Annotation:Pig in the Parlour

Back to Pig in the Parlour

---

PIG IN THE PARLOUR. English, Reel or Country Dance Tune (cut time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody and country dance directions were first printed in London by music publisher John Walsh in his Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master, 3rd edition (1735), and in later editions of the same volume. It was also printed by John Johnson in his Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (1744) and by John Simpson in The Delightful Pocket Companion, vol. 2 (c. 1750). London musician Thomas Hammersely entered it into his 1790 music manuscript collection (as "Pig in Ye Parlour").

"Pig in a Parlour" has long been an English metaphor for something out of place, and perhaps unwelcome. So too, if one puts a 'pig in a parlour', it is still a pig (i.e. context does not alter character).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Walsh (The Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master, 3rd edition), London, 1735; No. 14.

Recorded sources:

---