Annotation:Spinning Wheel (5) (The)
X:1 T:Spinning Wheel [5], The M:6/8 L:1/8 B:Aird - Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. II (1782) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Emin G/F/ | E2e edc | BAG FED | E2e (e/f/gf) | e2E E2F | E2e edc | BAG FED | E2e egf | e2E E2 :| |: F | GAG (Bcd/G/) | FEF DEF | GFE D2f | efg B2f | gfe dcB | ABG FED | E2e (efg/)f/ | e2E E2 :|]
SPINNING WHEEL [5], THE. AKA and see "You Stole My Heart Away." English, Air and Jig (6/8 time). E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "The Spinning Wheel" is the indicated tune for a song[1] in Westmeath-born wikipedia:Charles_Coffey's ballad opera The Merry Cobbler, or the Second Part of the Devil to Pay, published in London in 1735 by John Watts, a follow-up to his 5th ballad opera, The Devil to Pay; or, Wives Metamorphos'd (1731), which was the most successful ballad opera of the century after John Gay's The Beggar's Opera. Coffey's opera had a pasticcio ('assembled' from preexisting melodies), and the provenance of the "Spinning Wheel" melody thus may not be English.
The tune was also entered into the large c. 1790-1820 music manuscript collection of British army fifer biography:John Buttery (p. 491), who, after his discharge from the army eventually emigrated to Ontario, Canada, bringing his manuscript with him. A very close version of the tune was printed by Francis O'Neill in Music of Ireland (1903, No. 527) as the air "You Stole My Heart Away."
- ↑ The song begins, "How happy is my lady's life"...