Tune of the Day: Whistle O'er the Lave O't
Poet Robert Burns attributed this strathspey to dancing master John Bruce of Dumfries (c. 1720–1785), but it seems likely that the tune is actually much older. Its first appearance in print was in Robert Bremner's A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances (1757), but the song “Whistle o'er the lave o't” was written in the 17th century.
Today, the version that was published by James Scott Skinner in 1890 is commonly associated with the Scottish traditional dance “Seann Triubhas”, along with “Gin Ye Kiss My Wife I'll Tell the Minister”, which Skinner says is the original tune of the dance. Seann Triubhas is performed in tartan trousers, not kilts; that is because it was devised sometime after the Battle of Culloden, when the wearing of the kilt was outlawed.