Annotation:Vento's Farewell

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VENTO'S FAREWELL. English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The title perhaps references Italian composer and harpsichord teacher Mattio Vento (1735-1776), who, in 1763, removed to England where he spent the rest of his life. He was a composer and producer of operas, a director of the King's Theatre, and conducted at public concerts, including those at the Pantheon.

The tune also appears in the c. 1770 music manuscript collection of William Clark of Lincoln, although may have been entered at a later date by another hand. Surprisingly, the tune made its way to America and turns up in sources associated with Irish music. Patrick O'Flannagan called the tune "Kilkenny Girls" in his Hibernia Collection (1860), published in Boston by Elias Howe. O'Flannagan's version was reprinted by Francis O'Neill in his Music of Ireland (1903) as "Kilkenny Girl (The)."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5), 1788; No. 167, p. 84.

Recorded sources:

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