Annotation:Wappat the Widow my Lady

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WAPPAT THE WINDOW MY LADY. AKA – “Wap at the Window,” “Wap at the Widow My Laddie.” Scottish, Jig. G Major (Manson, McGibbon, Oswald, Playford, Wright): D Major (McGlashan, Walsh). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC (Wright); AABB (McGlashan): AABBCCDD (McGibbon). The tune appears in London publisher Henry Playford’s 1700 collection of Scottish dance tunes. McGlashan erroneously designates the tune as a Scottish Measure. The word wap in the original title (“Wap at the Widow”) was a euphemism for intercourse dating to Elizabethan times, and in slang usage through the mid-18th century. The title was perhaps deliberately 'cleansed' by converting ‘Widow’ to ‘Window’, or perhaps it was just a natural mishearing, for the older meaning of wap was to hit or strike a blow.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Manson (Hamilton’s Universal Tune Book vol. 1), 1853; p. 183 (as "Wap at the Widow, My Laddie"). McGibbon (Scots Tunes, book II), c. 1746; p. 53. McGlashan (Collection of Scots Measures), 177?; p. 6 (appears as “Wap at the Widow my Laddie”). Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 3), 1760; p. 18. Playford (A Collection of Original Scotch Tunes), 1700; No. 23, p. 10. Walsh (Caledonian Country Dances), c. 1745; p. 98. Daniel Wright (Aria di Camera), London, 1727; No. 21.

Recorded sources:

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