Annotation:Waes Me for Charlie

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WAES ME FOR CHARLIE (Och a’s ochan mo chàradh). Scottish, Slow Air (3/8 time). F Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "This is an air to which the editor's father used to repeat sterling Gaelic words, lamenting the fate of Prince Charles, after the battle of Culloden, and acquired from the gentlemen mintioned in the prospectus, the burning of MacDonell's collection of the Jacobite songs, is an event now to be regretted, when they can no longer affect the public mind" (Fraser).

The ballad "Wae Me for Charlie" is Roud #16902, and begins "A wee bird cam' to our ha' door."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Fraser (The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles), 1816; No. 97, p. 37.

Recorded sources:

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