Annotation:Byer's Maggot

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BYER'S MAGGOT. AKA and see "Boyer's Maggot," "Captain Jas. Robertson 76th Regiment's Reel." English, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune appears under the "Byer's Maggot" title in the 1770 music manuscript collection of Northumbrian musician William Vickers. Unfortunately, nothing is known of him. However, the melody was printed in several London dance music publications as "Boyer's Maggot", including John Hinton's Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure (1758), David Rutherford's Choice Collection of Sixty of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (1750) and his Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances, vol. 2 (1760), and Charles and Samuel Thompson's 1765 collection. "Captain Jas. Robertson 76th Regiment's Reel" in Daniel McLaren's A Collection of Strathspey Reels (1794) has a similar first strain, although perhaps not cognate. \

Sixteenth and seventeenth century country dance tunes sometimes had the word "maggot" in their titles, perhaps derived from Italian Maggiolatta or Italian May song, but used in England to mean a whim, fancy, plaything, 'trifle'--essentially an 'earworm'.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 8.

Recorded sources:

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