Annotation:Pompey ran Away

Back to Pompey ran Away

X:1 T:Pompey ran away M:3/4 L:1/8 R:”Negroe jig” B:Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (1782, No. 163, p. 57) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G B2 BA G2|EGFD G2|B2 BA G2|EGFD G2:|| dBcA G2|EAAF G2|dBcA G2|EGFD G2| EAAF G2|EGFD G2|EAAF G2|EGFD G2||

POMPEY RAN AWAY. American, Jig (3/4 or 6/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune, perhaps the earliest extent attributed to African-Americans, appears in Glasgow publisher James Aird’s Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1), 1782, No. 163, p. 57), labelled a “Negroe Jig”. American songwriter Dan Decateur Emmett's biographer, Hans Nathan, described it as "one of the earliest blends of European and primitive melodies," and conjectures that it is a collaboration between a British visitor who transcribed it from a transplanted African source. How authentic the melody is to African or African-American tradition is unknown.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Johnson (A Further Collection of Dances, Marches, Minuetts and Duetts of the Latter 18th Century), 1998; p. 15.

Recorded sources: - Fellside Recordings FECD376, Vic Gammon & Friends - "Early Scottish Regtime" (2016).

See also listing at:
See/hear Timothy Twiss play the tune on fretless banjo on youtube.com [1]
See also the ethnomusicological aricle, "From Akonting to Banjo: A Story of Musical Colonialism and Cultural Appropriation" [2]

Back to Pompey ran Away