Annotation:Cockleshells

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COCKLESHELLS. AKA - "Cockle Shells." AKA and see "Gabhairín Buí (An)," "Bonny Lass of Livingston (The)," "Lass of Leving-stone (The)," "Clashing At Her," "High Caul Cap (The), High Caul'd Cap," "Hielan Laddie (1)," "Temple Change (The)." English, Country Dance Tunes (cut time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune was printed under this title by Henry Playford in his Dancing Master of 1701 [1] (Eleventh Edition, p. 304), and in all subsequent editions of the long-running series, through the last (18th), printed in London by John Young in 1728. "Cockleshells" was also printed by London publishers Hare and Walsh in The Compleat Country Dancing Master in editions of 1718, 1731, and 1735. It is a variant of the well-known Scottish tunes "High Cauled Cap (The)" and "Hielan Laddie," however, the earliest version appears to be Playford's own "Lass Of Leving-stone (The)," which appears in his Collection of Original Scotch Tunes (Full of the Highland Humours), published in 1700, the year before the dance and tune appeared in his Dancing Master. See also Northumbrian musician William Vickers' version called "Clashing at Her", perhaps the title of a lost song.

Early 20th century English country dance collector Cecel Sharp divorced the tune from the original dance, and attached it to a differnt dance called "Temple Change," from the 9th edition of the Dancing Master.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Compleat Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 428, p. 99. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes, vol. 2), 2005; p. 21. Christian (The Playford Assembly), 2015; p. 18.

Recorded sources:

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