bonnie Belle"). However, the title refers to the Scots euphemistism "Ower Bogie," meaning to wed by a magistrate, and not with benefit of clergy, a scandalous union. See also note for "Annotation:English Bring to Gratney Green the Lasses that Hae Siller (The)" for a discussion of a similar euphemism, 'Gretna Green'. See also note for "annotation:Polwart on the Green."

"O'er Bogie" is dated to c. 1710 in Doyle's Plain Brown Tune Book, with the suggestion that it was composed in London in response to and imitation of the then-current vogue for Scottish and North Country tunes, later being absorbed into tradition in northern Britain. John Glen, in his Early Scottish Melodies (1900), dates the "quaint old melody" to 1709 when it appeared in Mrs. Crockat's Music Book. Early printings of the melody appear as air and country dance settings in Dublin publishers John and William Neal's 1726 collection, John Watts' The Musical Miscellany, vol. 5 [2] (London, 1731, pp. 60–62), William Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius (1725, Song 47), and the Drummond Castle Manuscript (in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle), inscribed "A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734." The air can be heard in ballad operas by John Gay Achilles (1733), John Watts' Highland Fair (1733), and Allan Ramsay's The Devil of a Duke, or Trapolin's Vagaries (1733) and Gentle Shepherd (1753). Country dance versions can be found in several of the volumes by London publisher John Walsh, including The Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1735) and The Compleat Country Dancing-Master. Volume the Third (1749), and John Johnson's issue of dancing master Daniel Wright's Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (1740).

Reel versions of the tune "have long been played," states John Glen (1900), and appear in print from the middle of the 18th century. "O'er Bogie" was printed by Robert Bremner in Scots Reels (1757) and by Neil Stewart in his Collection of the Newest and Best Reels or Country Dances (1761, p. 16).

Scots poet Allan Ramsay gave famous lyrics for "O'er Bogie" which appear in his Tea Table Miscellany (1724, "Sang XIV") {the tune was later published in Alexander Stewart’s Musick for Allan Ramsey's Collection, 1724-26}. John Glen credits Ramsey with writing the song—although Stenhouse maintained the lyrics predated Ramsay. They tell of an elopement, with "O'er Bogie" referring to the leaving of the area for marriage and the world beyond. Ramsay's words (from the his play Gentle Shepherd, where the song was also used) begin:

Well, I agree, ye're sure of me;
Next to my Father gae:
Make him content to give consent,
He'll hardly say you nay:
For ye have what he wad be at,
And will comment you well,
Since Parents auld think love grows cauld
Where Bairns want Milk and Meal.

Should he deny, I care na by,
He'd contradict in vain.
Tho' a' my Kin had said and sworn,
But thee I will have nane.
Then never range, nor learn to change,
Like these in high Degree:
And if you prove faithful in Love,
You'll find nae Fault in me.

Ramsey's chorus goes:

I will awa' wi' my love,
I will awa' wi' her,
Tho' a' my kin had sworn and said
I'll o'er Bogie wi' her.

Thomson's (Orpheus Caledonius) lyric begins:

I will awa' wi' my love,
I will awa' wi' her,
Tho' a my kin had sword and said,
I will awa' wi' her.

Chorus:
I'll o'er Bogie, o'er Scrogie,
O'er Bogie wi' her,
Tho' a my kin had sworn and said,
I will awa' wi' her.

If I can get but her consent,
I dinna care a strae,
Tho' ilka ane be discontent,
Awa' wi' her I'll gae.

For now she's mistress of my heart,
And wordy of my hand,
And well I wat we shanna' part,
For siller of for land. .... etc.

Scots poet James Hogg employed the melody for his song "The Appearance of Cromwell's Ghost on the Eve of the Battle of Culloden" in Jacobite Relics, vol. II (Song 12, p. 412). As with many Scottish songs, the title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. The melody is also known throughout the Shetlands as "Ower Bogie."

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