Blythsome Bridal (The)

 BLYTHSOME BRIDAL, THE. AKA and see "An the Kirk Would Let Me Be," "Bremner and the kirk would let me be," "Blithesome Bridal," "Come fy, let's a' to the bridal," "Come Let's A' to the Bridal," "Come to the Bridal," "Fy Let Us A' to the Wedding,' "I'm the Boy for Bewitching Them," "Let us waa to the wedding." "Jolly Peddler's (4) (The)," "Silly Old Man (2)." Scottish, (9/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. This odd-timed tune appears in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, 1787; No. 58 (it is noted variously in 9/8 and 6/8 time). Words to the melody have been attributed to 17th century Scots writer Francis Semple, son of Robert Semple of Belltrees, the author of the humorous poem "Sanny Briggs." The words were printed in the first publication of miscellaneous Scottish verse in Watson's Choice Collection of Comic and Serious Scots Poems (1706-11). It is from this volume the Thomas D'Urfey got his copy of "The Blythsome Bridal" which he reprinted in his Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719-1720), including the very curious errors owing to printer Watson's ignorance of the Scottish language [Robert Burns, Robert Riddell, Notes on Scottish Song]. Tyneside fiddler and singer-songwriter Robert "Bobby" Nunn (1808-1853) set his song "The Sandgate Lass On The Ropery Banks" to this tune. William Stenhouse (1773-1827), in his Illustrations to the Scots Musical Museum (1839) remarks that the song is "another of the old Scottish songs which has fortunately been handed down to us in its primitive state. It is valuable both as a curious specimen of the ancient language of Scotland as well as of the coarse but lively manners of our peasantry in the olden times, circumstances which too frequently escape altogether the notice of the historian" (p. 61). Printed source: Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String), 1971; No. 76, p. 157.

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