Annotation:Mr. Isaac’s Maggot

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MR. ISAAC'S MAGGOT. English, Country Dance Tune (3/2 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Issac (c. 1640-c. 1720) was a court dancing master whose hey-day was in the late 17th century, a younger contemporary of John Playford. He has been credited with introducing English country dancing to the court of Louis XIV in France, and he taught Queen Anne as a young princess. Around the year 1702 he became the unofficial royal dancing master. Along with another dancing master named Beveridge, Isaac devised maggots, or distinctive longways country dances often set to triple-time hornpipe tunes and dedicated to a personage. The Richmond, for example, was a ball dance for the court intended to honor the Duke of Richmond, and was first published in 1706 (the music for which was a triple-time hornpipe).

A maggot was another name for a dram, a unit of liquid measure, and also meant a small thing of little consequence or a plaything, from the Italian maggioletta (Emmerson, 1972). This anonymous melody dates to 1695, when it first appeared in Playford's Dancing Master, 9th edition. The dance and tune were retained in the long running series through the 18th and last volume, then published by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concern. It also was included by the Walsh's (father and son) in their Compleat Country Dancing Master, editions of 1718, 1735 and 1754. For more on Isaac see Jennifer Thorp's article "Mr. Isaac, Dancing-Master" in Dance Research - Volume 24, Number 2, Winter 2006, pp. 117-137, where, for example, she gives:

The earliest references to him as a performer in London connect him with the Stuart Court, for in April 1673 a dancer named Isaac was one of several dancers (along with Mr. Priest) who performed as Venetians, a Spaniard, a Conjuror, Devils, and Shepherds, in a masquerade for King Charles II's illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth.

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909; p. 51.

Recorded sources : - Harmonia Mundi 907101, The King's Noyse - "The King's Delight: 17c Ballads for Voice and Violin Band" (1992).

See also listing at :
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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