Annotation:Month of May (1) (The)
X:1 T:Month of May [1] M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig K:G D | G2G GFG | A2B c2d | e2e dBG | GFG AFD | G2G GFG | A2B c2d | efg dcB | AGG G2 :| |: B | A2A A2B | cdc Bd |g2d g2d | BAG d3 | A2A A2A | cdc Bcd | efg dcB | AGG G2 :|]
MONTH OF MAY [1], THE. AKA and see "Merry Month of May (The)," "Michael Turner's No. 3." English, Jig and Morris Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Bacon-Brackley): AABB (Raven): AA'BB (Callaghan): AABCBCB (Bacon-Field Town). The tune was collected in the Cotswold villages of Field Town (Leafield, Oxfordshire) and Brackley (Northamptonshire). Versions of the melody can also be found in the music manuscript copybook of Michael Turner (1796-1885), for fifty years a Parish Clerk, Sexton and choir leader of a church in Warnham, Sussex. His gravestone reads:
His duty done, beneath this stone
Old Michael lies at rest
His rustic rig, his song, his jig
Were ever of the best.
With nodding head the choir he led
That none should start too soon,
The second he sang full true
His viol played the tune
And when at last his age had passed
One hundred-less eleven,
With faithful cling to fiddle string
He sang himself to heaven.
Manchester, England, musician John Roose's "Battle of Waterloo (2)" has a first strain that is cognate with "Month of May [1]," although the second strain is different.
