Annotation:Boatie Rows (The)
Back to Boatie Rows (The)
BOATIE ROWS, THE. AKA and see "Keel Row (The)," "Weel May the Boatie Row." Scottish, English; Reel, Strathspey, and Highland Schottische. D Major (Raven): G Major (Cole/Ryan): A Major (Kerr). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody was entered into the 1780 music manuscript collection of musician John Fife, who may have been from Perthshire, and who may have also complied his manuscript at sea (as there are references to battles in the Carribean and Mediteranean seas). The meldoy also appears as the 3rd set of the song "Boatie Rows" in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 5 (1797).
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5), Glasgow, 1801; No. 163, p. 61. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940, p. 127 (Strathspey). Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 3; No. 211, p. 24 (Highland Schottische). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 150 (Reel setting). Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 167.
Recorded sources: