Annotation:Red Ribbon (The)
X:1 T:Red Ribbon, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (1740, p. 67) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Emin e2B B2A|GFG E2B|efg f2e|^def B3| gfe d2c|B3g3|dcB AGF|G3-G2:| |:BAG B2c|de^c d3|AGF A2B|cBA B2f| gfe ^def|A3 ABc|BAG F2E|E3-E2:|]
RED RIBBON, THE. AKA - "Anna Bella." English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/8 time). E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune was first printed under the title "Anna Bella" by London music publisher John Young in the Third Volume of the Dancing Master, 2nd edition (c. 1726, No. 6) with one flat in the key signature (usually rendered in G minor, however), issued a few years later by rival music publisher John Walsh in his The New Country Dancing Master, 3d. Book (1728). In the next decade the jig appeared under the "Red Ribbon" title in London publisher John Walsh's The Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1735, p. 93) and The Compleat Country Dancing-Master. Volume the Sixth (1754, p. 137), and in Daniel Wright's Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1740, p. 67, published by John Johnson).
The title "Red Ribbon" probably refers to the Red Ribbon of the Order of the Bath, i.e. the red ribbon from which the badge of the Order is suspended. The Order was revived by King George I in 1725 after it had been dormant for seventy-five years, and he liberally bestowed the honor: thirty-seven noblemen and gentlemen were invested at the first installation in June, 1725. A stinging period political satire of the ribbon by an unknown poet goes:
Quoth King Robin, our Ribbons I see are so few,
St. Andrew's the Green, and St. George's the blew;
I must find out a Red one, a colour more gay,
Which will tye up my Subjects with Pride to obey.
Th' Exchequer may Suffer by prodigal Donors,
The King has ne'er Exhausted the fountain of Honours;
Men of more Witt than money our pensions will fitt,
But these will Bribe those of more Money than Witt;
Who with Faith most implicit obey my commands,
Tho' empty as 'Young' and as saucy as 'Sandys',
Who will soonest leap over a Stick for the King
Shall be qualified best for a Dog in a String.[1]
