Annotation:Stool of Repentance
X:1 T:Stool of Repentance, The M:6/8 L:1/8 B: Joseph Lowe - Lowe's Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Jigs, B:book 4 (1844–1845, p. 5) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:A e/f/g|a2e c2e|agf edc|aff f2 e|fag f2 e| a2e c2e|agf edc|d2f efg|{fg}a2c {c}B2A:| |:cAA eAA|cAA edc|dBB fBB|dBB fed| cAA ecc|cAA edc|d2f efg|{fg}a2c {c}B2A:|]
STOOL OF REPENTANCE. AKA and see "Border Reel," "Scots came over the Border (The)," "Wright's Rant," "Waddling Gander." Scottish, Canadian, American; Jig (6/8 time). A Major (most versions): G Major (Gow): A Mixolydian (Gunn). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. “The Stool or Repentance” is the name of a Scottish jig that has not only survived but is widely disseminated has remained popular for nearly three centuries. An early version of the melody can be found in the William Dixon manuscript dated 1734, and, as “Border Reel” it can be found in David Young’s Duke of Perth ms. from the same year. Printed versions from the 18th century often give the tune as “Wright’s Rant.” In the 19th century the jig appears in several Scottish collections such as MacDonald’s Skye Collection, Stewart-Robertson’s Athole Collection and one of Nathaniel Gow’s volumes. It was included in a number of 20th century collections, and its modern popularity, especially with contra-dancers, is attested to by its inclusion in The Portland Collection and The New England Fiddler’s Repertoire, standard contra-dance volumes.
The curious title comes from Scottish Presbyterian church history and has to do with a survival of old Roman Catholic tradition. Several authorities report that in the Old Scottish Kirk transgressors, particularly adulterers and those who had committed moral offenses, were often given the penance in church of sitting themselves for one or two weeks before the entire congregation on the cutty stool or the ‘stool of repentance.’ This artefact was actually a special elevated seat or stool dedicated for the purpose and was set up before the pulpit. In some congregations the “penitent” had to stand on the stool after the service was over to receive the minister’s rebuke. The practice was in regular use during the hey-day of the Scottish fiddle composers in the late 18th and early 19th century, and in fact the Scots national poet Robert Burns' was one of its more notable victims. His famous satirical verse "Holy Willie's Prayer," about a godly hypocrite, was inspired perhaps by his own experience of being made in 1784 to sit before the congregation on the famous stool, “Clad in the black sackcloth gown of fornication” (McIntyre, 1995). This was in consequence of his dalliance with Elizabeth Paton, by whom he fathered an illegitimate child. He was hardly chastened by the experience, however, as later that same year, before the birth of his daughter Elizabeth, he wrote his song “The Fornicator”:
But my downcast eye be chance did spy
What made my lips to water,
Those limbs so clean where I, between,
Commenc’d a Fornicator.
In the 18th century collections of James Aird (Airs and Melodies, vol. 1) and Robert Bremner (1757) it is called “The Wright's Rant.” It is a favorite jig among modern contra dance musicians in the United States. Reg Hall (1998) notes that the tune has had long enough currency in Northumberland to be considered a local tune (see William Vickers' variant "Scots came over the Border (The)").
The second strain of "Stool of Repentance" is shared with a number of tunes, many with Scottish Borders connections, including "Noble Squire Dacre (come over the border)," "Scots came over the Border (The)," "Border Reel," "Wright's Rant," and others. The first strains of these melodies differ in melodic detail but display a structural resemblance and may be considered derivative of one another. David Young's rather generically titled "Border Reel" is the oldest version to be found in print (1734). Niel Gow considered it "old" in his day.
