Annotation:Bob of Fettercairn (The)

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BOB OF FETTERCAIRN, THE. AKA and see "'Bhean an gab thu Fidhler," "Braw Lads o' Jethart," "Braes of Fettercairnie (The)," "Braw Lads of Jedburgh," "Come Kiss with Me/Come Clap with Me," "Had I the Wight," "Highland Hills," "I'll Kiss the Lass," "I'll Kiss the Lass She Bad Me," "I'll Kiss the Wife," "She Bad Me," "She Bade Me," "Kail and Knockit Corn" (Shetland), "Mrs. Reneau's Reel" (Canada), "Newburn Lads/Newburn Lasses," "Will you have a Fiddler." Scottish (orig.), Canadian; Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Fettercairn, Aberdeenshire, is a village north of Brechin approached by a wooded valley along which MacBeth is believed to have retreated after his defeat at Dunsinane. It was the site of Kincardine Castle, whose history goes back to the 10th century. A turreted arch commemorating the 1861 visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert survives at the entrance to the village. A bob in Scottish dialect has several meanings, including a tassell or a patch of grass or a plot of grain, a slight blow, the best-dressed lad or lass; or, as in the context of the title "Bob of Fettercairn", a dance [1]. Alexander Laing used the term in this context in his Wayside Flowers (1878) in the verse "Willy's Weddin'" (no 113)

Hey! the rant o' Tullibardine,
Hey! the jig o' Ballangeich,
Hey! the bob o' Fettercairn;
Hey! the kindly come-agen.

The tune is often played in Scotland in a medley with "Caber Feidh/Caper Fey." See "Highland Hills" for an early version of the melody, printed in the [James] Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768).

In Northumberland the tune has been embroidered with arpeggi and re-titled "Newburn Lads." Multi-instrumentalist John Rook (Waverton, Cumbria) entered it into his large 1840 music manuscript collection as "Braes of Fettercairnie (The)." Fiddler Lisa Ornstein finds variants in Quebec fiddler Joseph Allard's "Reel de Madame Renault"/"Mrs. Reneau's Reel," and the eastern Kentucky old-time tune "Dr. Humprey's Jig/Humphrey's Jig (1)" (in the repertoires of Jilson Setters {J.W. Day} and Ed Hayley, among others). See also the related Cape Breton reel "Beul Iosait," and the Scottish "A' bean an gabh thu fidhleir" (Woman take you the fiddler). Great Highland bagpipers sometimes play a four-part strathspey version of the tune.

See note for "Annotation:Newburn Lads" for more.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 73, p. 30. Cairngorm Collection: Highland Bagpipe Music, Book 3, 1999; p. 4. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 236. Gow (Third Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 3rd ed., originally 1792; p. 34. Graham & MacRae (The Gordon Highlanders: Pipe Music Collection, vol. 1), 1983; p. 134. William Gunn (Caledonian Repository of Music Adapted for the Bagpipes), Glasgow, 1848; p. 23 (appears as "'Bhean an gab thu Fidhler/Will you have a Fiddler"). Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 13. Howe (Musician's Omnibus, No. 2), 1864; p. 119. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; pp. 82 & 134. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 3, p. 24. J. Kenyon Lees (Balmoral Reel Book), Glasgow, 1910; p. 5. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 99. Manson (Hamilton's Universal Tune-Book, vol. 2), 1846; p. 21. Scots Guards: Standard Settings of Pipe Music, vol. 1, 1954. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 163.

Recorded sources: Philo 2001, "Jean Carignan" (1973).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [3]

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