Annotation:Legacy (1) (The)
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LEGACY [1], THE. AKA and see "How Can We Abstain from Whisky," "Bard's Legacy (The)." Scottish, Irish, English, American; Air, Jig or March. B Flat Major (Hardings): C Major (Raven): D Major (Cole): G Major (Kerr): A Major (Kennedy). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Raven): AABB (Cole, Hardings, Kennedy, Kerr). The jig has wide currency in a number of countries, genres, forms and keys, although it appears to be derived from the Scots "Annotation:How Can We Abstain from Whisky." Dublin publisher Smollet Holden printed it around the year 1805 in his Collection of Quick and Slow Marches, Troops, &c. as "Bard's Legacy (The)," a title that suggests lyrics (now lost) may have once been set to it. Irish poet Thomas Moore wrote a popular romantic song to the tune called "The Legacy," printed in his second volume of Irish Melodies (1807). It begins: ""When in death I shall calm recline," and was reported to have been one of Abraham Lincoln's favorites. An English derivative may be seen in the morris dance tune "Constant Billy."
"The Legacy" was also early employed marital use, and later as a double-jig for dancing. It appears to have been a popular marching tune in America, where it appears in James Hulbert's Complete Fifer's Museum (Greenfield, Mass., 1811), Paff's Gentleman's Amusement, No. 1 (New York, 1812), Blake's Gentleman's Amusement (Philadelphia, 1824), Blake's Martial Music of Camp Dupont (Philadelphia, 1816), and Edward Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 1 (New York, 1814). In the Camp Dupont publication it is indicated the melody was the signal for 'doublings of the troop'. In manuscript form it can be found in the copybooks of fiddler John Fife (Perthshire and at sea, 1780-1804), in an American commonplace book entitled "Greenfields" (now in the collection of the Litchfied, Conn., historical society), and, as “Quick Step,” in Elisha Belknap’s fife manuscript begun in 1784 in Framingham, Massachusetts. "The Legacy [1]" is also related to "St. Patrick's Day (in the Morning)."
The music and first verse were printed in William Walker’s 1847 shape note tune book The Southern Harmony and it also appeared in secular form in Carden's Missouri Harmony and Knight's Juvenile Harmony. With new words the tune was the vehicle for shape note hymns such as "Majesty New" in Hayden's Introduction to Sacred Music (1835), reprinted in his Sacred Melodeon (1848), and "Byzantium" in Myer's Manual of Sacred Music (1853), and in standard notation as "Saint's Rapture" in Hillman's Revivalist (1869).
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Clinton (Gems of Ireland: 200 Airs), 1841; No. 18, p. 9. Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 74. Hardings All-Round Collection, 1905; No. 172, p. 54. Harding's Original Collection (1928) and Harding Collection (1915), No. 45. P.M. Haverty (One Hundred Irish Airs vol. 1), 1858; No. 32, p. 13. Hughes (Gems from the Emerald Isle), 1867; No. 55, p. 14. Kennedy (Jigs & Quicksteps, Trips & Humours), 1997; No. 104, p. 26. Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 3), c. 1880's, No. 252, p. 28. McDonald (The Gesto Collection), 1895; p. 18. Moffat (202 Gems of Irish Melody), p. 24. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 127. Robbins, 1933; No. 155. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 105. Smith (Scottish Minstrel), 1820-24, vol. 4; p. 4.
Recorded sources:
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]