Annotation:Iantha (2)

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IANTHA [2]. AKA - "Anthy the Lovely," "Ianthe the Lovely." AKA and see "Mourn Hapless Caledonia," "When he holds up his hand." English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody was composed by John Barret (1674?-1735?), to to a lyric by John Glanvill, c. 1705. Barret was a music-master at Christ's Hospital, and a pupil of Dr. Blows; he contributed many melodies to period publications. "Iantha" was published in The Dancing Master, 13th edition of 1706 (then published in London by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concern). It also appears in the fourth volume of Thomas D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (1707), and in John Gay's seminal ballad opera The Beggar's Opera (1728), for the song "When he holds up his hand arraigned for life"). Henry Harington (1727 - 1816) included it in his Songs, Duets and Other Compositions by Doctor Harington of Bath never before published (London, 1800).

The tune was used for a song in Thompson's Scots Musical Museum entitled "The tears I shed must ever fall," written by Miss Cranston (who married Dugald Stewart, Esq., formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. It was lightly reworked by poet Robert Burns for the volume.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 147, p. 42. Oswald (Caledonian Pocket Companion, vol. 4), 1760; p. 8. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 67. Walsh (Complete Country Dancing-Master, Volume the Fourth), London, 1740; No. 111.

Recorded sources:

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