Annotation:Carrick's Rant
Tune properties and standard notation
CARRICK'S/CARRACK'S REEL/RANT. AKA and see "Berwick Lasses," "Bonny Lass" (Kennedy), "Clurie's Reel," "Mary Scott [1]," "The Smith's a Gallant Fireman." English, Reel; Scottish, Strathspey. Scotland, Lowland region. England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Honeyman, Johnson, Seattle/Vickers, Skinner): AA'BB' (Athole). Seattle (1987) classifies "Carrick's Reel" as one of a family of tunes using the same melodic material in different meters. He finds it resembles "The Smith's a Gallant Fireman," and cites comparisons with printings of the melodies in MacDonald's Skye Collection (p. 44); Kerr, vol. 1 (p. 4); Hunter's Fiddle Music of Scotland (No. 1112); and the tune "Mary Scott the Flower of Yarrow" in Bewick's Pipe Tunes (1986, No. 6), where it appears alongside versions of "Sir John Fenwick," another member of the family. In fact, the comparison between "Carrick's" and "Mary Scott" is not new; there has been a strong suggestion that the former was derived from the latter, for a note in Gow's publication remarks, "The old Scotch Song of Mary Scott is taken from this Tune." Other writers record that Hector Macneil's lyric "Dinna think, bonnie lassie" is likewise set to the melody. John Glen (1891) finds the tune first in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection (p. 94). A variant called "Berwick Lasses" is to be found in a MS collection by fiddler Lawrence Leadley (1827-1897) of Helperby, Yorkshire. See also the related "Sir John Fenwick's the Flower Among Them All."
Source for notated version: Gow (Complete Repository, Part First) [S. Johnson].
Printed sources: Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; p. 3. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 10 (appears as "Carrick's Rant"). S. Johnson (A Twenty Year Anniversary Collection), 2003; p. 38. Seattle (Great Northern/William Vickers), 1987, Part 2; No. 315. Skinner (Harp and Claymore), 1904; p. 87 (includes variation sets by Skinner). Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 104.
Recorded sources: 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].