Annotation:Morris Off

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MORRIS OFF. English, Morris Dance Tune (4/4 time). G Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. This tune for processional dances in the Cotswold villages of Headington (Oxfordshire) and Bidford (Warwickshire), England, and, as the name implies, accompanies morris dancers as they leave the dance arena. The title "Morris Off" is itself a later title for a tune that appeared in Jehan Tabourot's Orchesographie (1588) and The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Another variant is the Welsh harp tune which appears in Bennett's Alawon Fy Ngwlad, vol. 2, p. 136 (3rd tune). Bayard (1981) reports that a note in Fuller (vol. 2, p. viii) refers to a MS. setting of the tune by John Bull (c. 1562-1628). It has been suggested that it is an ancestral tune of the American old-time song/breakdown "Black Eyed Susie (1)." See also cognates "Alas my little bag" and "Rosasolis."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974; pp. 175 & 61. JEFDSS, vol. VIII, p. 211. Neal (The Espérance Morris Book, vol. 1), 1910; p. 27. O'Malley & Atwood (Seventy Good Old Dances), 1919; p. 30.

Recorded sources: Carthage CGLP 4406, Hutchings et al – "Morris On" (1983/1972).

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