Annotation:There's my Thumb I’ll ne're beguile you
X:2 T:There’s my thumb &c. M:C L:1/8 Q:"Moderato" R:Country Dance B:James Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3 (Glasgow, 1788, No. 421, p. 162) N:”Humbly dedicated to the Volunteers and Defensive Bands of Great Britain and Ireland” Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G (GA)(Bc) d2 cB|A>Bcd e2 (e/f/g)|G2 Bc {e}d2 cB|e2 (e/f/g) {e}d2 TcB| c>Bcd (e>fg).B|A>Bcd .e2 (e/f/g)|G3E D3E|G3A B2 B/c/d:| |:g3a g3b|a3b afed|g3a g/a/b ag|gde=f edcB| c(eTdc) B(dTcB)|(A>Bc)d e2 (e/f/g)|G3E D3E|G3A B2 B/c/d:|
THERE’S MY THUMB, I’LL NE’RE BEGUILE YOU. Scottish, Air (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. "There's my thumb, etc." began as a one strain air, printed in Watts Musical Miscellany (1730), Thomson's Orpheus Caledonius (1733), and used as the vehicle for a song in the ballad opera Highland Fair (1731). In the mid-18th century it was elaborated with variation sets in William McGibbon's and James Oswald's publications, and retained its popularity through the end of the century, when an instrumental version was printed by James Aird, with song versions appearing in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 1 (1787), Sime'sEdinburgh Musical Miscellany(1793), and in Creech's opera William and Lucy (1780). A final appearance in print was in New York publisher Edward Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 2 (1817).
