Annotation:Peggy Band

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PEGGY BAND. English, Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody originally appears in Charles and Samuel Thompson’s Compleat Collection, vol. 3 (London, 1773). It was entered into the commonplace books of Elisha Belknap (Framingham, Mass., 1780), and fiddlers John and William Pitt Turner (Norwich, Conn., 1788). Numerous tunes from the Thompson’s 1773 collection appear in the Turners’ collection. In the Belknap collection it is called “Peggy Band, a Retreat” indicating military use as a melody played to signal end of duties in the evening. There are different tunes under the title “Peggy Band, a Retreat.” One such is in the manuscripts of Perthshire musician John Fife, 1780, and fifer William Morris of Hunterdon County, N.J., 1776, which tune is called “Peggy Bawn” in James Aird’s Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5, 1797. It is reasonable to assume the “Peggy Band” title is a corruption of “Peggy Bawn.”

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3), 1773; No. 138.

Recorded sources:

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