Annotation:Is Your Graith in Order
X: 1 T:Is your Graith in Order T:Whipman's Rant, The M:C L:1/8 Q:"Slowish" B:Gow - Complete Repository Part First (Edinburgh, 1799), p. 4 F:https://hms.scot/prints/copy/10/ Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D F|D/D/D A>B {B}A>FEF|D/D/D A>B A>F AB |A>FAB {B}A>FTE>F| D/D/D A>B A>BTd>e|f>d{ef}g>f {f}e>F TE>F|D/D/D A>B {B}AFD:| g|f>dTd>f Tg>feg|f>dd>f a/g/f/e/ d>g|Tf>ddf Tg>f ef/g/| {fg}a>gTf>e Td>efd|(3efg (3fga {f}e>F TE>F| D/D/D D>d {B}A>FD:|
IS YOUR GRAITH IN ORDER. AKA and see "Whipman's Rant (The)." Scottish, Strathpsey (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Is Your Graith in Order" was first published in Edinburgh in 1788 by music publisher Neil Stewart, republished a decade later by the Gows. It is a two-part six-measure (each) strathspey, not suitable for general country dancing but perhaps for its own dance. Mara Shea found a version of the tune with eight-measure parts in the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of Aberdeenshire violin teacher and fiddler Robert Dawson, evidently adapted (by him?) for country dancing[1].
The Scots Graith has a number of meanings, but the one that fits the title (on the surface) is probably a reference to 'apparatus' or 'equipment'; this also seems to with the alternate title "Whipman's Rant", probably associated with the drayer's guild. The Whipmen's Society is a descendant of ancient trade guilds and benefit societies, and was still extent in the 20th century. A secondary and bawdy meaning to "Is Your Graith in Order" is also probably in play.
