Annotation:Belle Catharine (1) (La)
X:2 T:La Belle Cathrine [1] M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance Tune B:Gow - 2nd Collection of Niel Gow's Reels, 3rd ed., p. 36 (orig. 1788) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C G|c2 (e/d/)c/d/|ec~cB|A2 (d/e/)d/c/|BG TG2| c2 (e/d/)c/d/|eccB|Ad (c/B/)A/G/|c2 C:|| G/F/|EGTG>F|EG Gc/B/|AA (d/e/)d/c/|BG TG>F| EG GA/B/|ce/c/ Bd/B/|cc {f}ed/c/|[G,3D3B3g3] G| c2 (e/d/)c/d/|ecTcB|A2 (d/e/)d/c/|BG TG2| c2 (e/d/)c/d/|ec~c>B|Ad {c}BA/G/|Tc2 C||
BELLE CATHARINE [1], LA. AKA "Lady Belle Catherine." AKA and see "Come Dance and Sing," "Come Let Us Dance and Sing," "Grandmother's Polka," "Rising Sun (4) (The)," "Sons of William (The)," "Inkle and Yarico (1)," "Muffin Man (The)," "Shrewsbury Quarry," "16th of October (The)," "Sixteenth of October." British Isles, Reel. England; Shropshire, Dorset. D Major (most versions): C Major (Gow, Howe, Wilson). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Alexander, Howe): AAB (Gow, Johnson): AABA (Ashman, Dale, Trim, Wilson): AABB (Howe, Keller, Sweet). The tune (popular with fifers as well as fiddlers) dates from the 18th century (Moffatt-Kidson gives it from 1780, calling it an "allemand"). Johnson (1988) also dates the tune to 1780, and Kate Van Winkler Keller (1992) calls it "one of the most popular tunes of the late 1780's". However, "Belle Catharine" appears in Bride's Favourite Collection of 200 Select Country Dances, Cotillons, printed by Longman, Lukey & Broderip, London, a few years earlier, in 1776. The Gows printed it in their 2nd Collection (1788) in a section of county dances fashionable in Edinburgh in the 1787-88 season. London publishers Samuel, Ann and Peter Thompson included it in their Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (1788). Keller notes the similarity with "The16th of October," a melody printed in J. Preston's Twenty Four Country-Dances (London, 1786), although it was Preston who earlier published it in his New Instruction for the German Flute (1780, London). Editor Gordon Ashman identifies "La Belle Catharine" as a melody used for the Shrewsbury Show, where it became the traditional tune for the Show under the title "Shrewsbury Quarry." Austrian composer wikipedia:Johann_Nepomuk_Hummel (1778-1837) wrote a set of six variations for the pianoforte on "La Belle Catherine," published around 1790 ("Trois Airs Variés pour la Clavecin ou Forte Piano" [1]).
"La Belle Catharine" appears in several British music manuscripts of the late 18th/early 19th century, including Shropshire musician John Moore (see source info. below), the Hardy family music manuscripts (Dorset), Benjamin Rose music manuscript collection (Dorset, 1820), Joshua Jackson (near Harrogate, north Yorkshire), William Mittel (1799, New Romney, Kent), H.S.J. Jackson (1823, Wyresdale, Lancashire) and George Spencer (1831, Leeds, west Yorkshire). A simple version of the tune can be found in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter, a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset.
"Belle Catharine" was extremely popular in America as well, and appears in the period music manuscript copybooks of George Bush (see source info. below), Henry Beck's commonplace book (1786, p. 138), "William O. Adam's Music Book&" (1795, now in the Library of Congress), Connecticut musician James B. Hosmer's commonplace book (1798-1799), the Joseph Ackerman copybook (New Hampshire, 1795), George Otis's copybook (Worcester, Mass., 1793), J. Williams commonplace book (Salem, N.Y., 1799), and John Treat's commonplace book (Durham?, c. 1779-1802), among others. A Canadian manuscript, the Thomas Molyneaux copybook ("Thomas Molyneaux, Ensign - 6th Regmt", 1788) also contains the tune.
The following passage is from A Contribution to the History of the Huguenots of South Carolina (1887) by Samuel Dubose and Frederick Porcher. It describes a country dance in Craven County, South Carolina in the early 1800's:
Nothing can be imagined more simple or more fascinating that those Pineville balls. Bear in mind, reader, that we are discussing old Pineville as it existed prior to 1836. No love of display governed the preparations; no vain attempt to outshine a competitor in the world of fashion. Refreshments were provided of the simplest character, such only as the unusual exercise, and sitting beyond the usual hours of repose, would fairly warrant. Nothing to tempt the pampered appetite. Cards were usually provided to keep the elderly gentlemen quite, and the music was only that which the gentlemen's servants could produce. The company assembled early. No one ever though of waiting until bedtime to dress for the ball; a country-dance always commenced the entertainment. The lady who stood at the head of the dancers was entitled to call for the figure, and the old airs, Ca Ira, Moneymusk, Haste to the Wedding, and La Belle Catharine were popular and familiar in Pineville long after they had been forgotten, as dances, everywhere else. Ah, well do we remember with what an exulting step would the young man, who had secured the girl of his choice, exhibit his powers of the poetry of motion, when his partner called for the sentimental air of La Belle Catharine....
The earliest sound recording of the tune is on the 2nd Barrel, 3rd tune, of a mechanical Chamber Barrel Organ [2], hand-built by John Langshaw (1718-1798), Organ Maker, Lancaster, c. 1785. The organ is one of three surviving Langshaw organs.
See note for "Come Dance and Sing/Come Let Us Dance and Sing" for more.
