Annotation:Nine Pins (2)

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NINE-PINS (NINEPINS) [2]. AKA and see "Life of a Soldier (The)," "Oats Peas Beans (1)," "Portuguese Dance," "Soldier's Glory (The)," "Voulez Vous Danser{, Mademoiselle?}" "Old Amzi Eccles Tune" (Pa.) English, Jig. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABC. One alternate title takes its name from the ditty sung to it, often by children as a play-party game.

Oats, peas, beans and barley grows,
As you and I and everyone knows...
Waiting for a partner.

There is a dance in New England called the "Ninepins Quadrille" that features designated dancers ('ninepins') scrambling for partners. In Scotland, too, Ninepins (or, as it was sometimes called, Ninepins Reel) was a part of the traditional dance repertoire, though it fell into a separate category from the reels and country dances. If set in reel time the melody is that of the French-Canadian classic "Bastringue (La)." The melody in jig time (6/8) is contained in the Joseph Kershaw manuscript as "Portuguese Dance." Kershaw was a fiddler who lived in Slackcote, Saddleworth, North West England, in the 19th century, and his manuscript dates from around 1820 onwards.

Source for notated version: Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book, vol. 2), 1954; p. 47. Knowles (The Joseph Kershaw Manuscript), 1993; No. 6 (as "Portuguese Dance"). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 108.

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