Annotation:I'm going to be married on Sunday
X:1 T:I'm going to be married on Sunday M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Lively" S:Howe - 1000 Jigs and Reels (c. 1867) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D A | dcd edc | dBA F2A | dcd BAF | F>EE E2 A/A/ | dcd edc | dBA FBB | AFE EF^G | A3 d2B | AFE FDE | D3 D2 ||
I'M GOING TO BE MARRIED ON SUNDAY. Irish, Air (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Despite the supposed earlier date of publication of Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels, this song air is one of a number of tunes that Howe appropriated intact from Irish collector P.W. Joyce. Joyce learned the air and words as a boy in County Limerick, c. 1840's. "Some portions of the old song are spirited and well adapted to the air; others are very rude and worthless; and for several reasons it could not be presented to the reader." The words Joyce printed are his own adaptation, incorporating "the best lines of the original, including two verses almost unchanged." The first two Joyce stanzas go:
'Twas down in the meadows one morning last spring,
I met a fair maiden who sweetly did sing;
She was milking her cow while her clear voice did ring,
"O I'm sixtenn years old on next Sunday;
I'm sixteen years old on next Sunday!
'Tis quite time to marry when a girl is sixteen;
'Twas Willy that told me, so it's plain to be seen;
Fore he's handsome and manly and fit for a queen
And just twenty years old on next Sunday,
Just twenty years old on next Sunday!
