Annotation:Maid Peeped Out at the Window (The)

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MAID PEEPED OUT AT THE WINDOW, THE. AKA and see "Friar in the Well (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 or 6/8 time). G Mixolydian (Barnes, Karpeles, Raven, Sharp): G Dorian (Chappell). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Chappell): ABB (Sharp): AABB (Barnes, Karpeles, Raven). The air appears earliest in the first edition of John Playford's English Dancing Master [1] (1651). The Playfords (John and son Henry) retained the tune in the long-running series through the 8th edition of 1690 under the title "The Maid Peep'd Out of the Window," with "The Frier [sic] in the Well" given as an alternate title. The name of Playford's dance is "Maid Peeped out at the Window," set to the air of a ribald anti-Catholic folksong called "Friar in the Well."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dances from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 59, p. 29. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Chappell (Popular Music of the Olden Time), vol. 1, 1859; p. 296. Karpeles & Schofield (A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; p. 21. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pp. 27 & 41 (the latter is a facsimile copy of Playford's original). Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909; p. 68.

Recorded sources: Varrick VR-013, Bare Necessities – "English Country Dances" (1987).

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