Annotation:Up with Aily (2)
X:1 T:Up with Aily [2] M:9/4 L:1/8 R:Playford – Dancing Master 12th edition (1703) K:D D4d2 A4F2 A4F2|D4d2 A4F2 G2F2E2| D4d2 A4F2 G2A2B2|=c6 G2E2=C2 G2E2C2:| |:d3ef2 f3ef2 f3ef2|d3ef2 f3ga2 e2c2A2| d3ef2 f3ef2 f3ed2|e6 E4F2 G2F2E2:|
UP WITH AILY [2]. AKA – “Up went Aily,” "Up wi' Eli, Eli." AKA and see "We're no very fu' but we're gaily yet," "We're gayly yet." English, Air and Jig (9/8 time). D Major (Howe, Playford, Walsh): A Major (Aird, Davie): A Mixolydian (McLachlan). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Davie): AABB (Howe): AABBCCDD (McLachlan). “Up with Aily [2]” first appears in print in Henry Playford’s 12th volume of the Dancing Master (London, 1703), and continued to appear in the long running series through the 18th edition (1728, at which time it was published by John Young). John Walsh picked it up for his Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1718, also in editions of 1731 and 1754). James Aird printed it in his Glasgow-published Selection of Scots, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (1782), as “Up Wi’t Ailly Now,” and, as “Up went Ailey” (or simply “Ailey”) The “Up went Aily” title (and tune) were included by London musician Thomas Hammersley in his copybook of 1790. Breathnach (1996) finds “Up with Aily [2]” cognate with an untitled slip jig in Ceol Rince na hÉireann (1996, No. 37), although the relationship seems very distant. The “Irish Frolic (The)” and "We're gayly yet" are cognate with Breathnach’s tune; see also an untitled slip jig in Book 3 (No. 124) of the large c. 1883 music manuscript collection of County Leitrim piper and fiddler biography:Stephen Grier (c. 1824-1894).
Song versions were published the same year as Aird, in John Fielding’s Convivial Songster (London, 1782). See also song versions under the title "We're no very fu' but we're gaily yet."
See also Aberdeenshire dancing master and musician biography:Archibald Duff's "Slip Jig (11)", which is cognate in the first strain and harmonically similar in the second. Duff's tune forms part of a sequence of dances under the title "Pas Seul (11)."
R.D. Cannon, in his article "English Bagpipe Music" (Folk Music Journal), 1972, suggests "Up with Aily (2)" is the progenitor of a large tune family that includes "Mad Moll (1)," "Virgin Queen," "Yellow Stockings," "Brose and Butter," "Riding a Mile (1)," "Hey My Nanny," "Kitten (The)," "Jerry Houlihan," "Cudgel (The)," "Dusty Miller (The)," "Follow Her Over the Border," "Honeyman (The)," "Cummilum," "Is Cuma Liom," "I Don't Care," "Fairest Put on Awhile," and "Faraway Wedding (1) (The)." However, as Bruce Olson points out, some of the tunes listed are much earlier than the copies he found.
