Key signature: Aminor
Submitted on December 17th 2011 by cytgerdd.
This tune has been added to 7 tunebooks.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: John Anderson My Jo
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Amin
AG |E2 A2 A2 B2 |c4 c2 dc |B3 A G2 ^F2 |G6 AG |
E2 A2 A2 B2 |c4 c2 d2 |e3 d c2 d2 |e6 g3/2f/ |
e3 d c2 d2 |e3 f g2 fe |d3 c B2 c2 |d6 cd |
e2 c2 d2 cB |c2 BA B2 AG |E2 A2 A2 G2 |A6 |
The tune is notated alla breve in the collection of poems by Robert Burns I own ("Liebe und Freiheit, Lieder und Gedichte, zweisprachig", Heidelberg 1988).
# Posted on December 17th 2011 by cytgerdd
John Anderson, My Jo
I first came across this tune in the 1970s in "Fifty Old Airs and Dances from Scotland and Ireland" arranged for Descant Recorder by Constance M Mullins FSA Scot. I've always played it as a slow air, really slow, as a prelude to a faster tune in the same key such as the hornpipe "First of May" [english version]
# Posted on December 19th 2011 by gemtrimmer
John Anderson My Jo
Versions of the tune are found in a few areas. In the Skene manuscript (c1630-1640) it appears under the same name, while in Playford's Dancing Master it has the name "Paul's Steeple". Elsewhere in England it is known as "The Duke of Norfolk".
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by nigelg
The tune is said to have been a chant in the "holy kirk" up until around the time of the Reformation, and, according to "Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry", a parody of it was found "printit" in the end of a "a psalme buik" by Thomas Bassendyne, printer in Edinburgh, in the form of "ane baudy sang, called Welcome Fortunes" (c 1560):
JOHN Anderson my jo, cum in as ze gae by,
And ze sall get a sheips heid weel baken in a pye;
Weel baken in a pye, and the haggis in a pat;
John Anderson my jo, cum in, and ze's get that.
"And how doe ze, Cummer? and hove hae ze threven?
And how mony bairns hae ze?" "Cummer, I hae seven,"
"Are they to zour awin gude man?" "Na, Cummer, na;
For five of tham were gotten, quhan he was awa'."
John Anderson is said to have been a town piper of Kelso.
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by Weejie
John Anderson, My Jo
You're full of fascinating information. Thanks, Weejie!
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by nigelg