Annotation:Cock Your Pistol Charlie (1)

Back to Cock Your Pistol Charlie (1)

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COCK YOUR PISTOL CHARLEY [1]. AKA and see "Captain Murray's Fancy," "Gooseberry Blossoms." Irish, Slide. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. See Bayard, 1981; No. 220, pp. 177-178 for a note that includes his rather vague speculations on this tune. The rhythms of different versions varies between duple and triple: Kennedy prints a duple-time version and said that it was variously a "Highland, reel and single jig". Roche gives versions in both single jig (see [2], below) and a dotted duple-metre. However, the tune should be noted in 12/8, as a slide. Cecil Sharp published the tune as "Gooseberry Blossoms" (which he apparently adapted from a reel by that name in George Petrie's collection) for use with his collected version of "The Running Set" (Square Eight) from Kentucky. Versions of "Cock Your Pistol Charlie" appear to descend from the Scots reel "Hoptoun House", of which "Tap Room (The)" is the most popular derivative.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Kennedy (Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Reels and Rants), 1997; No. 23, p. 7. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2), 1912; p. 21, No. 242.

Recorded sources:

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