Annotation:Innocent Maid

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INNOCENT MAID. English, Country Dance (6/8 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody appears to have been first printed by Longman, Lukey & Broderip in London in 1776 in Bride's Favourite Collection of 200 Select Country Dances, Cotillons, followed by the Thompson's printing in 1780 (see below). It was popular, particularly in the United States, where it appears in a number of musicians' manuscript collections, including those of Jeremiah Brown (Seabrook, N.H., 1782), Luther Kingsley (Mansfield, Conn., 1795), Cushing Ells (Norwich, Conn., 1785), and Eleazer Cary (Mansfield, Conn., 1797), and the dance instructions (without music) appear in several more American copybooks of the period. An entry in the diary of Elizabeth Bancroft (Groton, Mass.), April, 1794, reads:

Tuesd 15 Went to the dancing school danced a number of set dances, a room full of spectators. Wed 16 Was at the dancing, a number of spectators. we danced the soldiers Joy, York Fuzilier, Innocent Maid, White Cockade, Rural Felicity, &c. (Morrison, 1976).

Source for notated version: Cushing Eells' 1785 music manuscript collection, p. 61 [Morrison].

Printed sources: Morrison (Twenty-Four Early American Country Dances, Cotillions & Reels, for the Year 1976), 1976; p. 27. Thomson (24 Country Dances for the Year 1780), 1780.

Recorded sources:

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