Title page of Corri's "My Ain Kind Dearie" from the RBI Freedman Collection.
Found in the Freedman Collection, this keyboard work by Domenico Corri, "My Ain Kind Dearie," was published by N. Stewart & Co. Music Sellers at South Bridge Street, Edinburgh, around 1790 when Corri first moved to Edinburgh. While the original score contains no text, the tune is associated with a poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns. The traditional tune is known as "The Lea-Rig," as the poem tells a story about a romantic meeting in the “lea rig”, which is a ridge left unplowed in a cultivated area.
The main melody is played in the right hand of the keyboard while the left hand plays an accompaniment, resulting in a mostly homophonic texture. This piece is in A major and is largely diatonic with each section remaining strongly in the tonic key.
This piece is a variation set where each section explores different technical styles and features while using the basic same musical material. This piece has eight variations total and each uses a progressively difficult style. Across the entire set of variations, the piece also has the characteristics of a story with an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. The first variation is the introduction of the melodic idea and serves as a base for the rest of the piece. The second variation starts to explore a broader range as well as various potential expansions on the melody. The third variation introduces new rhythmic ideas with Corri starting to incorporate triplets while adding leaps into the music.The fourth variation integrates the bass line as it alternates pitches along with the melody. It also starts to allow for some ornamentation which foreshadows the next section of this piece. The fifth variation incorporates ornamentation and starts to flow through the exploration that happened in the second variation. This ornamentation creates a sort of dream like feeling. The sixth variation is similar musically to the last two but it starts to pull the listener back to reality with the use of accidentals, and Corri 's setting seems to shift from dream to reality in this way. The seventh variation is the climax of the whole piece and has a happy aura surrounding it. With the powerful chords that are used it seems to be a heartfelt moment in the piece. The final, eighth variation is a happy ending, with a triplet flow that slowly fades away in a descending pattern.