Annotation:Nancy Fat
X:1 T:Nancy Fat M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:Levi Hall (southwestern Pa., 1944) B:Bayard - Dance to the Fiddle (1981) K:G Bcd G2G|gfg dcB|BdB G2G|A3 A2z| BdB G2G|g>gg dcB|BdB AFA|G3-G2z|| b2a g2g|efg d2d|b2a gfg|a3-a2a| b2a g2g|{f}efg d2d|B2d A2F|G3-G2z||
NANCY FAT. American (?), Jig (6/8 time). USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Bayard (1981) calls this seemingly a composite tune, meaning that it employs two strains from different tune families. He concludes that it was popular in North America in view that a very similar tune, a part of a Lancers set, was recorded by Bayard (1981, Appendix No. 41, p. 590) from a fiddler from Prince Edward Island, Canada. While the musicologist was not able to trace the second strain (which he thought sounded modern), the first strain is derived from the venerable and once-popular common-time "Because He was a Bonny Lad." However, researcher Conor Ward finds a version of both parts of the jig in the music manuscript collection of Irish fiddler Alex Sutherland (1874-1969), submitted to the National Folklore Commission in Ireland in 1957, as the second tune in a set of three tunes entitled "Long John's Wedding as played in three counties." Similarly a version of both parts can be found in Frank Roche's Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2 (1912) as an untitled tune in a section labelled "Old Set Tunes" (No. 301). If indeed it is a 'composite tune', as Bayard speculated, the union of the parts was known in Ireland in the early 20th century at least. It seems likely Bayard's "Nancy Fat" has an Irish provenance.
