Annotation:Mona's Delight

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MONA'S DELIGHT (Eunysagh Vona/Eunyssagh Vona). AKA and see "Miss Lacey's Hornpipe." English, Reel. England, Isle of Mann. A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This eight-hand reel tune, from the Isle of Mann, has an associated dance which features an unusual step approximately R-L-R, then clunking the inside of one foot against another. Since the dance was sometimes performed in clogs, this could be quite audible. The tune was collected by Mona Douglas (1898-1987), a well-known Manx dance teacher, who says she collected it "from Manx fisherman and country-folk." It is published in her Five Manx Folk Dances (1936). However, the melody was not titled for her (the name 'Mona' only being a coincidence), as it appears as "Mona's Delight" set as a hornpipe in the Dr. John Clague manuscripts (1890's), which predate Douglas's collecting.

The tune is derived from an older one in English dance repertoire, John Playford's "Goddesses", published in the 1st edition of the English Country Dancing Master (1651). An Irish version can be found under the title "Miss Lacey's Hornpipe."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Carlin (Master Collection of Dance Music for the Violin), 1984; No. 24, p. 25.

Recorded sources:

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