The Lads Of Dunse jig

… or should that be Duns ’cos I can’t find anywhere called Dunse in my GB road atlas! Whatever, this is another Joshua Jackson tune, and the title is as he has written it. I rather like this dropped an octave and played on a low whistle.

I think Dunse is the historical spelling of Duns. Nice little tune this.

Nice tune. I would have memories of Duns if I could remember them. (?!) I spent some time in Berwickshire 30+ years ago and my memory has its gaps. Oh yes, I learned to dive in the swimming baths there. And racing driver Jim Clark came from there. Judging by how the younger locals took the country roads, his skills might have been traditionally acquired…

1577, from earlier Duns disciple “follower of John Duns Scotus” (c. 1265-1308), Scot. scholar of philosophy and theology supposed to have been born at Duns in Berwickshire. By 16c., humanist reaction against medieval theology singled him out as the type of the hairsplitting scholastic. It became a term of reproach to more conservative philosophical opponents c.1527, later extended to any dull-witted student.

And who’s Joshua Jackson? I tried the Net and it turned up pages about a film star called that. Not the one, I assume.

You’re kiddin’, you don’t know who Joshua Jackson is? You, Nanook of the North? 😀

“Tunes, Songs and Dances from the 1798 manuscript of Joshua Jackson”
Geoff & Liz Bowen and Robin & Rosalind Shepherd
Yorkshire Dales Workshops
ISBN : 1 897925 17 4
http://www.glusburn.demon.co.uk/
A collection of tunes, dances and songs from the 1798 manuscript of fiddler Joshua Jackson, 1763 - 1839. Well known tunes which are readily available from other souces have been excluded except where Jackson has an interesting or local variant. The Joshua Jackson’s book, dated 1798 and still in the possession of the family, contains a remarkable collection of more than 500 handwritten tunes, dance notations and a few songs. English country dances, Scottish and Irish jigs and reels, a few anthems, incidental music for the theatre and excerpts of classical music, are all included in the leather bound volume, giving an indication of the kind of occasions when Joshua Jackson’s musical skills would have been in demand.

This is how the tune appears in The Scots Fiddle Volume 2:

X: 1
T: The Lads o’ Dunse
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: D
B | A2D DED | DED B2A | Bcd AFA | BGE E2d |
A2D DED | DED B2A | Bcd AFd | AFD D2 :|
g | fef d2e | fga B2A | Bcd AFA | BGE E2
[1 g | fef d2e | fga B2A | Bcd AFd | AFD D2 :|
[2 f/g/ | afa geg | fdf ece | dcB AFd | AFD D2 |]

But I don’t know the source of their transcription.

Yes, DonaldK, that’s the version I play, but I don’t know the source either.

It’s in one of “Kerr’s” books. It was recorded on the very first “Ceolbeg” record.

Unfortuately it is impossible for Joshua Jackson to have written this tune as it first appeared in print before he was born (1735) and is mentioned in Neil Gow’s 2nd collection (1788) as very old by that time

“ ~ another Joshua Jackson tune ~ ” ~ andy9876

I think it was just stated in a wider sense niall, meaning ‘from the collection’ rather than ‘composed by’. The book isn’t a compendium of compositions by Joshua Jackson but a collection of tunes he, as a fiddler, played…

This sounds to my ear like a close relative – ancestor or descendant – of Kitty Lie Over.

Loads of opportunities for crans there, in my opinion - I’ve put in dottet crotchets where I play them.

Great video of Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas playing the Sailors Wife into The Lads of Dunse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=UUscE9AQOQs

play video

From the playing of Kevin Lees (fiddle) and Sebastian Bloch (guitar).

2nd tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjKcnx1CXao

play video