Annotation:Haymaker's Jig (2)
X:1 T:Hay Makers Dance in Fortunatus, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig and Country Dance Tune B:David Rutherford – Rutherford’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite B:Country Dances, vol. 2 (London, c. 1760, No. 102, p. 51) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G D|G2B (A/B/c)A |B2G AFD|G2B (AB/c)A|(B/c/d)B G2:| |:G|B2d g2d|(e/f/g)e dBG|B2 d g2d|(e/f/g)e d2:| |:B|c2e dBG|(A/B/c)A B2G|c2e dBG|(A/B/c)A G2:|]
HAYMAKERS (JIG) [2]. AKA and see "Foree (The)," "Merry Hay Haymakers," "New Hay Makers (The)." Scottish (originally), English, American; Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Hunter, Martin): AABBCC (most versions). There is a once popular (in 19th century Scotland, for example) country dance called "The Haymakers," with which this tune is associated. The characteristics of the dance indicate its origins can be found in community harvest festivals of the land, similar to the English "Harvester's Dance." A 'Haymakers' dance was included in several 18th century operas, denoting a rustic celebration, but its origins may have been much earlier; the "Hay" (or Hey) was a dance figure and melody known to Shakespeare. Kate Van Winkler Keller (1992) says the tune may have been composed by James Oswald (1711 - 1769) for the 1753 London pantomime Fortunatus, and the tune does appear under the title "Haymaker's Dance in Fortunatas" in David Rutherford's Rutherford's Choice Collection of Sixty of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1750, p. 29). Northumbrian musician William Vickers included the melody in his 1770 dance tune manuscript collection as "New Hay Makers (The)." Northumbrian piper Matt Seattle notes that the tune is still well-known, and that versions differ only slightly from one another.
The melody is found in the Shetlands, but is not indigenous; rather, it was introduced in the 1890's "by Scots girls who came up in their hundreds during the gerring season to live and work as gutters and packers at the numerous fishing stations which mushroomed each year around the Shetland shoreline. The Shetland jigs, however, appear to pre-date this period" (Cooke, 1986). It appears in Miss Stewart's Collection of 1781, and James Hulbert's Complete Fifer's Museum (Greenfield, Mass., 1807) among numerous others, both print and manuscript collections-in fact, it was one of the most common tunes of its era.
