Annotation:Up with Aily (2)

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UP WITH AILY [2]. AKA – “Up went Aily.” AKA and see "We're no very fu' but we're gaily yet." English, Air and Jig (9/8 time). D Major (Playford, Walsh): A Major (Aird, Davie). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Davie): AABB. “Up with Aily [2]” first appears in print in Henry Playford’s 12th volume of the Dancing Master (London, 1703), and continued to appear in the long running series through the 18th edition (1728, at which time it was published by John Young). John Walsh picked it up for his Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1718, also in editions of 1731 and 1754). James Aird printed it in his Glasgow-published Selection of Scots, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (1782), as “Up Wi’t Ailly Now,” and, as “Up went Ailey” (or simply “Ailey”) The “Up went Aily” title (and tune) were included by London musician Thomas Hammersley in his copybook of 1790. Breathnach (1996) finds “Up with Aily [2]” cognate with an untitled slip jig in Ceol Rince na hÉireann (1996, No. 37), although the relationship seems very distant. The “Irish Frolic (The)” is cognate with Breathnach’s tune.

Song versions were published the same year as Aird, in John Fielding’s Convivial Songster (London, 1782). See also song versions under the title "We're no very fu' but we're gaily yet."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; No. 135, p. 47. Barlow (The Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford’s Dancing Master), 1985; No. 517, p. 116. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 136. Davie (Davie’s Caledonian Repository), Aberdeen, 1829-30; p. 24. Walsh (Complete Country Dancing-Master, Volume the Fourth), London, 1740; No. 187.

Recorded sources:

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