Annotation:When Bidden to the Wake
X:1 T:When Bidden to the Wake or Fair M:C L:1/8 B:Edward Riley – “Riley’s Flute Melodies vol. 1” (New York, 1814, No. 136, p. 35) B: https://archive.org/details/flutemelodies0000rile/page/n49/mode/2up Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G GA|B2E2 B3A|G2 TF>E E2 (DE)|G3A (B>A) (Bd)|e2 (A>B) A2 (GA)| B2 (B/c/)d (cB) (AG)|A2B2 Tg3f|e>ged T(B>A)Bd|e2 E>F E2:| |:(B>c)|d3e {e}d2 cB|g2 (d>e) d2 (gf)|e3f Tg>fga|b2 (e>f) e2 (dc)| B2g2 (dB) (AG)|A2B2 !fermata!g3f|e>ged (B>AB)d|e2 E>F E2:|
WHEN BIDDEN TO THE WAKE OR FAIR. AKA and see "My Nanny O." English, Air (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This song air, a reworking of Allan Ramsay's "My Nanny O" by English violinist and composer Wikipedia:William Shield (1748-1829), appeared in his two-act comic opera Rosina (1782) and proved very popular. The words begin:
When biddlen to the wake or fair,
The joy of each free-hearted swain,
'Till Phoebe promis'd to be there,
I loiter'd, last of all the train.
If chance some fairing caught her eye,
The ribbon gay or silken glove,
With eaher haste I run to buy,
For what is gold compar'd to love?
The air was entered into numerous musicians' manuscript collections on both sides of the Atlantic. At the end of the twentieth century it was arranged by fiddler Mark O'Connor and played with cellist Yo-Yo-Ma for the soundtrack of the television series Liberty (1997).
