Annotation:Hey Tuttie Taiti
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HEY TUTTIE TAITI. AKA - "Hey Tutti Tatti," "Hey Tuti Teti." AKA and see "Scots Wha Hae (Wi' Wallace Bled)," "Fill Up Your Bumpers High," "Bridekirk's Hunting." Scottish, Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A very old Scots air, even at the time it was used (when played slow) by Robert Burns for his song "Scots Wha Hae." As a vehicle for songs it also served for the Jacobite carousing song "Fill Up Your Bumpers High," and an Annandale-collected song called "Bridekirk's Hunting." The Jacobite version (dated to 1718 through a reference to Charles XII of Sweden, who proposed at that time "an inroad against England") begins:
Here's to the king, sir,
Ye ken wha I mean, sir,
And to every honest man
That will do't again!
Fill, fill your bumpers high,
Drain, drain your glasses dry,
Out upon him, fye! oh, fye!
That winna do't again!
The title apparently derives from a line from a song to the tune from the early 18th century, and is thought to be a representation of the sound of the drums:
When you hear the pipe sound
Tuttie taitie, to the drum
According to Emmerson (1971) the title is supposed to imitated a trumpet, and was likley based on a trumpet motif, though not a trumpet tune (the first sylable of tutie rhymes with 'but' and the first sylable of taiti rhymes with 'gate'; it has been suggested that the stress should go on the second syllable of the words so as to mimic a trumpet sound). Tradition has it that it was played at the battle of Bannockburn in which Robert Bruce won independence for Scotland (see Robert Chambers' Scottish Songs Prior to Burns). Emmerson is concerned with the antiquity of the tune as he belives it has the character of a strathspey, and may be the earliest recorded example of that genre. He quotes Stenhouse's suggestion of a rhyme by mentioned by Fabyan from c. 1328 which appears to go to the tune, and finds a French reference from 1429 which seems to support his and traditional contention of antiquity. Purser (1992) reports that French records (perhaps those referred to by Stenhouse) give that the tune was brought to France by Scottish archers and was heard when Joan of Arc entered Oreleans, "and probably also Rheims for the coronation of the French king whose bodyguard was Scottish." The tune is still played in France. Finally, Emerson suggests "Hey Tutti Taiti" may be in fact the same tune as an early and lost "The Day Dawes" tune, though other melodies have the same title. Robert Burns wrote the following words to the tune (Scots Musical Museum, No. 130):
Landlady count the lawin'
The day is near the dawnin'
Ye're a' blind drunk boys
And I'm but jolly fu'
Hey tuttie tatie,
How tuttie tatie,
Hey tuttie tatie,
Wha's fu' noo.
Cog an' ye were aye fu'
Cog an' ye were aye fu'
I wad sit an' sing tae you,
An' ye were aye fu'.
(Chorus)
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Emmerson (Rantin' Pipe and Tremblin' String), 1971; No. 4, p. 16. McGibbon (Scots Tunes, book II), c. 1746; p. 55. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1); c. 1805; p. 78 (Appears as "Hey Tutty Tatey"). Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion Book 3), 1760; p. 13.
Recorded sources: