Annotation:Voulez Vous Danser

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VOULEZ VOUS DANSER{, MADEMOISELLE?} (Do You Want to Dance?) AKA and see "Soldier's Glory (The)," "Life of a Soldier (The)," "Nine Pins (2)/Ninepins (2)," "Old Amzi Eccles Tune." English, Jig. A Major ('A' and 'C' parts) & E Major ('B' part) {Raven}: C Major (Wilson): D Major ('A' and 'C' parts) & A Major ('B' part) {Trim}. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABCD (Kerr): AABBCC (Trim). Probably an old ballroom dance, though later the tune had currency as a march. Set in duple time it was transformed into the Quebec reel “Bastringue (La).” It appears in several older fiddlers’ manuscripts in England, including the James Hook/Thomas Hardy manuscript from Dorset (as “Vowlaz vowz dancer madamazelle”). In southern England a variant of the tune appears as “Nine Pins (2)” or perhaps more recognizably the song “Oats Peas Beans and Barley Grow.”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 1), c. 1880's; No. 2, p. 27. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 115. Trim (The Musical Heritage of Thomas Hardy), 1990; No. 64. Wilson (Companion to the Ballroom), 1816; p. 91.

Recorded sources:

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