Annotation:Rigs o' Marlow

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X: 1 T:Rigs o' Marlow, Headington M:4/4 L:1/8 A:Headington P:A(A2B2)4 K:C Q:260 P:A c<e c<e c<e ed/c/|B<d B<d B<d fe/d/|c<e c<e c<e g>c' |a>fd>B c2 c2 || P:B c'>ag>f e>f g2 |c'>ag>f e2 d2 |c'>ag>f e>c f>f |e<c d<B c2 c2 ||

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RIGS O' MARLOW. AKA and see "Rakes of Mallow (The)." English, Morris Dance Tune (4/4 time). A Major (Bacon): G Major (Mallinson): C Major (Karpeles). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB, x4. Originally Irish. The English morris dance version of the old Irish tune "Rakes of Mallow (The)" was collected from the village of Headington, Oxfordshire, in England's Cotswolds. Cecil Sharp collected the dance on Boxing Day, 1899, during a visit to Headington on his first collecting trip, and the next day took down the tune from the Headington side's musician, William 'Billy' Kimber Jr. (d. 1961). Kimber played the concertina and in his younger years danced as well (for both the Headington and Bampton sides) and had the tunes to accompany the dances from his father. He remembered but one stanza that was sung in Headington:

When I go to Marlow Fair,
With the ribbons in my hair;
All the boys and girls declare,
Here comes the rigs o' Marlow.

Composer Gustz Holst made a setting for chamber orchestra as one of his "Morris Dance Tunes." The tune was first recorded in 1913 in Camden, N.J., but the Victor Military Band in an arrangement by Elizabeth Burchenal of the tune originally collected and arranged by Cecil Sharp and Herbert Macilwaine. Sharp himself supervised a recording made in October, 1916, in New York, in which his arrangement was recorded by Prince's Band for Columbia Records (A3066).