Annotation:Lads of Leith (1) (The)

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LADS OF LEITH [1], THE. AKA and see "Beauties of the Ballroom," "Gearrbhodaí Laoise," "Lads of Laois," "Lads of Laoise," "She's Fair and Fause." English, Scottish; Jig and Country Dance. England, Northumberland. G Minor (Seattle/Vickers, Young): E Minor (Gatherer). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Gatherer): AABB (Vickers). The melody appears in the Bodleian Manuscript (in the Bodleian Library, Oxford), inscribed "A Collection of the Newest Country Dances Performed in Scotland written at Edinburgh by D.A. Young, W.M. 1740." A few years later James Oswald reprinted it in his Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book III (c. 1747, 1752). It was collected and adapted by the Scots poet Robert Burns as the vehicle for his song "She's Fair and Fause (that causes my smart)," printed in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (No. 398, 1792). Another early setting was mentioned in James C. Dick's book The Songs of Robert Burns (1903) where he states that the Scottish collector John Glen finds "Lads of Leith" in Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances (c. 1744). The jig appears as an untitled 'A' Minor tune in J. Scott Skinner's Beauties of the Ballroom, as the third figure of "Ettrick Vale Quadrille." In Ireland the tune is called "Lads of Laois," and see also "Beauties of the Ballroom," by which name the tune is known on Cape Breton Island.

Source for notated version: William Vickers' music manuscript collection [1] (Northumberland, 1770) [Seattle]

Printed sources: Gatherer (Gatherer's Musical Museum), 1987; p. 17. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 4), 1760; p. 33. Seattle (Great Northern/William Vickers), 1987, Part 3; No. 498. Walsh (Caledonian Country Dances), c. 1745; p. 16. Wood, Songs of Scotland (1848-49). Wright (Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances), 1740; p. 51.

Recorded sources: Marquis ERA 181, David Greenberg/Puirt a Baroque - "Bach Meets Cape Breton" (1996).