Annotation:Because He was a Bonny Lad
Back to Because He was a Bonny Lad
BECAUSE HE/I WAS A BONNIE/BONNY LAD (she bid him aye come back). AKA and See "Boney Lad," "Bonny Lads," "Jack's Favourwright (2)," "Jack's Favorite (2)." Scottish, Shetland, English, Cape Breton; Country Dance (cut time) or Reel. G Major (Aird, Cole, Raven): A Major (Athole, Gow, Hunter, Kerr, Skinner, Skye). Standard tuning. AB (Cole, Hunter, McGlashan): AAB (Aird, Athole, Gow, Kerr, Skinner, Skye): AABB (Bremner, Raven, Thompson). A popular country dance dating back to at least 1752, according to Alburger (1983), when fiddler and dancing master John McGill of Girvan wrote down the instructions for his pupils. Glen finds its earliest appearance in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection (p. 14), in which year it also appeared in London publishers Charles and Samuel Thompson's first country dance collection (London, 1757). The tune appears, however, in the somewhat earlier Drummond Castle Manuscript, which is inscribed "A Collection of Country Dances written for the use of his Grace the Duke of Perth by David Young, 1734." This was Young's MS was in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle in the early 1970's, and hence its present-day title. Nearly simultaneously, the melody was printed in London by John Walsh in his Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (1735). John Oswald included it in his Caledonian Pocket Companion (London, 1760). It retained its popularity through that century and into the next, for the title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes, which he wrote c. 1800./ The tune, attached to an alternate 'B' parts, turns up in southwestern Pa. as 1) a fife tune (4/4 time) in the repertory of Hiram Horner (1944) who had the tune from a Scots fifer, and known simply as "Old Bagpipe Air" [Bayard, 1981; No. 252, p. 216], and 2) as a jig called "Nancy Fat" played by fifers in Greene County, Pa., and by one "crippled Jack Anderson" in particular [Bayard, 1981; No. 566, p. 503].
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), vol. II, 1785; No. 122, p. 45. Aird ('Selcetion of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 64, p. 26. Bremner (A Collection of Scots Reels), 1757; p. 14. Bruce & Stokoe (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; p. 155. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 46. Gow (Complete Collection), Part 1, 1799; p. 23. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 118. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 2; No. 10, p. 4. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 9. McGlashan (A Collection of Reels), 1786; p. 44. O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 225. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 183. Skinner (Harp & Claymore), 1904; p. 92. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 13. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1), 1757; No. 169.
Recorded sources: Rounder 7011, "The Beatons of Mabou: Scottish Violin Music from Cape Breton" (1978). Folkways Records, SFW CD 40507, The Beaton Family of Mabou - "Cape Breton Fiddle and Piano Music" (2004).
See also listings at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]