Annotation:Hey the Bonnie Breast Knots
X:1 T:Hey the Bonnie Breast Knots M:C L:1/8 R:Air S:John Rook music manuscript collection (Waverton, Cumbria, 1840, p. 231) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G G>A B>d c>de<g|d>B G>B A2d2|G>A B<d c>d!fermata!ef/g/|d>B A>d B2 G>|| G|G>FG>E D>B !fermata!G>G|G>F G<E D>B !fermata!G>G|B>B B>B Bg !fermata!g>e|c>A B>c d>d {d'c'bagfedcBAGFED} E>F| P:Chorus G>A B>d c>de<g|d>BG>B A2d2|G>AB<d cd!fermata!e f/g/|d>BA>d B2G2||
HEY THE BONNIE BREAST KNOTS. Scottish, Air and Highland Schottische (2/4 and 4/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB'. The song was composed around 1824 by John Sinclair (1791-1857) for, and dedicated to, the Melodists Club, and was sung at the Melodists Concerts at the Theatres Royal, London, Edinburgh and Dublin. It proved popular and was much anthologized in song collections of the 19th century after around 1830. Sinclair was possessed of a fine tenor voice and was trained by vocal coaches in London; when just out of his teens he sang opera at Covent Garden, and found lasting fame as a concertizing balladist up until his death. Sinclair's song begins:
Hey the bonnie, ho the bonnie, hey the bonnie breast knots,
Blithe and merry were they a' when they put on the breast knots.
There was a bridal in this town,
And till't the lasses were a'boun' wi' mankie facings on their gown;
And some of them had breast knots,
Singing Hey the bonnie, ho the bonnie, hey the bonnie breast knots,
Blithe and merry were they a' when they put on the breast knots.
"Hey to the Bonnie Breast Knots" was published by James Hewitt & Co. in 1827 in Boston, Massachusetts, where it was sung "with unbounded applause by Miss George at the Boston Theater."
