Annotation:Kiss My Lady (1)

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KISS MY LADY [1]. AKA - "Chaplin's March." English, Country Dance or March (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The melody appears in Glasgow publisher James Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5 (1797, p. 23) and in G.E. Blake's Gentlemen's Amusement No. 3 (Philadelphia, 1824). It was also included in many musicians' manuscript collections ocompiled at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries (on both sides of the Atlantic), including those of J. Williams (Salem, N.Y., 1799), James Blackshaw (N.Shropshire, 1837), John Fife (probably Perthshire, 1780), R.B. Washburn (1816), Thomas Molyneaux (Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1788), John Clare (Helpstone, 1793-1864), and Seth Johnson (Woburn, Mass., 1807). It is identified as a quick march in the J. Fife and T. Molyneaux manuscripts, and Molyneaux gives the alternate title "Chaplin's March." Versions in print and in manuscript form vary greatly, sometimes sharing only bits of similar melodic and rhythmic material.

Source for notated version: William Litten's music manuscript collection [Huntington]. Litten was a ship's fiddler who sailed with the British East India fleet on a voyage to China during the years 1800-1802. Little else is known about him. His music manuscript came into the possession of sailor Allen Coffin, although how is a mystery. Coffin brought it home with him to the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard in the early 19th century, when he finished his own voyages.

Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5), 1801; No. 57, p. 23. Huntington (William Linton's), 1977; p. 24.

Recorded sources:

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