The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #126269 Message #2812041
Posted By: Matt Seattle
14-Jan-10 - 04:35 PM
Thread Name: The Gypsie Laddies 500th Anniversary ??
Subject: RE: The Gypsie Laddies 500th Anniversary ??
In David Johnson's recent 'Scottish Fiddle Music in the 18th Century' DJ prints a version, Johnnie Faa, from Barsanti's Collection of Old Scotch Tunes, 1742, and adds the following information:
"This is the first written-down text of the tune, apart from a version in the Skene mandora-book of c. 1620 entitled Lady Cassillis Lilt, which Barsanti is unlikely to have known. Glen suggests that Barsanti notated the tune himself from aural tradition (Early Scottish Melodies, p. 120); perhaps his Scottish wife taught it to him. The words were printed in vol. vi of Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany (c. 1737)."
I've seen and heard the Skene version, it's the same tune as Barsanti. It also appears in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum (Song 181) with lyrics similar to Ramsay's text. It's not the Jeannie Robertson tune heard today but you'll find it in Bronson.