Annotation:Mantua Makers Frolic (The)

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MANTUA MAKER'S FROLIC, THE. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. Mantuas were a woman's loose gown, called a 'mantie' or mantua in the 17th and 18th centuries from the French word manteau. Alternately, it referred to a mantle fashionable in the second and third decade of the 19th century, also for women, derived from the custom of wearing a "plaid." However, since they were of open crochet or lace work, they didn't hide the face and thus were more stylish for dance assemblies. A dictionary also equates the term 'mantua-makers' with dressmakers, and says a mantua is a "woman's loose outer skirt." Mantuas were manufactured as an Edinburgh women's cottage industry in small workshops or at home.

The melody was printed in John Johnson's Two Hundred Favourite Country Dances, vol. 8 (London, 1758), David Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances, vol. 2 (London, 1760), Straight and Skillern's Two Hundred and Four Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (London, 1775), as well as Charles and Samuel Thompson's 1765 collection. The melody is also contained in the large dance music manuscript collection of Northumbrian musician William Vickers (1780).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 7.

Recorded sources:

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