Annotation:John Ochiltree

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JOHN OCHILTREE. Scottish, Air (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). An anonymous variation sonata appearing in David Young's MacFarlane Manuscript (1740, vol. 2, No. 9) in air-gavotta-minuet-jig form. The melody (as a song) also appears in William Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius (1733) and David Rutherford printed it as a country dance in Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1758 (p. 4). Words to the air appear in Orpheus Caledonius, reprinted by Robert Chambers in Scottish Songs (1829), and go:

Honest man, John Ochiltree!
Mine ain auld John Ochiltree!
Wilt thou come ower the muir to me,
And do as thou wast wont to do?
Alake, alake! I wont to do!
Ochon! I wont to do!
Now wont to do's away frae me,
Frae silly auld John Ochiltree.

Honest man, John Ochiltree!
Mine ain auld John Ochiltree!
Come ance out ower the muir to me,
And do but what thou dow to do.
Alake, alake! I dow to do!
Walaways! I dow to do!
To hoast, and hirple ower my tree,
My bonny muir-powt, is a' I may do.

Walaways, John Ochiltree!
For mony a time I tell'd to thee
Thou rade sae fast by sea and land,
And wadna keep a bridle-hand;
Thou'd tyne thy beast, thysell wad die,
My silly auld John Ochiltree.
Come to my arms, my bonnie thing,
And cheer my up to hear thee sing;
And tell me ower a' we hae done,
For thochts maun now my life sustain.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
See a standard notation transcription of David Young's version in the MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1740) [1]

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