Annotation:Nancy Fat
X:1 T:Nancy Fat M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:Levi Hall (southwestern Pa., 1944) B:Bayard - Dance to the Fiddle (1981) K:G Bcd G2G|gfg dcB|BdB G2G|A3 A2z| BdB G2G|g>gg dcB|BdB AFA|G3-G2z|| b2a g2g|efg d2d|b2a gfg|a3-a2a| b2a g2g|{f}efg d2d|B2d A2F|G3-G2z||
NANCY FAT. American, Jig (6/8 time). USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Bayard (1981) calls this seemingly a composite tune, meaning that it employs two strains from different tune families. He concludes that it was popular in North America in view that a very similar tune, a part of a Lancers set, was recorded by Bayard (1981, Appendix No. 41, p. 590) from a fiddler from Prince Edward Island, Canada. While the musicologist was not able to trace the second strain (which he thought sounded modern), the first strain is derived from the once-popular common-time "Because He was a Bonny Lad." However, researcher Conor Ward finds a version of both parts of the jig in the music manuscript collection of Irish fiddler Alex Sutherland (1874-1969), submitted to the National Folklore Commission in Ireland in 1957, as the second tune in a set of three tunes entitled "Long John's Wedding as played in three counties." Similarly a version of both parts can be found in Frank Roche's Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2 (1912) as an untitled tune in a section labelled "Old Set Tunes" (No. 301). If indeed it is a 'composite tune', as Bayard speculated, the union of the parts was known in Ireland in the early 20th century at least.