Annotation:Castles in the Air
Tune properties and standard notation
CASTLES IN THE AIR. AKA and see "Wee Willie Winkie/Winkle." English, Scottish, Irish; Reel, Schottische or Slow Strathspey. A Major (Roche): G Major (Raven): E Flat Major (Hardie). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Hardie, Kennedy): ABB (Roche): AABB (Cole). The tune is associated with the children's rhyme "Wee Willie Winkie/Winkle." James Dickie transformed the song into a slow strathspey, printed in Hardie's Beauties of the North. The Musical Times, vol. 27 (1886, p. 330) gives that "Castles in the Air" was a popular children's song in the North of England, which one correspondent recognized as "Down the Burn Davie Lad," and another as the air to a temperance song called "The Drunkard's Ragged Wean," beginning:
A wee bit ragged laddie
Gangs wanderin' thro' the street,
Wadin' among the snaw
Wi' his wee hackit feet.
"Bonnie Jean" is a nearly identical air, maintains the article.
Source for notated version: James F. Dickie (Scotland) [Hardie].
Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 81 (mistakenly listed in the 'Jig' section). Hardie (Caledonian Companion), 1986; p. 44 (strathspey version). Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune Book), vol. 1, 1951; No. 44, p. 22. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 176. Roche Collection, 1927; vol. 3, p. 47, No. 145. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 114.
Recorded sources: Fretless Records 119, Rodney and Randy Miller--"Castles in the Air." See also listing at Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index [1].