Annotation:Boyan (The)

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BOYAN, THE. AKA - "Northumbertons Bagpiper," "Northumberland Bagpipes (The)," "Northumberland Bagpiper (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The ballad "The Northumberland Bagpiper" was set to this tune and can be found in the Roxburgh and Bagford collections, and printed in Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719). Alfred Moffat and Frank Kidson (Minstrelsy of England, 1901) cite William Chappell's reference to the air's appearance in Playford's Apollo's Banquet (1693), under the title "A New Dance in the Play 'The Marriage Hater Matched'", a work by D'Urfey himself, staged in 1692. Moffat and Kidson also find the air: "

bears a strong similarity to one in the Leyden Ms. (c. 1600-02) named "The Watter of Boyne," which is the same as "The Boyan" in Daniel Wright's first volume of country dances, circa 1735. These last named tunes are probably the original ones to which a version of the political ballad "Boyne Water" was sung, although this song is now associated with a totally different air. [p. 292]

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Wright (Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances), 1740; p. 10.

Recorded sources:

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