G'day John in Brisbane,

I knew there was something else nagging away, as I fretted over this tune ... and today (at a rather delayed party for my (mumble ... mumbleth ... ) birthday - it struck home during a bit of a music session ... the tune is, essentially, a rather modulated version of The Star of the County Down. At least that vindicates my feeling that the tune was Scottish.

(Contemplator says: The Star of the County Down

The oldest copy of this tune is Gilderoy, which appears in Musick for Allan Ramsay's Collection of Scots Songs [Tea Table Miscellany] by Alexander Stuart (c 1726). Gilderoy also appeared in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge the Melancholy III (1707), although that version is less recognizable as this tune. The tune has been used for numerous songs, including Divers and Lazarus, The Murder of Maria Martin, and Claudy Banks. In addition, the tune is used for several English and American Hymns and Carols.)

My transcription seems to modulate away from Aeolian (minor) to Mixolydian ... at the end. The Star of the County Down seems to stay Aeolian ... but Graham has bent the tune in a number of ways to suit a very different lyric.

Regards,

Bob