Annotation:Hey Ca' Thro'

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HEY, CA' THROUGH. Scottish, Air (9/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Cole): AB (Gatherer): AABB (Kennedy). The song (whose title means ('Hey, work away') appears in John Johnson's Scots Musical Museum [1], vol. 4 (1792, p. 405). The lyric, which is usually attributed to Robert Burns, begins:

Up wi' carls of Dysart,............carls = old men
And the lads o' Buckh'ven
And the Kimmers o' Largo,......kimmer = gossips
And the lasses o' Leven.
Hey ca' thro' ca' thro'
For we hae mickle a do,
Hey ca' thro' ca' thro'
for we hae mickle a do.

John Glen (1900) could find no earlier appearance of the melody. The melody appears to be a Borders pipe tune. Matt Seattle sees some resemblance in John Walsh's "We are all Foresaken for want of Siller."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 70. G.H. Davidson (Davidson's Gems of Scottish Melody), n.d.; p. 15 (c. 1830's?). Gatherer (Gatherer's Musical Museum), 1987; p. 21. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune-Book: Slip Jigs & Waltzes), 1999; No. 27, p. 7. Manson (Hamilton's Universal Tune-Book, vol. 1), 1844; p. 9. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 100.

Recorded sources:

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