Annotation:Ye'll Aye be Welcome Back Again

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YE'LL AYE BE WELCOME BACK AGAIN. AKA and see "Duncan Davidson," "Duncan Davison," “Old Eighteen-Twelve Quickstep," "Old 1812 Quickstep,” "Gentle Ann," "Handy Andy's Highland Fling," "Maggy's Weame Is Fu I Trow," "Welcome Here Again." Scottish, English; Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. John Glen (1891) thinks that "Ye'll Aye Be Welcome Back/Home Again" is the older title that precedes the closely related tune "Duncan Davidson," the latter of which he states was composed by poet Robert Burns. Further, he believes the ancestral tune to both is "Strick Upon a Strogin" in the Leyden Manuscript of 1692 (Samuel Bayard, in reviewing Glen's assertion, admits Glen may be right, but that he has no compelling reason for his line of thought). The melody appears in 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," and is contained in both Robert Bremner's 1757 collection and the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). James Aird printed it as “Gentle Ann” in his Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1' (1782, p. 11). English printings are nearly as early as Scottish ones. John Johnson published it in London in 1744 in his Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3. Samuel, Ann and Peter Thompson give it as “Bayham Abbey” in their Twenty Four Couple Dances for the Year 1793 (although Charles and Samuel Thompson had published it as “You be Welcome Here Again” in their Compleat Collection, vol. 3, 1773). Elizabeth Sanders Van Rensselaer in her 1782 manuscript (volume II) calls it “He is Long a Coming,” Abel Shattuck (Massachusetts) entered it into his 1801 commonplace book, John Greenwood has it as “Welcome Here Again” in his 1785 manuscript (p. 56), and it is titled simply “British March” in David McLaughlin Brown’s Commonplace Book of 1787.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 30 (appears as "Gentle Ann"). Bremner (Scots Reels), c. 1757; p. 56. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; pg. 3. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion), 1780?, vol. 2, p. 187. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3), 1773; No. 93. Walsh (Caledonian Country Dances), 1737, vol. 2, p. 45.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [2]

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