Annotation:Ale Wife and Her Barrel (The)

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ALE WIFE AND HER BARREL, THE. Scottish, Air & Country Dance. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB' (Aird). The melody appears in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion (1760) and Neil Stewart's 1761 collection (p. 52). The title is also that of a country dance taught in a country dancing school as mentioned by MacTaggart in The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia (1824). Several British musicians' manuscripts contain the tune, including those of H.S.J. Jackson (1823, Wyresdale, Lancashire) and John Fife (c. 1780, Perth, Scotland), and it appears in the Durham manuscript under the title "Lord Lovell's Reel." A similar title, "O the Ale Wife with Her Barrel Still Makes Me Uneasy" appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), published c. 1800.

"The Ale Wife and Her Barrel" is the name of a song about a wife at once industrious and dissipated, printed in several 19th century anthologies. The brewing of ale was done by women, who afterwards retailed the product, occasionally sampling their own wares over-much (the bartender's temptation). The song (as given by Peter Buchan in his manuscript Songs of the North of Scotland) begins:

My mind is vex'd and sair perplex'd,
I'll tell you all that grieves me,
A drunken wife I hae at hame,
Her noisome din aye deaves me.

Chorus:
The ale-wife, the drunken wife,
The ale wife, she greives me;
My wifie and her barrellie,
They'll ruin me and deave me.

She takes her barrel on her back,
Her pint-stoup in her hand,
And she is to the market gane,
For to set up a stand.

A similarly-titled piece, "O the Ale Wife with Her Barrel Still Makes Me Unseasy," was among the titles cited in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), published c. 1800. Multi-instrumentalist John Rook of Waverton, Cumbria, entered the tune (as "Auld-wife & her barrel") in his large 1840 music manuscript collection. The air employed for the song by William Christie in his Traditional Ballad Airs, vol. 1 (1876) goes:

X:1
T:Ale Wife and Her Barrel, The
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:Air
B:William Christie - Traditional Ballad Airs, vol. 1''' (1876, p. 190)
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:D
(dB)|AD {E}D(C/D/)|{DE}FE ~E (F/G/)|{F}AD D(F/A/)|B2 B(d/B/)|
AD {E}D(C/D/)|{DE}FE E(F/G/)|A>B (B/A/)(G/F/)|{F}A2 A||
(B/c/)|(dB) B(A/B/)|dB B(e>c)|{c}(dB) (=c/B/)(A/B/)|=c2 ~ce|
d>B (d/B/)(A/F/)|A(A/B/) d>A|B(d/B/) {B}AF|{F}A2 A||

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), vol. II, 1785; No. 72, p. 27. Callaghan (Hardcore English), 2007; p. 28. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 8), 1760; p. 22.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
The Ballad Index [1]

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