Annotation:Riggs o' Barley
X:1 % T:Riggs o' Barley M:C L:1/8 R: S:John Rook music manuscript collection (Waverton, Cumbria, 1840, p. 202) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D F/G/|A>B B/A/G/F/ AB/c/ e/d/c/B/|AB/c/ d>F E2 EF/G/| A>B B/A/G/F/ AB/c/ e/d/c/B/|AF A/G/F/E/ D2 D|| f/g/|adfa d>e g/f/e/d/|g>a b/a/g/f/ e2 e(a/g/)| f>ae>f d/c/d/e/ B>d|AF A/G/F/E/ D2 D||
RIGGS O' BARLEY. AKA and see "Corn Riggs are Bonnie." Scottish, Air (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The title is that given by poet Robert Burns to his 1783 poem "Riggs o' Barley," a reworking of the older song "Corn rigs are bonnie" (see note for "annotation:Corn Riggs" for more). The original words were somewhat less genteel than those which Burns eventually produced and printed in his first small volume of poems published in 1786, at Kilmarnock. His poem goes:
It was upon a Lammas night
When the corn rigs were bonnie,
Beneath the moon's unclouded light
I held awa' to Annie.
The time flew by wi' tentless heed
'Til 'tween the late and early,
Wi' small persuasion she agreed
To see me thro' the barley.
CHORUS:
Corn Rigs and barley rigs
Corn rigs are bonny
I'll ne'eer forget that Lammas night
Amang the rigs wi' Annie.
The rigs referred to in the song were the traditional drainage system which was based on dividing fields into ridges around three feet high, and then ploughing then from end to end, the resulting furrows then drained excess water from the land above it.
The third figure of the Mid-Lothians Quadrille is "Riggs o' Barley."