Annotation:I Wish I Were Where Helen Lies

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I WISH I WERE WHERE HELEN LIES. Scottish, Slow Air or Lament (3/2 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The words indicate that the place Helen lies is a grave, not a bed, and it is therefore a lament rather than a love song, states Johnson (1983). It has some characteristics of the 17th century French sarabande. The tune appears in the Leyden lyra-viol manuscript (c. 1695) which contains two settings for gamba, the first of which is a slow air and the second a jig. Johnson says the two appear consecutively and appear to be intended to be played one after the other in a short suite in air-jig form.

Source for notated version: The Bowie MS. [Johnson].

Printed sources: Johnson (Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century), 1983; No. 2, p. 22.

Recorded sources:



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