Annotation:Bashful Swain (The)

Back to Bashful Swain (The)

BASHFUL SWAIN, THE. English, Country Dance (2/2 or cut time). D Minor. Standard tuning. AABB. The melody was first published in Playford's Dancing Master (3rd vol.) of 1728, the series then being published in London by John Young.

The tune is a composition of German-born John Galliard, who moved to England early in life and remained there. The original title is "The Bashful Lover", an d verses were set by Theobald, appearing in Watt's Musical Miscellany (London, 1729), in the Perth Musical Miscellany, (1786), and in Calliope (1788). The original verses were somewhat licentious, and were recast by Robert Burns^[1] for the Scots Musical Museum (1790, No. 22), under the title "On a band of flowers in a summer day."

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1989. Kidson (Old English Country Dances), 1890; p. 5. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 17.

Recorded sources : - Saydisc CDSDL 351, Dave Townsend – “Portrait of a Concertina” (recorded 198?). Saydisc CDSDL449, Dave Townsend - "Traditional Dance Music of Britain & Ireland" (2018).

Back to Bashful Swain (The)

0.00

(0 votes)

↑ Poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) was no stranger to the risqué and even bawdy verse. See The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799), a collection of songs for the private use of Robert Burns and his friends, including the Crochallan Fencibles, an 18th-century Edinburgh club, which met at the Anchor Close, a public house off the High Street, Edinburgh. The collection has been attributed to Burns.

[1] Poet Robert Burns (1759-1796) was no stranger to the risqué and even bawdy verse. See The Merry Muses of Caledonia (1799), a collection of songs for the private use of Robert Burns and his friends, including the Crochallan Fencibles, an 18th-century Edinburgh club, which met at the Anchor Close, a public house off the High Street, Edinburgh. The collection has been attributed to Burns.

[1]