Annotation:My Lady's Goon Has Gairs Upon It: Difference between revisions

Find traditional instrumental music
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 1: Line 1:
=='''Back to [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]'''==
{{TuneAnnotation
----
|f_tune_annotation_title=https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:My_Lady's_Goon_Has_Gairs_Upon_It >
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
|f_annotation='''MY LADY'S GOON HAS GAIRS ON'T.''' Scottish, Strathspey. C Major (Cole): F Major (Howe). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. ''Goon''=gown. A ''goonie'' is a nightie. ''Gairs'' means pleats, as in pleated sleeves, which were sometimes accented with a different material or color than the dress. However, ''gair'' was also used to indicate grassy strains, which gives the title a ribald meaning. For this reason, James Johnson was reluctant to include Robert Burns' 1788 reworking of the old song in his '''Scots Musical Museum''' until much later, finally publishing it near the end of the series of volumes in 1803.  The Glasgow-published '''British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany''' (1843) printed this tune along with another song called "[[Howlet and the Weazel (The)]]", and opined:
'''MY LADY'S GOON HAS GAIRS ON'T.''' Scottish, Strathspey. C Major (Cole): F Major (Howe). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. ''Goon''=gown. A ''goonie'' is a nightie. ''Gairs'' means pleats, as in pleated sleeves, which were sometimes accented with a different material or color than the dress. However, ''gair'' was also used to indicate grassy strains, which gives the title a ribald meaning. For this reason, James Johnson was reluctant to include Robert Burns' 1788 reworking of the old song in his '''Scots Musical Museum''' until much later, finally publishing it near the end of the series of volumes in 1803.  The Glasgow-published '''British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany''' (1843) printed this tune along with another song called "[[Howlet and the Weazel (The)]]", and opined:
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
''They both attained no very honourable notoriety from their old blackguard names, and''  
''They both attained no very honourable notoriety from their old blackguard names, and''  
Line 36: Line 35:
''hears the tones of his own violin.''<ref>'''The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronical''', vol. 87, pt. 2 (July-Dec. 1817), p. 636. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101077262085&view=1up&seq=672]</ref>
''hears the tones of his own violin.''<ref>'''The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronical''', vol. 87, pt. 2 (July-Dec. 1817), p. 636. [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101077262085&view=1up&seq=672]</ref>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
The Irish "[[Murphy's Reel (3)]]" has some melodic similarities in the first several bars.  
The Irish "[[Murphy's Reel (3)]]" has some melodic similarities in the first several bars.  
<br>
|f_source_for_notated_version=
<br>
|f_printed_sources=Hamilton ('''The British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany, vol. 2'''), 1843; p. 108.
</font></p>
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
''Source for notated version'':
<br>
<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
''Printed sources'':
Hamilton ('''The British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany, vol. 2'''), 1843; p. 108.
Cole ('''1000 Fiddle Tunes'''), 1940; p. 123.
Cole ('''1000 Fiddle Tunes'''), 1940; p. 123.
Howe ('''1000 Jigs and Reels'''), c. 1867; p. 149.
Howe ('''1000 Jigs and Reels'''), c. 1867; p. 149.
Line 54: Line 43:
Manson ('''Hamilton's Universal Tune Book'''), 1844; p. 13.
Manson ('''Hamilton's Universal Tune Book'''), 1844; p. 13.
'''Ryan's Mammoth Collection''', 1883; p. 162.  
'''Ryan's Mammoth Collection''', 1883; p. 162.  
<br>
|f_recorded_sources=
<br>
|f_see_also_listing=
</font></p>
}}
<p><font face="sans-serif" size="4">
-------------
''Recorded sources'': <font color=teal></font>
</font></p>
<br>
<br>
----
=='''Back to [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}]]'''==

Revision as of 02:50, 6 April 2020



X:1 T:My Lady's Gown has Gairs Upon't M:C L:1/8 R:Strathspey B:British Minstrel (1843, p. 108) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:F C|F>FF>A G>FD>G|F>FA>c d>cA>f|F>FF>A G>FD>B|A>c f<d c>A G:| |:B|A>Ac>F d>cc>A|A>Ac>F EG/G/ G>B|A>Ac>F d>cc>A|A>c f>d c>A G:||



MY LADY'S GOON HAS GAIRS ON'T. Scottish, Strathspey. C Major (Cole): F Major (Howe). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Goon=gown. A goonie is a nightie. Gairs means pleats, as in pleated sleeves, which were sometimes accented with a different material or color than the dress. However, gair was also used to indicate grassy strains, which gives the title a ribald meaning. For this reason, James Johnson was reluctant to include Robert Burns' 1788 reworking of the old song in his Scots Musical Museum until much later, finally publishing it near the end of the series of volumes in 1803. The Glasgow-published British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany (1843) printed this tune along with another song called "Howlet and the Weazel (The)", and opined:

They both attained no very honourable notoriety from their old blackguard names, and the blackguard songs united with them. Dare we hope that the improved taste, and more perfect and pure education which prevails in our age, will be able to banish from all memories the rubbish which has almost incurably contaminated the popular mind, and which blurs the exquisite beauty of our old lyrical remains.

Johnson's version in the Scots Musical Museum (1803, No. 554), is under the title "My Lord a-Hunting," reworked by poet Robert Burns from a song old at the time. The version in the Museum goes:

CHO:
My lady's gown, there's gairs upon 't,
And gowden flowers sae rare upon 't;
But Jenny's jimps and jirkinet,
My lork thinks meikle mair upon 't.

My lord a-hunting he is gane,
But hounds or hawks wi' him are nane;
By Colin's cottage lies his game,
If Colin's Jenny be at hame.

The tune, however, was one composed by James Greg (alias Gregg or Greig) (1718-1817), a teacher of dancing in Ayrshire, whose obituary reads:

At Ayr, at a very advanced age, Mr. James Gregg, who for many years was well known in Ayrshire, Galloway, and Dumfriesshire as an eminent teacher of dancing. He was a many of happy temper, and of considerable originality of genius. He was remarkably skilled in musick. and performed with great taste and execution on the violin; and besides "Gregg's Pipes" and "Strathspeys" which bear his name, he composed many other excellent pieces, which his modestly prevented him from acknowledging, though he contributed to many musical publications. He had a taste for Painting, Mechanics, and Natural History, made and improved telescopes, had no inconsiderable knowledge of Mathematicks, and was frequently employed as a measurer of land, until his advanced years rendered him incapable of bearing the fatigue. He taught dancing until, by old age, he could scarcely see his own pupils, or hears the tones of his own violin.[1]

The Irish "Murphy's Reel (3)" has some melodic similarities in the first several bars.


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Hamilton (The British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany, vol. 2), 1843; p. 108. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 123. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 149. Johnson (Scots Musical Museum, vol. 6), 1803; No. 183, p. 145. Manson (Hamilton's Universal Tune Book), 1844; p. 13. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 162.






Back to My Lady's Goon Has Gairs Upon It

0.00
(0 votes)




  1. The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Chronical, vol. 87, pt. 2 (July-Dec. 1817), p. 636. [1]