Annotation:Blacksmith's Morris (The)

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X:33 T:Black smiths Morris M:4/4 L:1/4 Q:1/2=105 S:D.Wright, Extraordinary Collection, London 1713 Z:Pete Stewart, 2004 <www.hornpipemusic.co.uk> K:G Ad2e/f/|ggf>e|d/e/f/g/ a g/f/|eAd2|| dd/e/BG|A/B/c/d/ BG|c/d/e/c/ GG|ADG2|]



BLACKSMITH'S MORRIS. English, March (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "Blacksmith's Morris" is a morris dance or processional tune from dancing master Daniel Wright's Extraordinary Collection of Pleasant and Merry Humours never before Published, Containing Hornpipes, Jiggs, North Cuntry Frisks', Morris's, Bagpipe Hornpipe's, & Round's with Severall Additional fancis added. fit for all those that play Publick[1] (London, c. 1713, No. 33). John M. Ward posits that this tune is a branch of "Staines Morris (1)" that "begins with a twice-stated variant of the model's bars 1-3 compressed to two, continues with three one-bar variants of the tune's bars 5-6 transposed downward, and ends with a cadence on 'c'"[2]. Ward notes that it is the only time "Blacksmith's Morris" is identified in print as a morris tune. Wright also included two versions of "Staines Morris" in his volume, as well as another offshoot of the tune's family, "Ye Wild Morris."


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Offord (John of the Green: Ye Cheshire Way), 1985; p. 80.






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  1. John M. Ward, "The Morris Tune" (reference below), takes Wright's volume to be a "sampling of village dances...advertised as 'fit for all that play Publick'", by which Ward believes to mean for dancing on the green and similar places.
  2. John M. Ward, "The Morris Tune", Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 39, No. 2, Summer 1986, p. 311.