Annotation:Pretty Polly (6)

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PRETTY POLLY [6]. AKA "Pretty Polly, Say," "Pretty Parrot Say." English, Air and Triple Hornpipe (3/2 time). A Minor (Doyle): G Minor (Gay). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune comes from a broadsheet ballad of c. 1706. The song appears under the alternate title "Pretty Parrot, Say" in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1729, Air XIV). The ballad was said to have been translated from the French, and Kidson (1922) states it is on early half-sheet music.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Doyle (Plain Brown Tune Book), 1997; p. 34. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 54 (as "Pretty Parrot, Say" from the Beggar's Opera).

Recorded sources:

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