Annotation:Clout the Caldron (2)
X:1 T:Clout the Caldron [2] M:C L:1/8 R:Air N:"Rollicking Style" S:Skinner - Harp and Claymore (1904) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C E|:ED DE/G/ .A.G.E.C|ED DE/G/ (A2c2) |ED DE/G/ Ac ED/C/|ED Dc {A/B/}A2 G:| E | c>cce c>cce | .d.c.B.A .c.B.A.G | c>cce cc/c/ ce | .d.c.B.A. c.B.A.G | (ed) d(3e/f/g/ .a.g.e.c | (ed) d(3e/f/g/ {g}a2 g2 | (ed) d(3e/f/g/ .a.g.e.c | (ed) d(3e/f/g/ a2 g2 | |: e(3.c/.c/.c/ g(3.c/.c/.c/ a(3.c/.c/.c/ g(3.c/.c/.c/ | {c/d/}(cB).A.G B2 {c/B/}AG :|
CLOUT THE CALDRON [2]. Scottish, Air (4/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABCC. The title is associated with the metalworker's guild, the Incorporation of Hammermen (see "Clout the Caldron (1)". A note on the manuscript in Skinner's hand reads: "'Bishop Chisholm would have gone to the Scaffold to this famous tune so thoroughly characteristic is it." Allan Ramsay's mildly bawdy lyric[1] "Clout the Caldron" may be found in Thompson's Orpheus Caledoneus, vol. 2 (2nd ed., 1733, Song 25).
Have you any pots or pans,
Or any broken chandlers?
I am a tinkler to my trade,
And newly come frae Flanders.
As scant of siller as of grace,
Disbanded, we've a bad-run;
Gar tell the lady of the place,
I'm come to clout her caldron.
Fa adrie, didle, didle, &c.
Scottish musician and dancing master David Young included the melody with variation sets in his MacFarland Manuscript (c. 1740, No. 43, pp. 86-87), "Written for the use of Walter Mcfarlan of that ilk." The tune also can be found in the 17th century Guthrie Manuscript (2.11), where it begins with the chorus. See also the precursor tune "Blacksmith and His Apron (The)."
Robert Burns specified "Clout the Caldron" for several difference verses in his posthumous collection of bawdy songs, The Merry Muses of Caledonia.
- ↑ Chambers (1862) thought Ramsay's version still too unacceptable for the public: "The original song being quite too rough for introduction to a tea-table, Allan Ramsay modified it into a strain which he honestly believed to be fit...but which we, in these days, would decidedly condemn to the back of the stable-door at best..."
