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X:1 T:Stumpie M:C L:1/16 R:Strathspey B: Joseph Lowe - Lowe's Collection of Reels, Strathspeys and Jigs, B:book 1 (1844–1845, p. 1) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A V:1 clef=treble name="3." [V:1] d2|ce3 a4 (ag).f.e a4|(ce3) a4 (bB3)B2d2| ce3 a4 (ba).g.f a4|c3eB3d c2A2A2:| |:d2|ce3-e2dc df3-f2ed|ce3-e2dc fB3B2d2|ce3-e2dc|df3f2ed|ca3B3d cA3A2:|]



STUMPIE/STUMPEY. AKA - "Reel of Stumpie." AKA and see "Buttered Peas (1)," “Highland Wedding (1) (A' Bhanais Ghaidhealach),"” "Jack's be the Daddy On't," "No Man's Jig," "Reel of Stumpie," "Rosses Highland (The)," "Ruairi Og," "Young Rory." Scottish (originally), Canadian, English; Strathspey or Reel. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. England, North West. G Major (Dunlay & Greenberg, Dunlay and Reich, Perlman, Rook, Sweet, Young): A Major (Athole, Gow, Honeyman, Hunter, Kennedy, Raven, Skye, Surenne). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Honeyman, Surenne): AAB (Dunlay & Greenberg, Dunlay and Reich, Rook): AABB (Hunter, Kennedy, Perlman, Raven, Skye, Sweet, Young): AABB' (Athole): AABBCCDDEEFF (Gow). "A very old tune" (Gow). The earliest recorded appearances of this double-tonic tune are in John Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances, book 1, c. 1743-44 (under the title "Butter'd Pease"), and in Edinburgh fiddler and writing master David Young's Duke of Perth Manuscript (AKA the Drummond Castle MS, Part 2, No. 31) which predates it, having been fashioned in 1734. Young also included it in his MacFarlane Manuscript (c. 1741, p. 230). William Stenhouse stated the "Reel o' Stumpie" was in the ballad opera The Female Parson (1729) under the title "Jockey has gotten a wife," though John Glen (Early Scottish Melodies, 1900, p. 201-2) said that the "Jockey..." tune was an entirely different melody. Bruce Olsen finds they were both right as the titles "Butter'd Peas" (Stumpie) and "Jockey has gotten a wife" were switched around in The Female Parson. Olson also finds "Stumpie" employed in the ballad operas The Boarding School (1732), Achilles (1733), The Decoy (1733) and The Whim (1734). It is usually played in the key of 'A' Major in Scottish versions, but the Mabou (Cape Breton) version is in 'G' and is played a bit differently (Dunlay & Reich). Some melodic material from "Stumpie" is shared with "Lady Betty Wemyss;" as James C. Dick states, they cover the "same subject."

The tune was used, as were so many famous Scots melodies, by poet Robert Burns (1759–1796) for one of his revisions of a Scots song (No. 457 in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum {1796}). This song is also published in Dick's The Songs of Robert Burns (1903, No. 205) although Dick omitted parts he apparently deemed too risqué for the times. Charles Gore gives that the tune (or song) had been previously published as "Hap and row the Feetie o't," and that Burns reworked the material as he did with numerous other older songs. These lyrics appear in Burns posthumously published The Merry Muses of Caledonia:

Wap and row, wap and row,
Wap and row the feetie o't
I thought I was a maiden fair,
Till I heard the grettie o't

My daddie was a fiddler fine,
My minnie she made mantie O,
And I mysel a thumpin quean,
And try'd the reel of stumpie O.

Lang kail, pease and leeks,
They were at the kirst'nin' o't,
Lang lads wanton breeks,
They were at the getting o't.
Wap and row, &c.

The Bailie he gaed farthest ben,
Mess John was ripe and ready o't,
But the Sherra had a wanton fling,
The Sherra was the daddie o't.
Wap an' row, &c.

The Burns lyrics go:

Hap and row, hap and row,
Hap and row, the feetie o',t
I thocht I was a maiden fair
Till I heard the greetie o't.
My daddy was a fiddler fine,
My minnie she made mankie-o; .....(mankie=calamanco, a silk-wool material)
And I mysel' a thumpin' quean,
Wha danced the reel o' Stumpie O.

Gossip cup, the gossip cup,
The kimmer clash and caudle-O;
The glowin moon, the wanton loon,
The cuttie-stool and cradle-O.
Douce dames maun hae their bairn-time borne,
Sae dinna glower sae glumpie-O,
Birds love the morn and craws love corn,
And maids the reel o' Stumpie-O.

Dunlay and Greenberg (1996) report that Scots bagpiper Hamish Moore feels that the modern march "Highland Wedding (1)" was derived from "Stumpie" and supply a Gaelic title for the tune, "'Buail gu dluth le'd chluigean mi', meaning "strike me incessantly with your {?}." Some have noticed similarities in the Irish polka “Bill Sullivan's.” Samuel Bayard's Pennsylvania-collected "Hazel Dean (1)" shares some melodic material. "Ruairi Og" (Young Rory) is a the main title of the tune in Glasgow piper, pipe teacher and pipe-maker William Gunn's Caledonian Repository of Music (1848).


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Donald Angus Beaton (Mabou, Cape Breton) [Dunlay & Greenberg]; Paul MacDonald (b. 1974, Charlottetown, Queens County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; James Aird [Moffat].

Printed sources : - Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 2), 1785; No. 44. Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 221. Dunlay & Greenberg (Traditional Celtic Violin Music of Cape Breton), 1996; p. 93. Dunlay and Reich (Traditional Celtic Fiddle Music of Cape Breton), 1986; p. 59. Gow (The First Collection of Strathspey Reels), 1784 (revised 1801); p. 30. Gow (The Beauties of Niel Gow), Part 3, 1819. William Gunn (Caledonian Repository of Music Adapted for the Bagpipes), 1848; p. 39 & p. 104 (two versions, as "Ruairi Og"). Honeyman (Strathspey, Reel and Hornpipe Tutor), 1898; p. 34. Hunter (Fiddle Music of Scotland), 1988; No. 150. Johnson (A Further Collection of Dances, Marches, Minuetts and Duetts of the Latter 18th Century), 1998; p. 16. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune Book, vol. 2), 1954; p. 16. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880; Set 6, No. 3, p. 6. Laybourn (Köhlers' Violin Repository Book 1), 1881; p. 54 (as "Stumpie Strathspey"). Lowe (A Collection of Reels and Strathspeys), 1842. MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; p. 4. Milne (Middleton’s Selection of Strathspeys, Reels &c. for the Violin), 1870; p. 26. Moffat (Dance Music of the North), 1908; No. 8, p. 4. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 188. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 168. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; p. 13. Surenne (Dance Music of Scotland), 1852; pp. 88-89. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; p. 57. David Young (A Collection of Scotch Airs with the latest Variations Book II, AKA - The McFarlane Manuscript), c. 1741; No. 177, p. 230.

Recorded sources : - Beltona BL2128 (78 RPM), The Edinburgh Highland Reel and Strathspey Society (1936). Beltona BL2459 (78 RPM), Jimmy Shand (1949). Celtic CX 45, Wilfred Gillis - "Arisaig Airs." CTRAX 073, Hamish Moore - "Stepping on the Bridge/Daansa' air an Drochaid" (1994). DAB4-1985, Donald Angus Beaton- "A Musical Legacy" (1985. Appears as "A Mabou Strathspey"). JC 126, John Campbell- "Cape Breton on the Floor" (1981. Appears as "Traditonal Strathspey"). Parlophone F3392 (78 RPM), Jimmy Shand. Smithsonian Folkways Records, SFW CD 40507, The Beaton Family of Mabou - "Cape Breton Fiddle and Piano Music" (2004). STEPH 1-94, Stephanie Wills - "Tradition Continued" (1994).

See also listing at :
Alan Snyder’s Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer’s Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear a version played on the bagpipes at Tobar an dualchais [3][4]
Hear the tune fiddled by Hugh Jamieson at Tobar an dualchais [5][6]



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