Annotation:Under and Over

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UNDER AND OVER. AKA and see “Man Had Three Sons (A),” “Jacob Hall’s Jig (1).” English, Country Dance Air (6/4 time). D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune appears in John Playford’s English Dancing Master of 1651, and, in D Major, in Pills to Purge Melancholy (under the title “Joan’s ale is new”). In many of the MSS containing songs written to the air it is described as a “Northern tune,” which tunes when so described Chappell states are north English in origin, not Scottish. As “Joan’s Ale is New” the tune appears (set in D Major) in D’Urfey’s Pills to Purge Melancholy. The “Under and Over” song begins:

Under and over, over and under,
Or a pretty new jest and yet no wonder;
Or a maiden mistaken, as many now be,
View well this glass, and you may plainly see.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 112, p. 38. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 1, 1859; pp. 304-305.

Recorded sources:

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