Annotation:An the Kirk Wad Let Me Be

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X:1 T:And the Kirk would let me be M:3/4 L:1/8 Q:"Slow" B:Oswald – Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 3 (1760, p. 14) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G G4G2|Bc d2 {ef}g2|(ed)(cB)(AG)|A4 G2| AB g2f2|Te4 (e/f/g)|(G2A2)B2|g2 (ag)(fe)| Td3c B2|TA2G2A2|B2 (cB)(AG)|TD4 D2|| g2d2e2|g3a (g/a/b)|a2 (gf)(ed)|e2B2d2| (gf)(ga)(bc')|Ta4 gf|g2a2b2|e2 (c'b)(ag)| Tf3e d2|e2B2d2|ef g2(Bc)|TA4 G2|| GB d4|(Bd)g2b2|(ag)(fe)(dc)|(B2A2)G2| (A2B2)d2|e4 (e/f/g)|(GB)(dg) b2|(c'b)(ag)(fe)| d2 (cB)(AG)|Ta2g2a2|b2 (c'b)(ag)|Te4 d2:| |:g2 (3bag G2|(3bag G2 (3bag|Tf3e d2|e2B2d2| (GB)(dg)(bg)|{b}a2 (gf)(ed)|(3gab b4|(3bag g4| (eg)(fa)(gb)|d2 (Bd)(gb)|e>f g2 B>c|TA4G2:| P:Giga M:9/8 L:1/8 "Brisk"G2G (B/c/de) dBG|TA2G ABd e2g| GBd gfe dBG|ABd BAG E2D:| |:gdg (g/a/b)g afd|ede gab Ta2 (g/f/)| gab abg Tf>ed|efg dBG TA2G:| |:GBd GBd GBd|Ace Ace (g/f/e/f/)g| GBd Bdg (d/c/B/A/)G|ABG dBG TD2D:| |:(g/f/g/a/)g dgb afd|GBd Bgb (a/g/f/e/)d| gGb fFa eEg|dBG (e/f/g)B TA2G:|]



AN THE KIRK WAD LET ME BE. AKA and see "If the Kirk Would Let Me Be", "Kirk wad let me be." Scottish, Air (9/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). The air appears in full in the Guthrie MS. of the late seventeenth century, and in Magdalen Cockburn's Music-book compiled between the 1660's and 1680's. Guthrie, a covenanting minister who was beheaded in 1661, was probably no friend to dance music, and Alburger (1983) speculates that some wag sewed the music MS. pages into one of his books of sermons. The air was a vehicle for an air in Allan Ramsay's pastoral opera The Gentle Shepherd (1725) sung by Patie (Song 16) that begins:

Duty and part of reason
Plead strong on the parent's side,
Which love superior calls treason;
The strongest must be obey'd:
For now tho' I'm one of the gentry,
My constancy falsehood repels;
For change on my heart has no entry,
Still there my dear Peggy excels.

The melody also appears in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768, p. 99).

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - William McGibbon (Scots Tunes Book 1), c. 1762; pp. 18-19. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 3), 1760; p. 14.

Recorded sources: -



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