Annotation:Peasant’s Dance (2)
X:1 T:Peasant’s Dance [2] M:6/8 L:1/8 B:Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 1 (London, 1757) Z:Transcribed and edited by Fynn Titford-Mock, 2007 Z:abc’s:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G B2c ded|c2B ABc|dBG E2A|FDF G3:| |:B2G c2A|B2G A2g|dBG E2A|FDF G3:| |:g2d gdB|g2B a2B|Bcd E2A|FDF G3:| |:BdB (c2e)|(A2c) (B2d)|G2B AcA|FDF G3:||
PEASANT’S DANCE [2]. AKA and see "Dance in Queen Mab, "Pheasant's Dance." English, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCCDD. The melody was first printed by David Rutherford in his Choice Collection of Sixty of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1750), also included in his later Complete Collection of 200 Country Dances, vol. 2 (London, 1760). It was entered into the music manuscript copybooks of London fiddler Thomas Hammersley (1790), and, in America, in the 1790 copybook of fiddler Linnaeus Bolling (Buckingham County, Virginia) and the 1794 copybook of flute player Micah Hawkins (New York). It can even be heard played by the mechanism of a musical clock by Norwich, Conn., master Thomas Harland, dating from the 1770’s. In north-east England the tune is known among traditional musicians as "Pheasant's Dance," and appears under that spelling in the music manuscripts of William Vickers (Northumberland, 1770) and William Biggins (1779). The tune (as "Peasant Dance") can also be found in the opposite region of Britain, in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter, a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset.
See note for "annotation:Dance in Queen Mab" for more.
