Annotation:Shaking of the Sheets (1) (The)

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X:1 T:Shaking of the Sheets [1], The M:6/4 L:1/8 S:William Ballet's Lute Book (1590) B:Chappell – Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G d3e f2 d3e f2|g4 g2 g4 g2|d3e f2 d2 e2 ^c2|d4 d2 d4:| ||=f2|e4 d2c2B2A2|B2G2G2 G4 _B2|A2F2F2 F4 c2| B2 G2 G2 G4f2|e4 d2 c2 B2 A2|B2 G2 G2 G6||

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SHAKING OF THE SHEET(S) [1], THE. AKA and see "Nightpiece (The)," "Dance of Death," "Dance after My Pipe." English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. This air, the earlier version of the two, appears in William Ballet's Lute Book (1590), which is the same as printed by Sir John Hawkins in his History of Music (vol. 2, p. 934). "Shaking of the Sheets" is frequently mentioned by writers in the 16th and 17th centuries, notes antiquarian William Chappell (1859), who cites numerous instances, including "In the recently-discovered play of Misogonus, produced about 1560...[it is mentioned as a country dance]."

Verse 5 in the old ballad "A West-country Jigg, or a Trenchmore Galliard" goes:

" The piper he struck up,
And merrily he did play
The Shaking of the Sheets,
And eke The Irish Hay