Annotation:Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow (A)
X:0 T:Rock & a wi pickle Tow, A M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow" S:McGibbon - Scots Tunes, book II, p. 55 (c. 1746) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G V:1 clef=treble name="0." [V:1] D2 | E2G2A2 | B4d2 | (e>fg)B2 | A4 T(f>e/2f/4) | g2G2A2 | TB3A (B/c/d) | B2G2(GA) | G4 :||: (gf) | e2e2g2 | e2 efg2 | T(e>de)fgf | Te3dB2 | d3ed2 | d2e2f2 | g2fedc | {c}TB2 AB G2 | c2B2c2 | d2e2f2 | (gf)(ed)(cB) | TA4 T(f>e/2f/4) | g2G2A2 | TB2 (A<G) (G>A) |G4 :|]
ROCK AND A WEE PICKLE TOW, A. AKA – “O had I a rock and a wee pickle tow.” AKA and see "Captain Collins," "Carawith Jig," "Green Goose Fair (1)," "Highlander's March (The)," "Montrose's March," "Onehorned Cow (2) (The)," "O'Sullivan More's March (1)," "Painneach na nUbh (1)," "Pickle Tow," "Pretender's March (The)," "Retreat (The)," "Scottish March," "Scotch March (1) (The)," "Tadeen the Fiddler," "Wee Pickle Tow." Shetlands, English, Irish, Scottish; Air or Jig (6/8 or ¾ time). England, Northumberland. Ireland, Donegal. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Regarding the title, a rock is a distaff, a device that holds the flax strick or the fiber for spinning. It is called a rock because the weight, or whorl, was frequently a shaped and pierced rock. A ‘wee pickle tow’ is a small piece of prepared short flax fibers combed from longer fibers called "line". Thus it was a spinning song, the tune of which proved popular and served many purposes over the years. Christine Martin (2002) notes that “rocking meets” were held in some parts of Scotland, in which all spinners gathered in one house in the village to spin. It was used as a march tune under many different titles, and was one of the favorite songs of the early 19th century in Lowlands Scotland, according to Peter Mackenzie, "the genial reminiscer of Glasgow" (Emmerson, 1971). John Glen, in his Early Scottish Melodies (p. 197), traces the tune to the 1663 edition of Playford’s Musicks Hand-Maid where it appears under the title “A Scotish March.” Playford later printed the same tune as “Montrose's March” in this 1669 Musick’s Recreation. The title “A Rock and a Wi Pickle Tow” first appears with the melody in Oswald’s Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740), finds Glen. A similar air exists in Shetland as "Bride's March (The)" as played by John Stickle of Unst. Under the title variant "Rock and Pickal o' Taw" it is one of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript, and the title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800.
Outside of England the title appears as the name of a Scottish country dance. In Northern Ireland the tune is current in traditional repertoire under the title “Wee Pickle Tow.” Other related tunes include the Irish jig “Out on the Ocean (1),” the Shetland “Doon da Rooth” (in 21/8 time!), as well as a pipe march, "Iain Caimbeul a Banca.” Bayard (in his article “A Miscellany of Tune Notes”) reports that Irish traditional versions are sometimes associated with the rhyme “There was an old woman tost up in a basket (blanket),” which rhyme is also associated with the tune “Lilliburlero.” The melody is still quite popular with bagpipers and fiddlers. Culburnie COL 102, Alasdair Fraser & Jody Stecher – “The Driven Bow” (1988).