The Gleeman
Notes on What can a young laſsie do wi' an auld man
References:
- Air; Johnson (1787-1803)JSM, vol
IIII,
p327, No. 316.
- Text; Johnson (1787-1803)JSM, vol
IIII,
p327,
No. 316.
Comments:
Johnson gives Robert Burns as the source for this song. However, he
does this in a roundabout way. In vol IIII all he does is mark the song
with an "R". In the index he states that "the Songs marked with B. R.
X. &c. are originals by different hands, but all of them Scots
gentlemen, who have favoured the Editor and the Public at large with
their compoſitions". In vol VI, produced after Burns's death, he
clarifies matters by stating (in the index) that "The Songs in the 5
preceding Volumes marked R. and B. the Editor is now at liberty to say
are the production of Mr. BURNS __ The Originals of Mr. BURNS'S writing
are in his possession __ They were written for this work, but being
often sent the Editor on the spur of the moment, Mt. BURNS requested
these be marks only, and not his name should be added to them.".
I have ignored the bass part given for the air. Also, in the original
there are four dots in the repeating bar line rather than two. I
haven't been able to recreate this with LilyPond.
Regarding the text, as with the original, I have used the old-fashioned
stye "ſ" for "s", where indicated. However, this means that the
LilyPond file and the text
file are utf-8 rather than ascii.
