Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788) was indeed 'over the water', in France with a price on his head should he return to Britain, growing old, fat and alcoholic, while his air was advancing in popularity through the 18th century.Over the Water to Charlie
Played by: Hood, Wink & Swagger Source: Soundcloud Notes: Words to the melody can be found in several collections. The following are from the Scots national poet, Robert Burns:
Come boat me o'er, come row me o'er, Come boat me o'er to Cherlie: I'll gie John Ross anither bawbee To boat me o'er to Charlie.
Though the title stems from the Jacobite era, the tune is older and has had many names (given above as alternates: see notes for Pot Stick) Kate Van Winkler Keller (1992) identifies "Charlie" as having been based on a 1740's dance tune called "Potstick."
However, by the late 1740's it appears in published collections with the "Over the Water" title, a title that first appeared in John Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing Master, volume the Third (London, 1749).
It also was printed in David Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1756), and in a few publications by Charles and Samuel Thompson, including their 1757 country dance collection, and a tutor for the hautboy (oboe) printed in 1758 and again in 1770.
Cheapside, London, musician Walter Rainstorp included it in his music manuscript copybook, begun in 1747, as did London flute player John Simpson (1750). If the "Over the Water" title is taken to be a shortened version of "Over the Water to Charlie" (and not a complete name in itself), it is remarkable in that the Walsh volume appeared only a few short years after The Pretender's defeat at Culloden (1745) and his exile to France.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788) was indeed 'over the water', in France with a price on his head should he return to Britain, growing old, fat and alcoholic, while his air was advancing in popularity through the 18th century.
Although we are not trained musicologists and make no pretense to the profession, we have tried to apply such professional rigors to this Semantic Abc Web as we have internalized through our own formal and informal education.
This demands the gathering of as much information as possible about folk pieces to attempt to trace tune families, determine origins, influences and patterns of aural/oral transmittal, and to study individual and regional styles of performance.
Many musicians, like ourselves, are simply curious about titles, origins, sources and anecdotes regarding the music they play. Who, for example, can resist the urge to know where the title Blowzabella came from or what it means, or speculating on the motivations for naming a perfectly respectable tune Bloody Oul' Hag, is it Tay Ye Want?
Knowing the history of the melody we play, or at least to have a sense of its historical and social context, makes the tune 'present' in the here and now, and enhances our rendering of it.
Andrew Kuntz & Valerio Pelliccioni
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