Annotation:Oyster Wives Rant (The)

Back to Oyster Wives Rant (The)

OYSTER WIFE'S/WIVES' RANT. AKA – "The Oysterwives' Rant." AKA and see "Muileann Dubh." Scottish, English; Reel. England, Northumberland. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Bayard (1981) identifies the melody as belonging to the same tune group as "Welcome Home (3)," "Haughs of Cromdale (The)," "(Fare Thee Well) Sweet Killaloe," "Hillside (2) (The)," and "Wate You How the Play Began." The members of this very old family, which he calls the "Welcome Home" group, appear in major, modal, duple-time, triple time, vocal and instrumental forms. John Glen (Collection of Scottish Dance Music, 1891) finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800, and is one of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript. Some see Irish cognates in the air "Óró 'sé do bheatha a bhaile/Óró Welcome Home" and the "Ballydesmond Polka (2)," but if in fact related, then they are distanced.

"Oyster Wives' Rant" appears in the music manuscript copybooks of Luther Kingsley (1795, Mansfield, Ct.) and Edward Murphey (1790, Newport, R.I.). An E dorian version of "Oyster Wives Rant" was collected in the early 20th century in Orkney (but described as "a Shetland Air") under the title "Da Scalloway Lasses"

X:1
T:Scallowa Lasses, The
M:C
L:1/8
R:Reel
S:"Shetland Air. Played on the fiddle by John Firth, Orkney." 
N:"Taken down by F.F. McKay, 1912." 
B:"Old-lore Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland," Jan, 1913, vol. VI, Part 1, p. 9
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:Edor
B2 B>A B>E E>F|A>B A>F D>E F>A|B2 B>A B>E E>F|A>B A>F E2E2:|
|:c|B>A B>c d>e d>B|A>B A>F A>B A>d|B>A B>c d>e d>B|A<F d>F E2E2:|]

This title, however, usually belongs to another A modal tune (see "Scalloway Lasses (Da)."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 6, p. 3. Bremner (Scots Reels), 1757; p. 80. Glen (Collection of Highland Bagpipe Music, Book 5), No. 41, p. 21 [1]. Harding's All Round Collection, 1905; No. 32, p. 10. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2), c. 1880's; No. 65, p. 10. Peacock's Tunes, c. 1805; No. 31. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 110. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 53.

Recorded sources: Eilean Mòr Records, Eilean Mòr – "Left of the Sun" (2009).

See also listing at:
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index [2]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [3]