Annotation:Marry Ketty

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MARRY KETTY. AKA and see "Highland Donald (2)," "Wha Wad’na Fecht for Charlie," "Will Ye Go and Marry Ketty?," "Will You Go to Marry Kettie?," "Will Ye Go and Marry Katie?" Scottish, Strathspey. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (Gow). A similarly entitled tune, "Mary Kitty," is unrelated. "Will Ye Go and Marry Katie?" is a song in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 5 [1] (1797, No. 459, p. 473). The lyric begins:

Will ye go and marry Katie,
Can ye think to tak a man!
It's a pity ane fae pretty
Should-na do the thing they can
You, a charming lovely creature,
Wharefore wad ye lie y'er lane!
Beauty's of a fading nature,
Has a season, and is gane.

The tune is older than the Museum, having been printed in Robert Bremner's 1764 collection and Neil Stewart's 1761 collection, but so is the lyric, which was lightly touched by Burns. It earlier appeared in The Charmer and other publications.

Source for notated version: Neil Stewart's Collection [Moffat].

Printed sources: Gow (Second Collection of Niel Gow's Reels) 1788, 3rd edition; p. 6. Moffat (Dance Music of the North), 1908; No. 24, p. 10. Stewart (Collection of the Newest and Best Reels or Country Dances), 1761; p. 22. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; pp. 118-119.

Recorded sources: