Annotation:Howlet and the Weazel (The)
Back to Howlet and the Weazel (The)
HOWLET AND THE WEAZEL, THE. AKA - "Weazle (2) (The)." English, Jig. England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A howlet is another name for an owl. Early publications give the title as "The Weazle" (spelled variously), by which it appears in Johnson's Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (London, 1750) and publisher John Hinton's Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure (London, 1750). It can also be found in James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 2 (Glasgow, 1785). The jig appears in a few musicians' manuscripts from the late 18th and early 19th centuries: John Fife (Perthshire, c. 1780), Durham (), and H.S.J. Jackson (Wyresdale, Lancashire, 1823). The title was amended to add "Howlet and..." in Hall & Stafford's Charleton Memorial Tune Book.
The Glasgow-published British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany (1843) printed this tune along with "My Lady's Goon Has Gairs Upon It", 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.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: The British Minstrel, and Musical and Literary Miscellany, 1843; p. 108. Callaghan (Hardcore English), 2007; p. 60. Hall & Stafford (Charlton Memorial Tune Book), 1956; p. 33. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 115.
Recorded sources: Saydisc SDL-252, Jack Armstrong (1972. Heard after "Linshield Brif" and before "Brown Rigg"). Topic 12Ts239, George Hepple (1974).