Annotation:Jesse the Flower of Dunblane

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 JESSE THE FLOWER OF DUNBLANE. AKA - "Jessie the Flower of Dunblane," "Jessy the Flower of Dunblane." Scottish, English; Air (6/8 time). G Major (O'Neill): D Major (Ashman, Hall & Stafford). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Ashman, O'Neill): AABB (Hall & Stafford). O'Neill (1922) says: "Early in the nineteenth centtury, this song was composed by a modest weaver, Robert Tannahill of Paisley, and was set to an alleged ancient Scottish melody by Robert A. Smith author of the Irish Minstrel, and the Scottish Minstrel. According to Farquhar Graham, editor of Wood's Songs of Scotland, not a few of the airs in the latter work were composed by Smith himself (who composed the "Jesse" air prior to 1816). Whatever the origin of the above melody may have been it has a decidedly Gaelic tonality." "Jesse the Flower of Dunblane" can also be found in The Union Imperial Songbook, printed in Edinburgh by A. Hogg, J. Robertson Macreide & Co., and George Cowle & Co., London, 1815.  Sources for notated versions: copied from Wood's Songs of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1848) [O'Neill]; a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman].  Printed sources: Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 89, p. 35. Hall & Stafford (Charlton Memorial Tune Book), 1974; p. 16.O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922.  Recorded sources:

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