Annotation:Gin Thou Wert Mine Own Thing

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GIN THOU WERT MINE OWN THING. AKA and see "Scotch Song (A)," "An Thou Were My Ain Thing." Scottish, English; Country Dance Tune and Air (whole time). A Mixolydian (Young): A Major (Manson). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Manson). The melody, with variation sets, appears in Scottish musician and dancing master David Young's MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1740, No. 17) as "An thou were my own thing". The air appears parodied in John Gay's Beggar's Opera (1729) under the title "Oh what pain it is to part."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Manson (Hamilton’s Universal Tune Book, vol. 2), 1846; p. 31. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 2), 1760; p. 16 (as "An thou wert my ain thing"). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 55.

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
See a standard notation transcription of the melody from David Young's MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1740) [1]




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