Annotation:Black Mary

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BLACK MARY. AKA and see "Melvil House." Scottish, Air (whole time). C Major (Gow): G Major (Aird). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Aird): AABB (Gow). '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 poet James Hogg (1770-1835), 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: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5), Glasgow, 1801; No. 133, p. 50. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 533. Gow (Fourth Collection of Niel Gow's Reels), 2nd ed., originally 1800; p. 14.

Recorded sources: