Annotation:Valentine's Day

Back to Valentine's Day

VALENTINE'S DAY. AKA and see "Maid in the Moon (2) (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune dates to John Playford’s (1623-1687) 4th edition of his Dancing Master, 1670, where it appears under the title "Maid in the Moon", with "Valentine's Day" given as an alternate title. It was retained in the long-running Dancing Master series through the 13th edition of 1706, after which it was dropped. However, beginning with the 6th edition of 1679 the primary title was "Valentine's Day."

London publisher John Walsh picked up the country dance for his Compleat Country Dancing Master, editions of 1718, 1731 and 1754. The dance “Valentine’s Day” was introduced to France and was printed by Feuillet in 1700 in his treatise Choregraphie. Feuillet published subsequent editions of his work as the popularity of English country dancing took off on the Continent, several taken from The Dancing Master. In 1679 he included “La Valantine” (Valentine’s Day).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986.

Recorded sources:

Back to Valentine's Day