Annotation:Bride's a Bonnie Thing (The)
X:3 T:Bride has a Bonnie Thing, The M:6/8 L:1/8 B:Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (London, 1757) Z:Transcribed and edited by Fynn Titford-Mock, 2007 Z:abc's:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Amix eAA ecc|fBB Baf|eAA ecc|eAA ecc| fdd ecc|fBB Baf|eAA ecc|eAA Aaf:| |:e3 f/g/af|e2A ABc|e3 (f/g/a)f|g2B Bcd| e3 (f/g/a)f|(ec)e (ae)g|(fd)f (ec)e|fBB Bcd:||
BRIDE'S A BONNIE THING, THE. AKA - "Bride is a Bonny Thing (The)," "Bride has a Bonny Thing (The)," "Bride is a Boanie Ting (Da)." AKA and see "Lads of this Town (The)," "Scotland (3)." English, Scottish, Shetland; March or Jig. A Major. AEae or Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Bremner, Brody, Cooke): AAB (Gow). A Scottish tune played on the Shetland Island of Unst as a march; it is a variation of the tune of the same name printed in early Scottish collections. John Stickle played the tune in the key of G; Tom Anderson in A (AEae). It was the traditionally played to welcome the bride into the ben (best) room after the wedding, and thus has had some renewed currency in modern times as a wedding processional among trad enthusiasts (see also note for "Farder Ben da Welcomer (Da)"). The piece appears in James Oswald's collection, but Glen finds it first printed by Robert Bremner in his 1757 Scots Reels. That volume was issued the same year that London publishers Charles and Samuel Thompson printed the tune in their Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (1757), albeit under the much more risqué title "The Bride has a Bonnie Thing." James Oswald again printed the tune a few years later in his Caledonian Pocket Companion (Book VIII, p. 21, London, 1760) with the same title the Thompson's employed (which appears to have been the original one). A Highland bagpipe version can be found in Glasgow piper, pipe teacher and pipe-maker William Gunn's Caledonian Repository of Music (1848) as "Lads of this Town (The)."
