Annotation:Cauld Kail in Aberdeen (1)

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CAULD KAIL IN ABERDEEN [1]. AKA - "Cauld Kail (2)." Scottish, Song Air (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Howe): AABB (Gow). The song (with words adapted by Robert Burns) was included in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1788, p. 170), but had been published earlier (albeit with a different melody) in Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd (London, 1775, pp. 38-39). David Herd's lyric, from his Scots Songs (vol. 2, 1776, p. 205) begins:

The Cald kail of Aberdene
Is warming at Strathbogie
I fear twile tine the heat oer soon
And ne'er fall up the Bogie
The Lasses about Bogingicht
There Leems they are baith dear tight
And if they are but girded right
They'll dance the Reell of Bogie

The late Bruce Olson pointed out the "to dance the Reel of Bogie", like "The Shaking of the Sheets", is a common euphemism, and that the lyric printed in the Scots Musical Museum is a "purified and padded" version. A version of the song has been attributed to the Duke of Gordon, the same Duke who was the patron and source of encouragement to William Marshall (1748-1833), strathspey composer. A version appears in the early 19th century music manuscript collection of Aberdeen piper William Mackie, who played both Great Highland Bagpipe and Scottish small-pipes, but whose collection also appears to have sections for flute and/or fiddle.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5), 1801; No. 126, p. 48. Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 21. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 3, 1806; p. 13. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 125. Wilson (Companion to the Ball Room), 1816; p. 56.

Recorded sources:

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