Annotation:Petticoat Loose (3)

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PETTICOAT LOOSE [3].' AKA and see “Captain's Lady,” “Come try't again,” “My Petticoat's Loose,” “My Petticoats lowse.” English, Scottish, Irish; Jig. G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Howe, Kerr): AAB (Gow): AABB (Williamson). The melody appears first in print in John Johnson’s Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 4 (London, 1748). London publishers Charles and Samuel Thompson published it in their 1757 country dance collection, and again in their 1758 tutor for the hautboy (oboe). Across the Channel, it was included in Benoit Andrez’s Recueil de Contredances Angloises (Liege, 1780). The melody was published by the Gows in Edinburgh and entered Scottish tradition, although Kerr, publishing later in Scotland, identified the tune as Irish (albeit a different tune than O'Neill's "Petticoat Loose (2)" and "Petticoat Loose (2)"). There is no other evidence to assign an Irish provenance for the jig, which, at any rate has a long history in English tradition. The Thompsons printed the tune on the same page with “Breeches Loose,” enhancing the mildly risqué interpretation of the titles.

The tune was also entered into the c. 1776-1778 music copybook of fifer Thomas Nixon Jr. [1] (1762-1842), of Framingham, Connecticut. Nixon was a thirteen-year-old who accompanied his father to the battles of Lexington and Concord, and who served in the Continental army in engagements in and around New York until 1780, after which he returned home to build a house in Framingham. The copybook appears to have started by another musician, Joseph Long, and to have come into Nixon’s possession. Northumbrian musician John Bell (1783-1864) included it in his c. 1812 music manuscript collection [2].

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Anonymous (A Companion to the reticule), 1833; p. 8. Gow (Complete Repository, Part 1), 1799; p. 10. Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 124. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 2), c. 1880's; No. 280, p. 30. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1), 1757; No. 197. Walsh (Country Dances Selected, Part 1), No. 311, p. 51. Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; p. 61.

Recorded sources:

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