I Ha’e A Wife O’ Ma Ain (slip jig) on The Session

Also known as A Wife Of My Ain, A Wife Of My Own, The Derry, I Ha’e A Wife O’ My Ain, I Hae A Wife O Ma Ain, I Have A Wife Of My Ain, I Have A Wife Of My Own, Jack Won’t Sell His Fiddle, My Wife’s My Own.

Eight comments

I Ha’e A Wife O’ Ma Ain

A Scottish slip jig,transcribed from Ossian’s first album.

Also recorded by Syncopace.

Lyrics - Burns (1788)

I ha’e a wife o’ my ain,
I’ll partake wi’ naebody,
I’ll tak cuckold frae nane,
I’ll gi’e cuckold tae naebody.
I ha’e a penny tae spend,
There, thanks tae naebody,
I ha’e naething tae lend,
I’ll borrow frae naebody.

I am naebody’s lord,
I’ll be slave tae naebody;
I ha’e a guid broad sword,
I’ll tak’ dunts frae naebody,
I’ll be merry and free,
I’ll be sad for naebody,
If naebody cares for me,
I’ll care for naebody.

“My Wife’s My Own” ~ slip jig ~ the Irish way, & quite different

Key signature: A Dorian (B Dorian in comments)
Submitted on June 11th 2007 by Pierre Commes.
https://thesession.org/tunes/7337

Ha’e A Wife O’ Ma Ain

This Ossian recording :https://thesession.org/recordings/display/1383
but it is not linking . Apart from playing G2 not ~G2 the fiddle on that recording is doing something close to this version from Gow, lifted straight from "The Fiddlers Companion".
X:1
T:I hae a wife o’ my ain
M:9/8
L:1/8
S:Gow – 1st Repository (1799)
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:E Minor
EFE ~G2A B3|EFE G2A BGE|EFE ~G2A B^cd|DED {^c}d2B AFD:|
g>ag fgf e3|EFE ~G2A BGE|g>ag fgf e3|DED {^c}d2B AFD|g>ag fgf e3|
EFE ~G2A BGE|g>ag fgf efg|DED DdB AFD||

Am finding it a fun beginner tune on flute. Not many notes to learn but plenty else to work at.

The Derry

Jimmy Power playes a slightly different Version from these nice little scottish tune on his Album Irish Dances from 1967, but he named it The Derry.

I ha’e a wife o’ my ain

Setting X:4 is as given with Burn’s words (see above) in The Scots Musical Museum vol4 p. 364

Key signature and lack of beaming as in the source.

Setting is now not what was in the source 🙁

I see that the conventional 9/8 beaming has been put back. I have it like that to play it as a dance tune but I had carefully spaced the characters so that it would come out as in the printed source. It is with the words for a song (which are given above), so the intention may, as is often the case, have been for the words to influence rhythm an accent.

Fair enough, if that’s the way it works here. Who looses ? Who gains ?

I Ha’e A Wife O’ Ma Ain slip jig

Five settings

Eight comments