Annotation:Bedfordshire March

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BEDFORDSHIRE MARCH. AKA and see "Jove in His Chair." English, March (4/4 time). England, Yorkshire. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The name Bedford is an Old English name derived from a man's name, Bedda, who was associated with a ford in a river (Matthews, 1972). The march can be found in several fife and oboe tutors and musicians' manuscripts of the latter 18th century, beginning with Longman, Lukey & Co. Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London 1770), Charles and Samuel Thompson's Compleat Tutor for the Fife (London, 1760 & 1770), Longman & Broderip's Entire New and Compleat Instructions for the Fife (London, 1780), and others. The tune was used by Kane O'Hara for his burletta Midas (1764) as the melody for his opening air "Jove in His Chair."

Source for notated version: a MS by fiddler Lawrence Leadley, 1827-1897 (Helperby, Yorkshire) [Merryweather & Seattle].

Printed sources: Merryweather & Seattle (The Fiddler of Helperby), 1994; No. 107, p. 60. Thompson (The Compleat Tutor for the Fife), 1760; p. 31.

Recorded sources:

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