Annotation:Campbells are Coming (1) (The)
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CAMPBELLS ARE COMING [1], THE. AKA and see "Burnt Old Man (1)," "Campbell's Frolic," "Hob or Nob," "Hob a Nob," "I was at a Wedding in Inverara Town," "O Tommy Come Tickle Me" (Pa.), "Old Man (1)," "Seanduine (An)." Scottish (originally), American; Jig, March and Air (6/8 time). USA; Arkansas, New York, southwestern Pa. G Major (most versions): G Mixolydian (Bremner): F Major (Emmerson). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Ford): AB (Emmerson): AA'B (Gow, Mitchell): ABB (Harding): AABB (Bremner, S. Johnson, Kennedy, Kerr, Sweet). The melody is punctuated like a Scotch Measure in jig time--tunes like this are classified by Oswald and others as "Scotch Jigs." Grattan-Flood, typically and without much evidence, claims the tune is Irish. Another claim is that the tune was composed for a song on or about the period of Mary Queen of Scots' imprisonment in Loch Leven Castle. "The Campbells are Coming" was known as a Whig tune and as such was played by the vanguard of the loyalist Scottish troops, many Clan Campbell, as they marched in opposition to the ill-fated Jacobite rebels of 1715 led by the Earl of Mar (nicknamed 'Bobbing John') [Winstock, 1970]. The Robert Wodrow Correspondence records that in 1716 each of three companies of Argyle's Highlanders entered Perth and Dundee led by a piper playing "The Campbells are Coming," "Wilt thou play me fair Highland Laddie," and "Stay and take the breiks with thee."{see also notes for those tunes}. James J. Fuld in The Book of World Famous Music (1966) notes the tune was mentioned in a letter (probably the one by the aforementioned Wodrow) dated 1716, although it was not printed until 1745 when it appeared in a Scottish collection. Despite mention of the existence of a melody by that name early in the 18th century, Glen (1891) finds the first printed version of the melody not to have been until Robert Bremner's 1757 collection Scots Reels, although it also is said to appear in James Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion (c. 1750). Another printing with the "Campbell" title appears somewhat later in the 1768 Gillespie Manuscript from Perth. Further to the south in Britain, the title was included in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian songs and tunes, which he published c. 1800.
The melody is to be found as a country dance called "Hob or Nob" in collections earlier than Bremner. It can be found, for example, in Walsh's Caledonian County Dances (4th book) of c. 1745, in Johnson's Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances (1748), and other contemporary dance books.
"The Campbells are Coming" was transplanted to American country dance tradition and appears in repertories of dance fiddlers in New York and Pennsylvania (Harry Daddario, Union County, Pa.). Musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph recorded the tune for the Library of Congress from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's. Samuel Bayard (1981) also collected the tune from Pennsylvania fiddlers. He notes that the cadences of the 'A' parts are different in modern versions from those in the 18th and 19th century where the tune ended on the major third. He sees the American versions, which end on the tonic, as a "rebellion" against the 'circular' or 'endless' tunes from the British Isles. The cognates of the tune family that "The Campbells Are Coming" belongs to include "Baldooser (The)," "Burnt Old Man (1)," and "Field of Hay," but more importantly Bayard speculates that the popular dance tunes "Miss McLeod's Reel" and "White Cockade (The)" also derive from the same source. See also tunes which use the same melodic material: "Bobbing for Eels," "Butchers of Bristol (1) (The)," "Groom (The)," "Jackson's Bottle of Brandy," "Pay the Reckoning." Other writers have also noted the connection with "Miss McLeod's Reel;" Breathnach (1977) and O'Neill (in his introduction to The Dance Music of Ireland) both point out that "The Campbells Are Coming" is the same air as "Miss McLeod" only played in jig time. The Pennsylvania version, altered in the 'B' part, takes its alternate title from the ditty sung to it:
O Tommy come tickle me, I'll tell you where;
Just under my navel there's a big bunch of hair. (Bayard).
Source for notated version: Floyd Woodhull, 1976 (New York State) [Bronner]; Amasiah Thomas (Jefferson County, Pa., 1952) [Bayard]; Irvin Yaugher (Fayette County, Pa., 1946) [Bayard]; Hiram White (elderly fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1930's) [Bayard]; piper Willie Clancy (1918-1973, Miltown Malbay, west Clare) [Mitchell].
Printed sources: Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 539A-C, pp. 478-480. Bremner (Scots Reels), 1757; p. 83 (appears as "Campbells are coming, O ho"). Bronner (Old Time Music Makers of New York State), 1987; No. 15, p. 78. Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String), 1971; No. 81, p. 160. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; p. 110. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; p. 15. Harding's All Round Collection, 1905; No. 189, p. 60. Jarman (Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes), No. or p. 17. Johnson (Scots Musical Museum), 1790; No. 299. S. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician No. 6: Jig), 1982 (revised 1989, 2001); p. 2. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; No. 16, pg. 32. Mitchell (Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 90, p. 80. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1); c. 1805; p. 74 (appears as "The Cambles are Coming"). O'Malley and Atwood (Seventy Good Dances), p. 11. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; p. 18. Tyson (Twenty-Five Old Fashioned Dance Tunes), No. 10. Wilson (Companion to the Ball Room), 1816; p. 43.
Recorded sources: Gennett 6121 (78 RPM), Uncle Steve Hubbard and His Boys, c. 1928. Victor 20537 (78 RPM), Mellie Dunham (appears as last tune of the improbably named "Medley of Reels") See also listings at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1], Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [2].
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