Annotation:Waly Waly

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WALY WALY. AKA - "O Waly Waly." Scottish, Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB.O WALY WALY, a traditional Scottish song, named by Cecil Sharp for his collection, Folk Songs from Somerset, 1906, series 3. The name corresponds to a 17th-century English verse beginning with the words “O waly, waly, up the bank”. The version of tune appears in William Chappell’s Old English Popular Music, 1859, as sung by Mr. Halliday of Newtondale, North Yorkshire, to the words “My true love once he courted me…” See also the American variant "Water is Wide (The)."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5), 1797; p. 30. McGibbon (Scots Tunes, book III), 1762; p. 87. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 1), 1760; p. 5.

Recorded sources: Topic Records TXCD589, Martin Simpson - "Vagrant Stanzas."

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