Da Day Dawn
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Da Day Dawn", also known as "The Day Daywen" or "The Day o' Dawie" is a Shetland air in<br> 4/4 time and A Minor. This is another seasonal Shetland fiddle tune - this being played on<br> New Year's and "Chrismas Day i' da Mornin", obviously, on Christmas Day.<br> Cooke (1986) describes that it was the custom of certain Shetland<br> fiddlers to play this tune in the house early on New Year's morning. He finds that records<br> of tunes with names similar to 'Day Dawns' go back to the beginning of the 16th century in<br> Scotland and the reign of James IV with Dunbar's mention of 'Now the Day Dawis' and 'the<br> jolly day now dawns' in his poem 'To the Merchants of Edinburgh'. Several versions of the<br> early ballads beginning with the words 'the day dawns' and closing with each stanza<br> with 'the night is near gone' exist, and the structure was "well-known to common minstrels".<br> Settings of music to "Day Dawns" were published in 1822 by Hibbert and in a manuscript by<br> Hoseason.<br> John Irvine has recounted how he learned 'The Day o'Dawie' from the singing of an old<br> friend and said that it was the custom for parties of men to go around the island singing<br> the tune (though he never heard words to it — presumably his informant 'diddled' it over<br> to him). ("Diddling" refers to the largely Celtic practice of making "mouth music" and singing<br> what is usually an instrumental tune with nonsense syllables - sometimes called<br> "diddly-diddly" music.)<br> It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983), Cooke's The Fiddle Tradition of the<br> Shetland Isles (1986) and Martin's Traditional Scottish Fiddling (2002). <br> It was recorded by Tom Anderson and Aly Bain on The Silver Bow, Aly Bain and Ale Möller on<br> Fully Rigged and Boys of the Lough on Live.<br>
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