Annotation:O as I was kiss'd yestreen (1)
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O AS I WAS KISS'D YESTREEN [1]. AKA and see "As I was Kissed Yestreen," "Kissed Yestreen," "Yesterday's Kisses." Scottish, Jig. A Minor (most versions): A Dorian (Bremner, Gow). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Kerr): AABB (Aird, Howe, Oswald, Sweet). The melody appears (as "Kiss'd Yestereven") in the Drummond Castle Manuscript (in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle), inscribed "A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grave the Duke of Perth by Dav. Young, 1734." John Glen (1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. Bayard (1981) identifies this as the signature melody of a group of tunes that belongs to a very large extended family of tunes, which he likens to a language and its dialects (see note for "Annotation:Lannigan's Ball"). Other signature tunes in this family are "Lan(n)igan's Ball," "Muirland Willie," "Bung Your Eye," "Kitty Alone," and "Lumps of Pudding." "O As I Was Kiss'd Yestreen (1)" variants are close to the "Bung Your Eye" group and include "Sae Braley as I Was," "House o' Duncan," "My Love is Lost to Me," and others. See also Francis O'Neill's version under the ideosyncratic title "Yesterday's Kisses," and the Irish family of tunes of the "Old Man Dillon" family.
The lyric printed in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 4 (1792) goes:
O, as I was kist yestreen,
O, as I was kist yestree!
I'll never forget till the day that I die,
Sae mony braw kisses his Grace gae me.
My father was sleeping, my mither was out,
And I was my lane, and in came the Duke;
I'll never forget till the day that I die,
Sae mony braw kisses his Grace gae me.
Kist the streen, kist the streen,
Up the Gallowgate, down the Green:
I'll never forget till the day that I die,
Sae mony braw kisses his Grace gae me.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: James Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 200. Bremner (Scots Reels), 1757; p. 75 (appears as "O as I was Kiss'd the Streen"). Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 476. Gow (Complete Repository, Part 2), 1802; p. 22. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 130. Johnson (Scots Musical Museum vol. 4), 1792; No. 319). Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; p. 31). Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 1), 1760; p. 137. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book V), 1760; p. 5. Scottish Country Dance Book (1930-57, Book 13, No. 6 {pt. 2 of 1st air}). Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964; p. 36.
Recorded sources: