Annotation:Oyster Wives Rant (The)

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X: 1 T: The Oyster Wives Rant R: reel B: Robert Bremner "A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances" 1757 p.80 #1 S: http://imslp.org/wiki/A_Collection_of_Scots_Reels_or_Country_Dances_(Bremner,_Robert) Z: 2013 John Chambers <jc:trillian.mit.edu> N: Final bass notes shortened to fix the rhythm. M: C L: 1/8 K: Ador % - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - V: 1 clef=treble name="1." [V:1] B |\ e2ed eAAB | dedB GABd |e2ed e>fge | dBgB A/A/A A :| |: B |\ edef g2(Tfe) | d>edB d>edB |edef ga(gf) | dBgB A/A/A A :| % - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - V: 2 clef=bass middle=d z |\ a2a2 a2a2 | g2g2 g2g2 |a2a2 a2a2 | e2e2 A2A :| |: z |a2a2 a2a2 | g2g2 g2g2 |a2a2 a2a2 | e2e2 A2A :| % - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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OYSTER WIFE'S/WIVES' RANT. AKA – "The Oysterwives' Rant." AKA and see "Breach of Killiecranky (The)," "Charles Rant," "Muileann Dubh." Scottish, English; Reel. England, Northumberland. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Bayard (1981) identifies the melody as belonging to the same tune group as "Welcome Home (3)," "Haughs of Cromdale (The)," "(Fare Thee Well) Sweet Killaloe," "Hillside (2) (The)," and "Wate You How the Play Began." The members of this very old family, which he calls the "Welcome Home" group, appear in major, modal, duple-time, triple time, vocal and instrumental forms. John Glen (Collection of Scottish Dance Music, 1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800, and is one of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript. Some see Irish cognates in the air "Óró 'sé do bheatha a bhaile/Óró Welcome Home" and the "Ballydesmond Polka (2)," but if in fact related, then they are distanced.

"Oyster Wives' Rant" appears in the music manuscript copybooks of Luther Kingsley (1795, Mansfield, Ct.) and Edward Murphey (1790, Newport, R.I.). It also appears in Cumbrian musician John Rook's 1840 music manuscript under the title "Charles Rant." An E dorian version of "Oyster Wives Rant" was collected in the early 20th century in Orkney (but described as "a Shetland Air") under the title "Da Scalloway Lasses"

X:1
T:Scallowa Lasses, The
M:C
L:1/16
R:Reel
S:"Shetland Air. Played on the fiddle by John Firth, Orkney." 
N:"Taken down by F.F. McKay, 1912." 
N:A version of "Oyster Wives Rant." 
B:"Old-lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland," Jan, 1913, vol. VI, Part 1, p. 9
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:Edor
B4 B3A B3E E3F

4.00

(one vote)

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