Annotation:Fireman's Dance Cotillion (The)
Tune properties and standard notation
FIREMAN'S DANCE COTILLION, THE. American, Cotillion (cut time). USA, Pennsylvania. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody is a version of "Philadelphia Fireman's Cotillion (The)" 1n 1822 composition by Philadelphia African-American composer Francis Johnson (1792-1844). See also "Fireman's Quickstep", which may also be a derivative tune in the first strain, albeit obscure. There was a "Fireman's Dance" published in Trifet's Cornucopia of Music (1888) that has a first strain that is derivative of Johnson's tune, and this may perhaps be the ultimate source for Kirkhuff's tune. A "Fireman's Dance" was also published in Henry Ford's Good Morning: Music, Calls and Directions for Old-Time Dancing (1943).
Source for notated version: fiddler Jehile Kirkhuff (Pa.) [Phillips].
Printed sources: Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; p. 50.
Recorded sources: