Annotation:Women Folk

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X:1 T:Women folk M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Air B:Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. 12, Dec. 1822, pp. 705-706 Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D (F/E/)|D>E F(E/D/)|FA AB| A>B df|g (e/>f/) ef |D>E F{E}D|{E}FA AB| A>B de|fd d||E/F/|A<D BA|FD BA|FD (G/F/)(E/D/)|G(E>F) EF| A>f {f}ed|Bd A>B| A>B de |fd d"Chorus"d/e/||[L:1/16]fd3 !fermata!e2dc|dB3 {B}A2{G}F2| E2e2 e3{fe^de}f|g2e2 {f}e2(d!fermata!e)|f3g e3f|dB3 !fermata!A2FG|AB3 d3{fe^de}e|f2d2 d2||

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WOMEN FOLK. Scottish, Air (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The song, first published in The Border Garland, was composed by Scottish poet and novelist James Hogg [1] (1770-1835), The Ettrick Shepherd, who said of it:

The air of this song is my own. It was first set to music by Heather and most beautifully set, too. It was afterwords set by Dewar, whether with the same accompaniments or not, I have forgot. It is my own favourite humourous song when forced by ladies to sing against my will, which too frequently happens; and not withstanding my wood notes wild, it will never be sung by anyone so well again.

Hogg's words are interesting when juxtaposed with another account of what must be the same event Hogg himself remembered when writing the passage above. Another take on what was a convivial evening in mixed company confirms Hogg’s exhuberance:

Mrs. Hall describes an evening party at our house, in which, among the guests, were James Hogg, Maria Edgeworth, Allan Cunningham…This is the portrait she drew of Hogg:--“I can recall James Hogg sitting on the sofa—his countenance flushed with excitement and the ‘toddy’--…expressing wild earnestness, not, I thought, unmixed with irascibility. He was then, certainly, more like a buoyant Irishman than a steady son of the soil of the thistle, as he shouted forth, in an untunable voice, songs that were his own especial favorites, giving us some account of the origin of each at its conclusion. On I particularly remember—‘The Women Folk.’ ‘Ha, ha!’ he exclaimed, echoing our applause with his own broad hands—‘that song, which I am forced often to sing to the leddies, sometimes against my will, that song never will be sung so well again by any one after I ha’ done wi’ it.’ I remember Allan Cunninghams’s comment, ‘That’s because you have the nature in you!’”

He must have been the life of the party, for his song begins:

O sarely may I rue the day
I fancied first the womankind;
For aye sin syne I ne'er can hae
Ae quiet thought or peace o' mind!
They ha'e plagued my heart, and pleased my e'e
An' teased an' flatter'd me at will,
But aye for a' their witchery,
The pawky things I lo'e them still.