Annotation:Merry Wakefield

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MERRY WAKEFIELD. AKA and see "Shipwreck (2) (The)." English, Slip Jig (9/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Kidson (1890) notes the epithet 'Merry' has been applied to the Yorkshire town of Wakefield "from time immemorial, and there are many very old songs in which this term is used." The melody is from David Rutherford's Complete Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1756, p. 34), although earlier published in Merry Medley (1744), and, even earlier, in Walsh's Caledonian Country Dances, vol. 3 (c. 1740). Later in the 18th century it was published in Longman and Broderip's Compleat Collection of 200 Favorite Country Dances (London, 1781, p. 54). It appears in the 1790 music manuscript copybook of Thomas Hammersley, a London musician, the 1770 copybook of William Clarke (Lincoln), the late 18th century copybook of Thomas Watts (Peak Forest, Derbyshire), and in the 1770 music manuscript book of Northumbrian musician William Vickers (where is appears as "Shipwreck (2) (The)"). In America, "Merry Wakefield" shows up in the 1782 music commonplace book of Jeremiah Brown, a musician from Seabrook, on New Hampshire's coast.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Ashton & Dyson (A First Collection of Yorkshire Dance Music), 1985; p. 10. Callaghan (Hardcore English), 2007; pg. 81. Kidson (Old English Country Dances), 1890; p. 16. Seattle (Great Northern/William Vickers), 1987, Part 3; No. 316.

Recorded sources:

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