Annotation:Tailor's Wife (The)
X:1 T:A bhean a bh’aig an Tàiller Chaol T:Tailor’s Wife, The T:Madelina Sinclair’s Strathspey M:C L:1/16 R:Strathspey B:William Gunn - The Caledonian Repository of Music B:Adapted for the Bagpipes (Glasgow, 1848, p. 67) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amix f2|e3Ac3A Ae3 f4|eA3e3c BB3B3f|e3Ac3A Ae3 f4|e3Ac3B AA3A2:| g2|a3gf3e e2fg a3g|f3ea3c BB3B2g2|a3gf3e e2fg a3g|f3ee2fg a3ef2g2| a3fg3e f3de3c|d3fe3c BB3B2d2|c3e f2 de3a4|AA3c3B AA3A2||
TAILOR'S WIFE, THE (A bhean a bh'aig an tàiller chaol). AKA - "Skinny Tailor's Wife (The)." AKA and see "Lady Madelina Sinclair (1)." Scottish, Strathspey (whole time). A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. A pipe tune, as Glasgow piper, pipe teacher and pipe-maker William Gunn printed it in his Caledonian Repository of Music Adapted for the Bagpipes (1848) set it. The tune is the same as the strathspey "Lady Madelina Sinclair (1)", printed by the Gows in 1792, but Gunn's title is from a Scottish puirt a beul (mouth music) song, with words that are bawdy in parts. The Gaelic title translates as "The skinny tailor's wife."
Lyrics begin:
A' bhean a bh'aig an tàillear chaol, thug an taog an ceann dith;
A' bhean a bh'aig an tàillear chaol, thug an taog an ceann dith;
A' bhean a bh'aig an tàillear chaol, thug an taog an ceann dith,
Thug an taog na casan agus thug an cat an ceann dith.
A' bhean a bh'aig an tàillear chaol, thug an taog an ceann dith,
Thug an taog na casan agus thug an cat an ceann dith.