Annotation:Mrs. Monroe’s (1)

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MRS. MONROE'S [1]. AKA and see “King (The),” “Best in the Bag (The),” “Happy Mistake (The),” "Jim O'Connor's," “King of Jigs,” "King's Jig (2)," "King's Favorite," “Lady Shire's Favourite,” “Miss Monroe’s Jig,” “Mrs. Spens Monroe," "Munster Jig (The).” Irish, Slide or Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune, which has an uncertain provenance (but which also has long been in New England contra-dance repertoire), appears in the Scottish publication Kerr’s Merry Melodies, vol. 4 (c. 1880's), as the first two parts of a four-part tune called “King (The).”

Source for notated version: the 1938 typewritten manuscript of New Hampshire fiddler John Taggart (1954-1943), in the New Hampshire Historical Society (Concord, N.H.). Taggart wrote in his ms. that the tunes “were all taught me during my boyhood days in Sharon (N.H.), by the various fiddlers in that vicinity.” Miller points out that Sharon is in “the heart of the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire, where fiddlers and contra dances abound to this day” (pref. iv) [Miller].

Printed sources: Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 79. Miller (Fiddler’s Throne), 2004; No. 80, p. 59. Page (Northern Junket, vol. 1, No. 2), 1949; p. 16. Ryan’s Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 111. Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 142. White’s Unique Collection, 1896; No. 39, p. 7.

Recorded sources: New Hampshire Fiddler’s Union – “The Music of John Taggart” (1989).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]

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