Annotation:Harlequin Gambols
X:1 T:Harlequin Gambols M:C| L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Samuel, Ann & Peter Thompson -- Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (1788, p. 8) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Bb (3FGA|B2B2 Bdce|d2d2 dfeg|fbag fedc|dBfd ecAF| B2B2 Bece|d2d2 dfeg|fbag fedc|B2B2B2:| |:(3GFE|DFDF DFDF|EGEG EGEG|(ec)(cA) (ec)(cA)|(fd)(dB) (fd)(dB)| DFDF DFDF|EGEG EGEG|(ec)(cA) (ec)(cA)|B2B2B2:|]
HARLEQUIN GAMBOLS. AKA - "Harlequin's Gambols," "Harlequin Hornpipe (4)," "Merry Man Hornpipe (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Harlequin Gambols; or The Skeleton and the Clown was an English stage production of 1803, but the tune is probably associated with an earlier entertainment called The Sylphs; or Harlequin's Gambols (1774), performed at the Theatre-Royal, Covent Garden, London. The music for the latter production is the work of John Abraham Fisher, a dancer, musical director and ballet master at Covent Garden in the 1770's, and probably the composer of "Fisher's Hornpipe." The 'Harlequin' melody was developed into a hornpipe in Scotland under the title "Colosseum (The)" and in Ireland as "Merry Man Hornpipe (The)" and "Stage Hornpipe (3) (A)", and printed in Kerr's and Honeyman's volumes (as well as by Boston publisher Elias Howe). Dance figures for "Harlequin's Gambols" can be found in several American country dance publications and dance ms. copybooks from the first years of the 19th century[1].
See also the similar first strain of the air "In Infancy."
