Annotation:Kiss Me Sweetly
X:1 T:Kiss Me Sweetly M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel B:Robert Bremener - A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances (London, 1757, p. 4) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C g|(a/g/f/e/ c)g egcg|(a/g/f/e/ c)g eddg|(a/g/f/e/ c)g egde|cAGE C/C/C C:| |:F|(EG)(cG) (AG)(cG)|(EG)(cG) dDDF|EGcG EG ga|gede c/c/c c:|]
KISS ME SWEETLY. AKA - "Kiss Her Sweetly (2)." Scottish, Reel. C Major (Bremner, Gow, MacDonald, Mackintosh, Rutherford): G Major (Aird, O'Neill). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Gow, Mackintosh): AABB (Aird, Bremner, O'Neill, Rutherford). John Glen (1891) finds the earliest printing of the tune in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection, printed in London. As "Kiss Her Sweetly (2)" it appears in several musicians manuscripts of the 18th and 19th centuries, including those of William Vickers (1770), John Buttery (very early 19th century), and John Rook (1840).
Compare "Kiss Me Sweetly" with the strathspey "Ayrshire Lasses (2)," widely credited to Hugh Montgomerie (1739-1819), the 12th Earl of Eglinton. The melodies are generally melodically and harmonically similar, differing only in detail but alike enough to suggest that Montgomerie's tune may have been "informed" by the earlier reel. See also the Gunn family's variant "Ereshire Lasses (The)." Researcher Conor Ward also finds Rev. Luke Donnellan's south Armagh collected "Miss Robinson's Reel" to be a distanced variant of Bremner's reel.
