Annotation:Kiss My Lady (1)

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KISS MY LADY [1]. AKA - "Chaplin's March." English, March (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The melody appears in Glasgow publisher James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5 (1797, p. 23) and in G.E. Blake's Gentlemen's Amusement No. 3 (Philadelphia, 1824). It was also included in several musicians' manuscript collections (particularly fifers) compiled at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuryies, including those of J. Williams (Salem, N.Y., 1799), John Fife (probably Perthshire, 1780), R.B. Washburn (1816), Thomas Molyneaux (Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1788), and Seth Johnson (Woburn, Mass., 1807). It is identified as a quick march in the J. Fife and T. Molyneaux manuscripts, and Molyneaux gives the alternate title "Chaplin's March."

Source for notated version: William Litten's music manuscript collection [Huntington]. Litten was a ship's fiddler who sailed with the British East India fleet on a voyage to China during the years 1800-1802. Little else is known about him. His music manuscript came into the possession of sailor Allen Coffin, although how is a mystery. Coffin brought it home with him to the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard in the early 19th century, when he finished his own voyages.

Printed sources: Huntington (William Linton's), 1977; p. 24.

Recorded sources:

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