Kafoozalum march

This deserves a place of its own, but there is also a single reel version on site here, which I’ll link to next. This old tune has done the mileage and I’ve found it in many places and traditions, with and without a second ending. I’ve given it here with a second ending, for the B-part, that concludes with the last two measures of the A-part. In this transcription I’ve written out all of the B-part in order to show other ways to take bars 1 & 2 of the second half, or 5 & 6 as given.

There are so many ways with this that I’m hoping others will offer a transcription of how they know it, personally or locally…

Key signature: D Major
Submitted on February 26th 2004 by gian marco.
https://thesession.org/tunes/2570

When slainte played a lovely recording of Harry Bradley and on this track I announced, “Hey, a fling!” ~ slainte immediately took Harry’s side and denied any such association ~ it was, for that moment, purely a reel… Such is the power of influence. 😉

“Kafoozalum” has been around a lot longer than the rename of “Davy Maguire’s”, but sometimes all we have to hold a tune by is the person we last heard play it, or who taught it to us. Maybe they forgot the name or didn’t know it, or we forgot to ask. It has other names as well…

X: 2
T: Gabhaidh Sinn an Rathad Mor
T: The Stewart’s March
B: “The Athole Collection”, James Stewart Robertson, 1884, page 153
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: country dance
K: A Major
|: e>fe>d c>d e2 | B>cd>c B>c d2 | e>fe>d c>de>a |[1 A>Ac>A B2 A2 :|[2 A>Ac>A B2 A>B ||
c>BA>B c>A c2 | d>cB>c d>B d2 | c>BA>B c>Ac>e | A>Ac>A B2 A>B |
c>A (3ABA c>A c2 | d>B (3BcB d>B d2 | c>A (3ABA c>Ac>a | A>Bc>A B2 A2 |]

And as we’ve seen from the previous link, the way many such tunes have served other duty, also known as a single reel…

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/
http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/KA.htm

This melody is reported to have been played by the Stewart clan pipers at the battle of Sheriffmuir in 1715. In a still earlier martial connection, Charles Stewart in his Killin Collection suggests (without verification) that this is the same “Stewart’s March” said to have been piped at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. Scottish, Pipe Tune. It is perhaps the tune (under the title “Suan agus Lagan”) played by Alexander Lamon, piper to the Laird of Lamont, at the annual piping competition (originally the Falkirk Tryst) held at the Assembly hall, Edinburgh in October 1784 (as reported in the period journal Scots Magazine). To modern ears the tune is unmistakably the children’s game-song “London Bridge is Falling Down,” which has its origins as a Welsh ‘penillion’, or standard-tune, for use in traditional singing contests for improvising children’s songs. A derivative of the melody is “Will You Go to Sheriffmiur?” published in James Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion of the 1750’s.

Highland Schottische. D Major. Standard tuning. AABB. The tune is quite similar to “The Stewart’s March” and “London Bridge is Falling Down” family of tunes. The title of from a humorous stage piece called “Ka Foozle-Um” which was written by S. Oxon and published in New York in 1866. The song is a mock-Oriental piece like “Abdulla Bulbul Ameer” which became popular in college songsters of the 1870’s and 1880’s. Curious, Cazden (1982) points out, since it is so derivative of the Scottish original, is that the melody became known by the American title in Britain in the later 19th century and was so published in Kerr’s collection; Peter Kennedy’s volume 100 English Folk Dance Tunes (1951) gives the title “London Bridge (Ka-foo-zalum)”.

We follow it with Keel Row, Washing Day then up a notch into Orange and Blue.

X: 1134
T: Kafoozalum
T: Ka-Foo-Za-Lum
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: country dance / march / highland schottische / highland fling / single reel
K: G Major
|: d2 d>c B>c d2 | A>Bc>B A>B c2 | d2 d>c B>c d2 | G>AB>G A2 G2 :|
|: B>GD>G B>G B2 | c>AE>A c>A c2 | B>GD>G B>G B2 | G>AB>G A2 G2 :|
K: A Major
|: e2 e>d c>d e2 | B>cd>c B>c d2 | e2 e>d c>d e2 | A>Bc>A B2 A2 :|
|: c>AE>A c>A c2 | d>BF>B d>B d2 | c>AE>A c>A c2 | A>Bc>A B2 A2 :|
K: D Major
|: a2 a>g f>g a2 | e>fg>f e>f g2 | a2 a>g f>g a2 | d>ef>d e2 d2 :|
|: f>dA>d f>d f2 | g>ec>e g>e g2 | f>dA>d f>d f2 | d>ef>d e2 d2 :|

K: G Major
|: d2 dc Bc d2 | ABcB AB c2 | d2 dc Bc d2 | GABG A2 G2 :|
|: BGDG BG B2 | cAEA cA c2 | BGDG BG B2 | GABG A2 G2 :|
K: A Major
|: e2 ed cd e2 | Bcdc Bc d2 | e2 ed cd e2 | ABcA B2 A2 :|
|: cAEA cA c2 | dBFB dB d2 | cAEA cA c2 | ABcA B2 A2 :|
K: D Major
|: a2 ag fg a2 | efgf ef g2 | a2 ag fg a2 | defd e2 d2 :|
|: fdAd fd f2 | gece ge g2 | fdAd fd f2 | defd e2 d2 :|

Geoff, do you swing them? And what sort of dances do you play the set for?

What about a transcription?

We play it in D between Orange and Blue and Wee Willie Winkie for a Schottische.
Dow has the words for it!

Indeed you are right. I played this tune for a great old box player with whom I frequently play for sets and ceilis. As soon as I finished the reel, he played his highland version of it.

Dow has words? This I gotta see if not hear…

Tthe name is possibly an anglicisation of the Scots Gaelic “Cia Phosaidh Leum” - “Who Will Marry Me?” This may also link with songs which go with the tune, such as this from Len Graham:

Love will you marry me
Marry me, marry me
Love will you marry me
And keep me from all danger.

These lyrics and other words also go with a similar tune, “Johnny Will You Marry Me” https://thesession.org/tunes/1990. There is further discussion about “Love will you marry me” at
https://thesession.org/discussions/15096

I’ve just seen this tune coincidentally in Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion, Book 6 (c.1755), as “Will You Go To Sheriff Muir”.

~ & band leader for ‘Bracken Rigg Band’:

http://www.brackenrigg.co.uk/ ~ a traditional fiddle and accordion band mad on Irish and Scottish trad., various lineups, playing regularly for barn dances around Doncaster in the North of England for some 30 years. The ‘Bracken Rigg Band’ also specialises in Northumbrian music. In the past they have played for old-time, sequence, sing-songs, bier-keller and various other continental accordion genre…

Hi C.

We would play those for a Highland Schottische and yes we swing it a lot (like a strathspey but a fair bit faster). We do Scottish ceilidh so at most gigs are playing Schottische, Canadian Barn Dance, Boston Two Step, Dashing White Seargent, Gei Gordons, Eightsome Reel, St. Bernard’s Waltz ~ etc.

Cheers ~ geoffwright

X: 7
T: Kafoozalum
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
Q: 300
K: G Major
|: B>c |\
d2 d>c B>c d2 | A>Bc>B A>B c2 |
d>ed>c B>cd>B | G>AB>G A2 :|
|: G>A |\
B>GD>G B<G B2 | c>AE>A c<A c2 |
B>GD>G B>G B2 | G>AB>G A2 :|

Thanks Geoff, & Nigel ~ as always, much appreciated…

Hmm, obviously I’m not familiar with the “Love Will You Marry Me” lyrics. The ones I’m more familiar with are more along the lines of the ones in the following link:

http://www.drinkingsongs.net/html/categorized-by-song/with-music/k/kafoozalum-%5Bas-learned-by-dick-greenhaus%5D.htm

Warning: do not click on the link if you are easily offended! 😀

Here’s another equally horrible version

http://www.drinkingsongs.net/html/categorized-by-song/with-music/k/kathusalem.htm

This tune, known to me as Durham Gaol, (misprinted in “another name” as Rham Gaol) was commonly played by several bands in London in the ’60’s along with Nae Good Luck Aboot The Hoose and The Keel Row. I still play that set occasionally.

😲 ~ my goodness me…

I know this tune as “Katie Bairdie”, and play it in a set with “The Keel Row” and “Some Say the Devil’s Dead”.

Katie Bairdie had a coo,
Black an‘ white aboot the mou’,
Wisnae that a dainty coo?
Dance, Katie Bairdie.

Third tune http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz9sgMNo7kQ Thanks Kenny.

play video

I just googled this tune title out of curiosity and came upon a page on a song lyrics site. A filthier set of lyrics I never did see. This being a family site and all, I’ll post this as a link. Prepare to be reviled (and thoroughly not amused) https://tinyurl.com/ycyuvulq .

The dangers of “Googling”. That’s an old rugby song - the dance tune and melody to the song are completely different, although I suppose it could be made to work.
“A filthier set of lyrics I never did see”. Then you’ve never heard Norman Kennedy or Danny Couper sing “The 9 Auld Hoors”.

“… the dance tune and melody to the song are completely different …”

I wouldn’t say *completely* different, just variants - as is usually the case when a tune exists both as a dance tune and a song.

I’ve also heard this called “Old Mrs Huddledee” in England and it appears as such in one of Dave Townsend’s Village Band books.

As ceoloachan and Nigel both mentioned 10 years ago, this is the tune for "Will Ye Go tae Sheriffmuir - one of the battles of the 1715 Jacobite Uprising. See (and listen to the recording of Sheena Wellington singing it) here:
https://digital.nls.uk/1715-rising/songs/will-ye-go-tae-sheriffmuir/index.html

Those are the words I remember! The “memory” words I know for the first 16 are the same as “Mrs Huddledee”, but refer to “Mrs Docherty”. I learned this from the singing of Tommy Gilfellon, of the classical High Level Ranters line-up. He followed it with “The Cat’s Got The Measles”. Rock on Tommy!