Editing Waltzing Matilda (section)

===History of the music===
The story of "Waltzing Matilda" began in West Paisley, Scotland, about 2&nbsp;km south of where Glasgow airport is today. Robert Tannahill, the weaver poet, wrote a poem, "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea", prior to 1806. It was written in the pattern chorus, verse, chorus, verse, ready to be set to music.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Songs of Robert Tannahill: BONNIE WOOD O CRAIGIELEE|url=https://www.grianpress.com/Tannahill/TANNAHILL'S%20SONGS%203.htm|access-date=2024-04-19|website=grianpress.com}}</ref> Tannahill's friend James Barr set it to music, and it was published in 1818. Barr's song was unusually melodious: it used four 4-bar phrases in a 16-bar song. It had the musical form ABCD. In 1850, an arrangement was published in  'The Lyric Gems of Scotland', page 65,<ref>{{Cite web|title=(75) Page 65 – Bonnie wood of Craigielee – Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Lyric gems of Scotland – Special collections of printed music – National Library of Scotland|url=https://digital.nls.uk/special-collections-of-printed-music/archive/90262109|access-date=2024-04-19|website=digital.nls.uk}}</ref> which was written in the pattern verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and it dropped the second phrase of the verse and repeated the first. It had the musical form AABC. In 1880, an arrangement by T S Gleadhill, published in 'Kyles Scottish Lyric Gems', pages 244, 245, also dropped the second phrase of the verse and repeated the first.<ref>https://electricscotland.com/poetry/kyles.pdf P 255</ref> Thomas Bulch, an English expat living in Australia, wrote a quick march arrangement for brass band, called 'Craigielee' most likely in 1891.<ref>Trove. Article in 'The Ballarat Star', Victoria, Thu 17 Sep 1891, page 2     https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/204315792?searchTerm=craigielee%20parker</ref> The opening strain of 'Craigielee' was 'Bonnie Wood of Craigielea' with the musical form AABC. It is very close to the melody in the "Lyric Gems" and perhaps even closer to the melody in Gleadhill's "Kyles Scottish Lyric Gems". This was the tune that caught Christina Macpherson's attention at the races at Warrnambool, Victoria, in 1894.<ref>Magoffin, Richard. 'Waltzing Matilda, The story behind the legend' from ABC.TV's 'A Big Country'. Published by ABC Enterprises for the AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING COMPANY, Box 9994, GPO Sydney NSW, second edition 1987. Pages 28, 29.</ref> Christina had a good ear and, when she next sat at a piano, she tried to play the opening strain. Christina remembered the AAB phrases and transcribed them into bars 1 to 12 of her tune. For some reason, Christina did not transcribe the C phrase into bars 13 to 16 of her tune. Instead, she repeated bars 5 to 8 in bars 13 to 16. This gave Christina's tune the musical form AABA, popular American style. This is the musical form of "Waltzing Matilda" sung today.

One more change needed to be made. The tune that Christina played for Banjo was written to set the poem "Thou Bonnie Wood of Craigielea" to music. The words of its chorus are, 
<blockquote><poem>
Thou bonnie wood of Craigielee,
Thou bonnie wood of Craigielee,
Near thee I pass'd life's early day,
An' won my Mary's heart in thee.<ref name=semple /></poem></blockquote>

The number of syllables in each line is 8, 8, 8, 7. The verses are the same.

The words of the original chorus of Christina's Waltzing Matilda are 
<blockquote><poem>
Who'll come a Waltzing Matilda my darling?
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?
Waltzing Matilda and leading a water bag,
Who'll come a waltzing Matilda with me?<ref>https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2873494891/view link to Paterson's 1982 diary used as a notebook.</ref></poem></blockquote>

The number of syllables in each line is 11, 10, 12, 10. The verses are similar.

As Banjo and Christina collaborated on their song, Christina had to add more notes to her initial tune. She did this by breaking up several notes in each line into shorter ones. While doing this, Christina retained the shape of the melody and the typical 2/4 type rhythm of 'Craigielee'. Typical of songs with multiple verses, the melody had to be changed slightly in some verses to fit the meter of the words. Christina and Banjo would have had some arguments, Christina wanting to preserve the tune and Banjo wanting the strict meter of the lyrics to be preserved. Despite this, the two tunes sound very similar. Many may even say that they are the same.

This tune did not spread very quickly: an electronic search of Australian newspapers between 1895 and 1902, using trove, reveals only two reports of 'Waltzing Matilda' being sung. On 9 October 1900, the governor of Queensland visited Winton and Mr. A. Ramsay sang 'Waltzing Matilda', "one of Banjo Patterson's ditties composed in the Winton district."<ref>{{Cite news|date=1900-10-09|title=Whiffs from Winton.|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article76563712|access-date=2024-04-19|work=Western Champion and General Advertiser for the Central-Western Districts}}</ref> On 23 November 1901, the Hughenden representative of the N.Q. Herald reported that, {{"'}}Waltzing Matilda' is all the rage here now." Three regional newspapers printed the words of the "quaint trifle", but not the tune. Some of the words had been changed and resembled the words later used by Marie Cowan.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite news|date=1901-11-23|title=A POPULAR BUSH SONG.|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article207962110|access-date=2024-04-19|work=Evening Journal}}</ref>