Annotation:New Exchange (The)

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NEW EXCHANGE, THE. AKA - "Durham Stable (The)." English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/4 or 6/8 time). G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The melody and country dance instructions were published in London by John Playford, in his English Dancing Master (1651). It was retained by Playford through several editions of the work, however, beginning with the fourth editiona of the Dancing Master in 1670 [1], "Durham Stable" is given as the main title, with "New Exchange" relegated to alternate title. The melody was dropped from the long-running series after the seventh edition of 1686. Appropriately, the couples exchange partners during the dance. The tune is derived from an older ballad called "Go from My Window," from the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book and Jane Pickering's Lute Book.

William Chappell, in his Popular Music of the Olden Times, notes these references:

In Wit and Drollery, 1656, p, no, is a song to this tune "On the Souldiers walking in the New Exchange to affront the Ladies." It begins:

I'll go no more to the New Exchange,
There is no room at all," &c.

In the same book, at p. 6b, is another song of six stanzas, beginning:

We'll go no more to Tunbridge Wells,
The journey is too far," &c.

In Westminster Drollery, part ii., 1671, is a third song, "to tune of I'll go no more to the New Exchange;" beginning:

Never will I wed a girl that's coy,
Nor one that is too free," &c.

In Wit Restored, in several select Poems, not formerly published, 1658, there are two songs, "The Burse of Reformation," 1 and "The Answer." The first commencing:

We will go no more to the Old Exchange,
There's no good ware at all;
Their bodkins, and their thimbles, too,
Went long since to Guildhall.
But we will go to the New Exchange,
Where all things are in fashion, &c.

And "The Answer":

We will go no more to the New Exchange,
Their credit's like to fall,
Their money and their loyalty
Is gone to Goldsmiths' Hall.
But we will keep our Old Exchange,
Where wealth is still in fashion, &c.

These have been reprinted in Satirical Songs and Poems on Costume, for the Percy Society, by F. W. Fairholt, F.S.A. "The New Exchange," in Merry Drollery Complete, 1670, p. 134, commencing:

I'll go no more to the Old Exchange,
There's no good ware at all;
But I will go to the New Exchange,
Call'd Haberdashers' Hall:
For there are choice of knacks and toys,
The fancy for to please.

King James I. named the New Exchange * The place appointed for the reception of "Britain's Burse," fines imposed upon the Royalists; and for loans, &c., to the Puritanic party.

While 'the new exchange' refers to a market or trade mall, there may also be an association with Richard Bromme's play The New Academy or The New Exchange (1635), a comedy that parodied the establishment of a dancing school that featured imported French dances.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (The Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 68, p. 31. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 37.

Recorded sources: Harmonia Mundi, Jeremy Barlow & The Broadside Band - "John Playford: Popular Tunes in 17th Century England."

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