Annotation:Excuse Me: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:56, 1 April 2012

EXCUSE ME. English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. "Excuse Me" was once an extremely popular tune, to judge from the number of times it appears in print and in musicians' manuscript collections. It was first published in John Playford's 7th edition of the Dancing Master, published in London in 1786. It was retained in the long-running Dancing Master series through the 18th edition, published at the time by the heir to the Playford publishing concern, John Young, in 1728. It was also published by the Walsh family in their Compleat Country Dancing Master, editions of 1718, 1731 and 1754. The fashion for English country dancing crossed to the Continent, and "Excuse Me" appears in several European collections as well, including Raoul Auger Feuillet's Recueil de Contredances (1706), Le Cler's Premier Receuil de Contre Danses (1729), and Antoine Pointel's Airs de Danses Angloises Hollandoises et Francoises a Deux Parties (1700). "Excuse Me" can be found in the music copybooks of London musician Thomas Hammersley (1790), and Lorin Andre's 1685-87 collection entitled Livre de Contredance Presente au Roy.

The melody was the air for songs in numerous ballad operas, including John Gay's Polly (1729), The Lover's Opera (1729), The Mad Captain (1733), The Mock Lawyer (1733), Cure for a Scold (1735), The Footman (1732), and others.

"Excuse Me" is often said to have been called "Buff Coat" or "Buff Coat Hath No Fellow (The)" in earlier editions of Playford (Chappell, 1857, for one says this), but the melodies are dissimilar and apparently all such references are a repeated mistake.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dances from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 242, p. 62. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986.

Recorded sources:

Tune properties and standard notation