Annotation:Jenny's Bawbee

Back to 

 JENNY'S BAWBEE. AKA and see "Polly Put the Kettle On (1)." Scottish, English; Reel, Country Dance or March. England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Cole, Honeyman): AAB (Athole, Gow): AABB (Kerr): AABB' (Glen, Skye). The title "Jenny's Baby," by which the tune occasionally appears, is an erroneous one. A 'bawbee' is an old Scots term for a ha-penny, a coin, as in the Scots song "Ali bally bee:" "....waiting for a wee bawbee to buy some coulter's candy..." The antiquarian William Chappell claimed the melody as English in origin, though he accuses his countryman, Stephen Clarke (c. 1797) of making changes in the tune formerly called "Polly Put the Kettle On (1)" and re-titling it to fit the Scottish taste for the Scots Musical Museum (1797). "Polly Put the Kettle On" had three years previously "become very popular with young ladies, by means of Dale's Variations for the Pianoforte." The collector John Glen (1891), however, in espousing Scottish origins for the tune, finds the first Scottish printing in Joshua Campbell's 1778 collection (p. 79), and subsequently in Scots publications dating 1778 and 1788, which predate the Museum. "Mr. Chappell further had the hardihood to say that 'the words of 'Jenny's Bawbee' were adapted to (Polly Put the Kettle On); although as they begin, 'A' athat e'er my Jenny had, my Jenny had, my Jenny had,' they were evidently intended for the tine of 'Sike a wife as Willy had, as Willy had, as Willy had,'" (Glen, 1891). In a work entitled Introduction to the Ballads and Songs of Ayrshire (1846) "Jenny's Bawbee" is attributed to John Riddell of Ayr (1718-1795), who published one of the first collections of Scottish music around 1766, although as Kidson points out there is no corroborating evidence to sustain the claim. The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800, and was one of the "missing tunes" of William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript. Note that W.B. Laybourn (Köhlers’ Violin Repository Part 1, p. 73) prints a version of the tune with "New" in parenthesis, and that this is substantially the version printed Keith Stewart-Robertson in the Athole Collection. These versions seem to fairly closely mirror what are presumably the older versions of the melody, the main difference being the last measure of each strain.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 19 (appears as "Jenny's Baby"). Glen (The Glen Collection of Scottish Dance Music), vol. 1, 1891; p. 5. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 1, 1799; p. 36. Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 34. Kerr (Merry Melodies), vol. 1; Set 2, No. 4, p. 4. Köhlers’ Violin Repository Part 1, 1881; pp. 7 & 73 (two versions). MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 72. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 43. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 88.  Recorded sources:  See also listing at: Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recordings Index Hear melodeon player Jimmy Taylor's recording on Tobar an Dulchais (played as the last in a "set of three marches") Hear Annie Shand's (piano) 78 RPM recording at the Internet Archive

Back to