Annotation:Willie Winkie's Testament (2)
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WILLIE WINK(IE)'S TESTAMENT [2]. AKA – “Willie Winks,” “Willie Winkie”.” AKA and see "Cobbler's Hornpipe (2)," "Connolly's Reel," “Craig's Pipes,” "Edenderry Reel (The)," "Fiddler is Drunk (The)," "Foxhunters Reel (1)," “Greg's Pipe Tune,” “Gregg's Pipes,” “Gun Do Dhuit Am Bodach Fodar Dhomh” (Old Man Wouldn’t Give Me Straw (The)), "Kerry Huntsman (The)," "Kregg's Pipes," “Limber Elbow (The),” “Manchester (The),” "Píopaí Greig,” "Willy Wilky." Scottish, Strathspey. English, Air, Hornpipe. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AABB (most versions). Early versions were printed in London as a dance tune by John Walsh in his Caledonian Country Dances (1731) and as a song by William Thompson in his Orpheus Caledoneus (2nd edition, vol 2, 1733). More sophisticated dance versions are to be found in Robert Bremner's Scots Reels (c. 1757, p. 61), and Neil Stewart's Collection of the Newest and Best Reels or Country Dances (Edinburgh, c. 1775, p. 19, as "Willie Winckie"). A similar version of the melody was entered into in the 1770 music manuscript collection of Northumbrian musician William Vickers (about whom, unfortunately, nothing is known), under the title “Willy Wilky, or, Cobler’s [sic] Hornpipe.” Later versions of "Willie Winkie" were usually set in strathspey time, supplanting the earlier air and hornpipe-like versions that have been found in England. A comic song version was printed by James Johnson in his Scots Musical Museum, vol. 6 (1803) under the title "My daddy’s left me gear enough," the first line in the song.
According to Charles Mackay in Jacobite Songs and Ballads of Scotland from 1688 to 1746 (1861, pp. 48-49),
Willie Winkie, Willie Wanbeard, and Willie the Wag, were all nicknames popularly bestowed on William III [of England]. Even after his death, the enmity of the Jacobites was not appeased, as appears from this song, evidently written after his fatal fall from his horse at Hampton Court [1702]...King William's death was occasioned by his horse stumbling on a mole hill. "The Little gentleman in black velvet", or the mole, was afterwards a favourite toast with the Jacobites.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Bremner (Scots Reels), c. 1757; p. 61. Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 498. Gow (Complete Repository, Part 2), 1802; p. 29. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 147 (appears as “Willie Winkie”). Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2), c. 1880’s; No. 189, p. 22. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 6), 1760; p. 4. Seattle (Great Northern/William Vickers), 1987, Part 2; No. 305 (appears as "Willy Wilky"). Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; pp. 66-67.
Recorded sources:
See also listings at:
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]