Annotation:Queen of Hearts (3) (The)

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QUEEN OF HEARTS [3], THE. English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody was composed by dancing master Nathaniel Kynaston (1683-1757). Although very little is known about him, Kynaston appears to have been active from 1705 to about 1722 in the Shropshire/Wales border area. Walsh published some 120 of Kynaston’s tunes and dances in London over several publications, this tune in his Twenty Four New Country Dances for the Year 1716, published again in his Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1719). The Selattyn parish register in Shropshire records that a “Nathanial Kynaston, gent., & Mrs. Elizabeth Davies, both of Oswestry” married on August 25th, 1719—although whether this was the dancing master is unknown. Kynaston appears to have been a not uncommon name in Shropshire, and the family includes Sir Humphrey Kynaston, a notorious 16th century highwayman and Robin Hood figure, who preyed on the wool merchants of Shrewsbury. John Young picked up “Queen of Hearts” as a long-ways dance (for as many as will) in his Dancing Master, second book, third edition (London, 1718), printed again in the fourth edition of that work (London, 1728).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 104.

Recorded sources:

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