Annotation:Hey to Couper
HEY TO COUPER/COWPER. AKA and see "Warkworth Castle." AKA - "Hey to Cupar." Scottish, English; Jig, Country Dance Tune or "Pastoral" Air (6/8 time). England, Northumberland. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Bremner, Lerwick, Vickers, Young): AABB' (Davie, Gow). The earliest record of the tune is found in David Young's Duke of Perth Manuscript (AKA the Drummond Castle Manuscript) of 1734, in the possession of the Earl of Ancaster at Drummond Castle. John Glen (1891), evidently not knowing of Young's MS, found the earliest printing to be in Robert Bremner's 1757 collection.
A 'hey' is a weaving dance figure. The town of Cupar is located in Fife, Scotland, and was the location of a famous horseracing course. The following is recorded in the Diary of Fife (by John Lamont) of 1661 regarding Cupar racing:
The laird of Philiphawch his horse won the race at Cupar this year, and Stobs' horse, surnamed Scot, was second. Only those two ran...That which was formerly money is now converted to a large silver cup, worth 18 lb. Sterl. or thereby, as is reported. The rider that won was John Hoome. On the morrow, being the first of May, they ran for a silver cup, worth 5 lb. Ster., given by the Provost of Cupar for thetime, videlicet, the Earl of Rothes, where Powry Fothering-ame's horse in Angus carried the day, the same John Hoome being the rider, and William Arnot's horse, Ferny's brother, was the last of the four to run.
The tune appears in the large northern English music manuscript collections of William Vickers (1770, Northumberland) and John Rook [1] (1840, Waverton, Cumbria).
