Annotation:Spirvin's Fancy

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X:1 T:Spirvin's Fancy M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Reel S:Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (1883) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G Minor (d/c/)||B/G/F/D/ DC/C/|D/G/G/^F/ G/A/B/c/|d/B/c/A/ B/G/F/A/|C/G/G/^F/ G/A/d/c/| B/G/F/D/ DC/C/|D/G/G/^F/ G/A/B/c/|d/B/c/A/ B/G/F/A/|D/G/G/^F/ G|| Bd/f/ b/d/f/d/|Bd/f/ g/d/f/d/|Bd/f/ b/d/f/d/|c/=B/c/d/ _B/G/G| Bd/f/ b/d/f/d/|Bd/f/ f/d/f/d/|b/d/b/d/ f/d/f/d/|c/=B/c/d/ _B/G/G/B/||

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SPIRVIN'S FANCY. AKA and see "Thompson's Hornpipe," "Thompson's Reel (1)," "Zeek Backus Reel." Irish, Reel. G Minor (Cole, Ryan, Tolman): E Minor (Miller). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Cole, Ryan, Tolman): AABB (Miller). "Spirvin's Fancy" is the title under which the tune appeared in William Bradbury Ryan's Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883), with cognate versions printed in Köhler's Violin Repository vol. 3 (1885) as "Thompson's Hornpipe" and in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903) as "Thompson's Reel (1)." All were predated by the publication of the tune as "Zeek Backus Reel" in Elias Howe's 1000 Jigs and Reels (1867). Zeek or Zeke Backus was a musician and black-face minstrel performer, perhaps related to Dan Buckus, who died in San Francisco the early 1860's, although several of his either compositions or repertory samples were published in Howe volumes.

See also the associated first strain of the Irish reel “Girl that Broke My Heart (1) (The).”

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