Annotation:Black Bess

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BLACK BESS. English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/4 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The tune and country dance directions were first published by London publisher Henry Playford in his Part II of the Dancing Master (supplement to the 9th edition), 1696. It was retained in the long-running Dancing Master series through the 18th and last edition of 1728 (then printed by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concerns). The melody and dance were also printed by John Walsh in The Compleat Country Dancing Master (1718, and subsequent editions of 1731 and 1754).

Black Bess was the name highwayman Dick Turpin (1705-1739) gave to his mare, who carried him on his famous 200-mile ride from London to York, in less than 24 hours.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Walsh (Complete Country Dancing-Master, Volume the Fourth), London, 1740; No. 134.

Recorded sources:

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