Annotation:Hey My Kitten
X: 1 T:Hey my kitten, my kitten L:1/8 M:9/8 R:Air B:Johnson - Scots Musical Museum, vol. 6 (1803, Song 558, p. 577) B:https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/94549580 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:F c2A A F A A F A|c2 A A F A c2d|c c A (AF) A AF A|B2G (GA) G B2d|| c A A (fc) A (fc) A|c A A (fc) A c2d|c A A f A A c A A |B2G (GA) G B2d||
HEY MY KITTEN, MY KITTEN. AKA and see "Follow Her Over the Border," "Hey the hedrie Falie." Scottish, Air (9/8 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Hey my kitten, my kitten" is a nursery rhyme/song. It was printed by poet Allan Ramsay in the 4th volume of The Tea Table Miscellany, with no music although with the direction that it be sung to the air "Yellow Stockings," another 9/8 time tune family. It points out, however, that many rhymes such as "Hey My Kitten" could be sung to various 9/8 time tunes that have permeable 'tune family' boundaries. Stenhouse, in his Illustrations to the Scots Musical Museum maintained the rhyme was by writer wikipedia:Jonathan_Swift, but this has not been verified (and Stenhouse is sometimes wrong). The first stanza goes:
Hey! My kitten, my kitten,
An' hey my kitten a dearie,
Sic a sweet pet as this
Is neither far nor nearie.
Now we gae up up up,
An' here we gang down down downy,
Here we gae backwards and forward,
And here round round a roundy.
The 'ur' tune for this slip jig family is "Drops of Brandy (1)."
