Annotation:Bon Ton Schottische
X:0 T: No Score C: The Traditional Tune Archive M: K: x
BON TON SCHOTTISCHE. American, Schottische (cut time, "with a 6/8 feel"). A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Attributed to Hugh Farr. 'Bon Ton' means the 'fashionable elite', the high society. There was a French fashion magazine in the last century named the Bon Ton, and a New York City concert saloon also sported the name. Brooks McNamara, in his book The New York Concert Saloon: The Devil's Own Nights (2002, pg. 42), records:
At the Bon Ton in 1864 there apparently was only a piano for entertainment, and customers who sang. "The man from Lake Lomand," noted the Clipper (a periodical of the era), "after warbling the air of a tune to himself, volunteered to sing the praises of 'Bonnie Annie, blithe and gay'; and as he warmed to his work, by his pantomimic motions it is evident he imagined himself once more in the land of the shamrocks [sic] ganging aw' o'er the heath to the village with his lassie as a companion."
