Annotation:Merry Lads of Foss (The)

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MERRY LADS OF FOSS, THE. AKA and see "Lads of Foss (The)." Scottish, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Surenne): AAB (McGlashan, Rook). The tune was entered into the music copybook [1] of John Buttery (1784-1854), a fifer with the 37th Regiment, British army, who served from 1797-1814 and who late in life emigrated to Canada. Buttery's manuscript collection has also been identified as belonging to John Fife ^[1], with a suggested date of 1780. Fife was a family name, like Buttery, identified with the manuscript. "Merry Lads of Foss" was also entered into the 1840 music copybook of multi-instrumentalist John Rook, of Waverton, Cumbria.

Researcher Conor Ward finds the tune derivative of "Keel Row (The)."

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 4), 1796; No. 61, p. 25. McGlashan (A Collection of Reels), c. 1786; p. 15. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; p. 152.

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↑ Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, https://www.cdss.org/elibrary/Easmes/Index.htm

[1] Early American Secular Music and Its European Sources, https://www.cdss.org/elibrary/Easmes/Index.htm

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