Annotation:Circle (1) (The)

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CIRCLE [1], THE. AKA and see "Sam Hyde's Quickstep," "Mrs. Monroe’s (2)," "King (The)." American, Jig. D Major (Phillips): G Major (Miller). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Several New England tunes have been known by this name, probably because of their association with a circle dance. Tunes alternately known as "The Circle" have been "Rantin' Roaring Willy" and "Uncle Steve." Randy Miller (2004) attributes the tune to New England fiddler John Adams Taggart (1854-1943), from his Recollection of a Busy Life (1938), a typewritten manuscript deposited with the New Hampshire Historical Society (Concord, N.H.). Taggart, born and raised in Sharon, New Hampshire, and was a onetime orchestra leader and composer. Taggart wrote in his ms. that the tunes "were all taught me during my boyhood days in Sharon (N.H.), by the various fiddlers in that vicinity." Miller points out that Sharon is in "the heart of the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire, where fiddlers and contra dances abound to this day" (pref. iv) [Miller].

Source for notated version: New Hampshire Fiddlers' Union [Phillips].

Printed sources: Burchenal (American Country Dances, vol. 1), 1918; p. 2. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), vol. 2, 1995; p. 363. Miller (Fiddler's Throne), 2004; No. 19, p. 24.

Recorded sources: Front Hall FHR-204C, New Hampshire Fiddlers Union – "Music of John Taggart" (1992).