Annotation:Black Mary

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BLACK MARY. AKA and see "Melvil House." Scottish, Air (whole time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. 'Black Mary' = 'Dark-haired Mary'. "A very old Gaelic air" (Gow). The air is named "Is fallain gun dith thainig thu" and was set by Gow to words by James Hogg, The Ettrick Shepherd:

Black Mary

Mary is my only joy,
Mary is blithe, and Mary is coy,
Mary's the goud where there's nae alloy--
Though Black, yet O she's bonny.
Her breath is the birken bower o' spring,
Her lips the young rose opening,
An' her hair is the hue o' the raven's wing,
She's Black, but O she's bonny!

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 533. Gow (Fourth Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 14.

Recorded sources:

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