Annotation:Broom the Bonny Bonny Broom

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BROOM, THE BONNY, BONNY BROOM. AKA - "Broom of the Cowdenknowes," "Cowden Knowes," "Cowdenknowes," "Lovely Northerne Lass (The)," "O My King," "O the Broom." Scottish, English ; Air and Country Dance Air (2/2 time). England; Northumberland, Shropshire. F Major (Barnes, Karpeles, Raven, Sharp, Williamson): G Major (Ashman). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Ashman, Karpeles, Raven, Sharp, Williamson): AABB (Barnes). This very old Northumbrian air has been set to various words, but most famously appears as "The Broom of the Cowdenknows." Broom is a bush with brilliant yellow flowers that grows all over England and Southern Scotland on hillsides. Stems of the plant were at one time bundled together and bound to sticks for use as sweepers, hence the name 'broom' for the common implement. Cowdenknowes itself, with its famous broom, is situated on the east bank of the River Leader, five miles northeast of Melrose.

The piece can be traced back to the mid-17th century, probably Scottish in origin, or at least so believed antiquarian researchers William Stenhouse, G.F. Graham, and John Muir Wood. Stenhouse believed it was probably one of those introduced into England after 1603 with the advent of the Stuart monarchy. Graham says, "This is a very ancient and beautiful air of one strain," and adds, "That in all the versions given in the older Scottish collections, the air begins on the second note of the scale, while in Playford's Dancing Master 1651, it begins on the fifth, and in Watt's Musical Miscellany, and some other works on the key-note itself" (quoted from Glen, Early Scottish Melodies, 1900). The tune was popular, widely known in Britain, and frequently used as the vehicle for numerous lyrics; it appears, for example, set for four different songs in the Tea Table Miscellany (1724), though the earliest English appearance seems to have been in the first edition of John Playford's English Dancing Master (1651-John Glen thought the Playford version "very insipid"). Playford also included it in his Musick's Delight on the Cithern (1666). Scots versions predate English ones with the melody used for broadside ballads at least as early as 1632. Later Scots versions of the song are to be found in Orpheus Caledonius (1725) and The Scots Musical Museum (1787). The song was mentioned in the text of the very first ballad opera, The Gentle Shepherd (1725), written by Allan Ramsay (although his work was not performed before Gay's 1729 Beggar's Opera became a hit), and subsequently in the ballad operas Beggar's Opera (see "Miser thus a shilling sees (The)"), The Highland Fair and The Decoy. Even the German composer J.C. Bach (son of the more famous Johan Sebastian) penned a setting of this melody.

The name of the tune appears in a 1721 poetic address by Allan Ramsay addressed to the Edinburgh Musical Society.

While vocal tubes and consort strings engage
To speak the dialect of the Golden Age,
Then you whose symphony of souls proclaim
Your kin to heaven, add to your country's fame,
And show that musick may have so good fate
In Albion's glens, as Umbria's green retreat:
And with Corelli's soft Italian song
Mix Cowden Knows, and Winter Nights are long.

The song was also mentioned in Allan Ramsay's ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd (1725, just before "Sang X"):

Jenny sings saft the "Broom o' Cowden-Knowes",
An' Rosie lilts the "Milking of the Ewes";
There's nane like Nancy, "Jenny Nettles" sings;
At turns in "Maggy Lauder", Marion dings:
But when my Peggy sings, wi' sweeter skill,
"The Boatman", or the "Lass o' Patie's Mill",
It is a thousand times mair sweet to me;
Tho' they sing weel, they canna sing like thee.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Playford, The English Dancing Master (1651) {appears as "The Bonny Bonny Broome"}. Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 66-67, p. 26. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Karpeles & Schofield (A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; p. 16. John Gay, The Beggar's Opera (1729) {appears as "O, the Broom"}. McGibbon (Scots Tunes, book III), 1762; p. 67. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 55. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pp. 45 & 76. Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909/1994; p. 34. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; p. 28.

Recorded sources: Dorian 90238, The Baltimore Consort - "A Trip to Killburn." Flying Fish Records FF358, Robin Williamson - "Legacy of the Scottish Harpers, vol. 1." Green Linnet SIF 3037, Silly Wizard - "Golden, Golden" (1985). Harmonia Mundi 907101, The King's Noyse - "The King's Delight: 17c. Ballads for Voice and Violin Band" (1992. Appears as the tune for the song "The Lovely Northerne Lass").

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