Annotation:Newburn Lads

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NEWBURN LADS. AKA and see "The Bob of Fettercairn," "Come Kiss With Me (Come Clap with Me)," "I'll Kiss the Lass, She Bad Me," "The Braw (Brave) Lads of Jedburgh," "Braw Lads of Jeddart/Jethart," "Had I the Wight." English, Scottish; Reel. England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody is the Northumbrian version of the Scots reel "Bob of Fettercairn," embroidered with arpeggi for the Northumbrian small-pipe repertory. "The tune is based on a double tonic sequence (G-A), but versions disagree as to whether the A chord is major or minor; Scottish versions favour the major, Northumbrian ones the minor, as one would expect from the respective bagpipe scales" (Seattle, 1987)./ "The late Mr. Thomas Doubleday, in a communication to the Antiquarian Society, writes:--'Burns wrote a splendid song to this tune, beginning 'Had I the wyte,'...and I guessed it belongs to the English side of the Border.' The tune is often found printed under the title of 'The Braw Lads o Jethart'" (Stokoe, 1882).

Source for notated version: William Vickers' 1770 music manuscript collection (Northumberland) [Seattle].

Printed sources: Bruce & Stokoe (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; p. 156. Seattle (Great Northern/William Vickers), 1987, Part 2; No. 258.

Recorded sources:

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