Annotation:Bennett's Favorite
X:1
T:Bennet's Favorite Reel
T:(Silver Spire)
M:2/4
L:1/8
B:Buckley’s New Banjo Method (1860, p. 78)
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:D
A,|DF/E/ D/F/A/c/|d/c/d/f/ e/c/A/F/|G/B/E/G/ F/A/D/F/|G/F/E/D/ C/E/A,/C/|
DF/E/ D/F/A/c/|d/c/d/f/ e/c/A/F/|G/B/E/G/ F/A/D/F/|E/D/C/E/ D:|
|:A,|A,B,C/D/ E/F/G/E/|F/D/E/F/ G/A/B/c/|d/c/d/A/ B/c/d/f/|g/f/g/e/ d/c/B/A/|
d/e/f/d/ c/e/A/c/|d/c/d/B/ A/F/D/F/|G/B/E/G/ F/A/D/F/|E/D/C/E/ D:|]
BENNETT'S FAVORITE. AKA - "Bennett's Reel." AKA and see "Great Eastern Reel (1)," "John Brennan's Reel (1)," "O’Byrne’s Fancy," "Silver Spire (The)." American, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The reel is popular by several titles in several genres and regions. Although it may have ultimately be found to have Irish origins, the reel has been disseminated as "Bennett's Favorite" in North America (including Cape Breton) through the popular Ryan's/Cole's publications. The melody appears in the 1904 music manuscript collection of Clinton W. Bisbee (West Sumner, Me.), whose inscription on the front cover indicates the that contents were copied from the Dec. 25, 1864, music manuscript of Frank Richardson, who lived in a town called Mt. Vernon, Me. (later called Canton, Me.). This would seem to indicate the tune was in circulation among New England fiddlers prior to its printing in Boston publisher Elias Howe's Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883). However, the first appearance of the reel was in blackface minstrel James Buckley's Buckley's New Banjo Method, published by Oliver Ditson & Co. in Boston in 1860.