Annotation:Sweet Molly (2)

Find traditional instrumental music


Back to Sweet Molly (2)


X:1 T:Sweet Mally T:Sweet Molly [2] M:2/4 L:1/8 B:Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, B:vol. 1, 1782, p. 44, no. 125 Z:François-Emmanuel de Wasseige K:Emin Ee(ef)|e2 dB|defd|eBdA|Beef|e2 dB|ABdF|E/E/E E2:| |:F/F/F (F>E)|DEFA|B/B/B (B>A)|Bdef|dBAF|D>EFA|BdAF E/E/E E2:|]



SWEET MOLLY [2]. AKA – “Sweet Mally.” AKA and see “Bonnet Makers of Dundee (The),” “Burnt Leg (The),” “Corby and the Pyett (The).” Scottish, Reel and Strathspey. E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. James Oswald printed the tune under the “Corby and the Pyett (The)” title in his Caledonian Pocket Companion (1743–48), while Robert Bremner gives it as “Bonnet Makers of Dundee (The)” in his 1757 collection. The tune first appeared under the title “Sweet Mally” in Glasgow musician and publisher James Aird’s first volume of his Selection (1782). It is probably the reel "Sweet Mally" contained in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth, 1768.

"Sweet Molly (2)" (with parts reversed) is contained in the music manuscript collection of curate and fiddler biography:Rev. Luke Donnellan (1878-1952), Oriel region, south Ulster[1]


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Rev. Luke Donnellan music manuscript collection [O'Connor].

Printed sources : - Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782; p. 44. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune-Book: Reels & Rants, Flings & Fancies), 1997; No. 188, p. 44. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 4), c. 1880’s; Nos. 125 & 126, p. 15. O'Connor (The Rose in the Gap), 2018; No. 129, p. 75. Wilson (A Companion to the Ballroom), 1816; p. 76.






Back to Sweet Molly (2)

0.00
(0 votes)





  1. Donnellan researcher Gerry O'Connor came to believe the ms. is not the work of the curate but rather was originally compiled by an unknown but able fiddler over the course of a playing lifetime, probably in the late 19th century. The ms. later came into the possession of Donnellan, who was also a fiddler.