Annotation:Maid's Complaint (2) (The)
X:1 T:Maid's Complaint, The M:C L:1/8 R:Air B:James Oswald – Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 4 (1760, p. 32) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Dmin A2|d3^c d>cd>e|f2 F>G F2 f>e|d2 {de}f2 c2 (d/c/B/A/)|{A}G4 z2 F>G| (A>G)(F>G) A2 f>e|(dc)(df) c3c|de f2 ga/b/ (a/g/f/e/)|{e}f4 z2:| |:e>f|(gc) (ag) g3 (f/e/)|f/e/f/g/ {g}a3c|(AG)(Ac) (fe)(d^c)|d4 z2 (d/e/)f| c2 (d/c/B/A/) G2 (e>f)|(gf)(ed) A2 (FG)|(AF)(BA) (G<F) T(E>D)|D4:|]
MAID'S COMPLAINT [2], THE. Scottish, Air (whole time). D Minor/F Major (Oswald): E Flat Major (Howe). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Howe): AABB (Oswald). The melody varies between minor and relative major, in F. The melody (in C minor) was the indicated tune for Alexander Robertson Struan's Song 112 ("He who presum'd to guide the Sun") printed in James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, vol. 2 (1788), and also for Robert Burns's "It is na, Jean, Thy Bonie Face," printed in a later volume of the Museum in 1792. The antiquarian Stenhouse attributes the melody to cellist-composer James Oswald, as does John Glen, based on the characteristic asterisk in the index of Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 4 (used by him to denote his compositions). Both writers opine that it is one of the finest Scottish airs that he composed. Oswald had earlier printed the tune in his Curious Collection of Scots Tunes (1740), published in Edinburgh before Oswald's remove to London.