Annotation:Gelding of the Devil
Tune properties and standard notation
GELDING OF THE DEVIL, THE. English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 or 6/8 time). C Minor (Merryweather): A Dorian (Sharp). Standard tuning. AA' (Merryweather): ABB (Sharp). The tune was first published with country dance directions by John Playford in 1657 in his Dancing Master, third edition. It was retained in the series through the sixth edition of the volume (1679), but in the next two editions the melody was replaced by another tune, albeit with the same title. A different melody called "Gelding of the Devil" appear in D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719).
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 120, p. 39. Merryweather (Merryweather's Tunes for the English Bagpipe), 1989; p. 42. Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909; p. 40.
Recorded sources: