Annotation:Fife and A' the Lands About It

Back to Fife and A' the Lands About It

---

FIFE AND A' THE LANDS ABOUT IT. AKA and see "Fairest Jenny." Scottish, Air (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Oswald, Book 1): AABBCCDD (Oswald, Book 5). The melody was first printed in the Gentleman's Journal of Jan. 1691-92 under the title "Jockey and Jenny, a Scotch song set by Mr. Akeroyde," although Stenhouse believes Akeroyde only put a bass on a older melody. Stenhouse (Illustrations, 1853) believes the melody to be a Scottish composition because "This tune appears on the old Virginal Book already mentioned in the editor's possession, under the title of 'Let Jamie's Lad allane,' which was probably the original title." John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900), says that it was not in fact Scottish, but and English composition attributed to the Scots. He points out it lacks any Scottish character to it at all, and, even though it appeared in the Scottish collections of Oswald (1740) and William MacGibbon (Second Collection, 1746) it was probably only because it had gained a measure of popularity by that time. "We frankly hand over both words and tune to the keeping of Akeroyde's countrymen" (i.e. the English), Glen dimisses.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: James Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 1), 1760; p. 5. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book V), 1760; p. 2.

Recorded sources:

---