Annotation:Thro' the warld wou'd I gang wi' the Lad that loves me (2)
X:1 T:Thro' the warld wou'd I gang wi' the Lad that loves me [2] N:”Old” M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Christie - Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Hornpipes, B:Waltzes &c. (Edinburgh, 1820, p. 22) N:William Christie (1778-1849) was a dancing master, postman, fiddler N:and composer from Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire. Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Amin a|(g<e)dB {B}A2 AB|d>G (e/d/c/B/) dGBg|{g}Te2 dB {B}A2 Aa|gdBd Te2AS:| a|Tg>abg a/a/a ~a2|g>abg e/e/e ~e2|Tg>abg a/a/a ~a2|gedB Te2 (.A.a)| Tg>abg a/a/a ~a2|gedB d<e ~g2|g>abg a>ba>^f|gdBd Te2A||
THRO' THE WARLD WOU'D I GANG WI' THE LAD THAT LOVES ME [2]. Scottish, Reel (cut time). A Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "Thro' the warld woul'd I gang" was included in biography:William Christie's 1820 collection, where he marked it as "Old", and while he often noted from whom he obtained older tunes from (i.e. "communicated by..."), he did not identify the source of this reel. The Gows printed another tune by the same name in their Complete Repository Part 2 (1802), for which see "Thro' the warld wou'd I gae we the Lad I like (1)". Christie (1778-1849) was a postman, dancing master, song collector and fiddler-composer from Cuminestown, Aberdeenshire.
The title of the reel is a phrase that sometimes occurs in period ballads, frequently enough to be a ballad meme. William Christie's son, also named William Christie, was a cleric and a noted song-collector who published two volumes of Traditional Ballad Airs in 1881. Below are two variants of the phrase that are included in ballads printed in his second collection:
Byde, byde and ha's me wi' ye, O
Byde, byde and ha'e me wi' ye O.
Byde, byde and ha'e me wi' ye O,
For I could go through frost and snow,
Through the warld I could wander wi' ye, O.
The Gaberlunzie
'Twas on a morning fresh and fair,
As I went out to take the air,
I pu'd the roses here and there,
I pu'd them at my pleasure.
A bonny lad stood by my side.
At him I look'd wi' mickle pride
And said, "I'd range the warld wide,
Gin ye was tak' me wi' ye.
