Annotation:Blue Eyed Stranger (2) (The)

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BLUE-EYED STRANGER [2], THE. English, Morris Dance Tune (2/4 or 4/4 time). C Major [Karpeles]: G Major [Bacon {Bucknell}, Barnes, Mallinson]: E Minor [Bacon]. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (x4) [Bacon {Bucknell, Field Town}, Karpeles]: ABB, x4 [Barnes, Mallinson]: AABB [Bacon]. From the Bucknell, Headington and Field Town, Oxfordshire, area of England's Cotswolds. The Bucknell dance to the tune, a sidestep and a half-hey chorus, was also danced to the tune "Willow Tree;" Kirkpatrick and Wayne (1976) point out that each tune "completely transforms the feeling of a movement" during the dance so that they actually become quite different dances from each other. One of the earliest recordings of the melody was in 1909 when Cecil Sharp waxed it on a cylinder from the playing of John Locke, Leominster, Hereford, described as a "gipsy fiddler." "Blue-Eyed Stranger (2)" has similarities to the English air "Just as the Tide was Flowing," popular on early 19th century broadsides, the Irish air "Peacock (3) (The)" and, perhaps more distantly, "Deadly Wars (The)" and "Parting Glass (2) (The)."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Bacon (A Handbook of Morris Dances), 1974; pp. 116, 185. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 13. Karpeles & Schofield (A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; p. 34. Mallinson (Mally's Cotswold Morris Book, vol. 2), 1988; No. 62, p. 30. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 76.

Recorded sources: Topic TSCD458, John Kirkpatrick – "Plain Capers" (1976). Music Club MCCD376, Chris Bartram et al – "The Traditional Morris Dance Music Album."

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