Annotation:Trifle (The)
X:1 T:Trifle, The M:9/8 L:1/8 B:Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (London, 1773) Z:Transcribed and edited by Fynn Titford-Mock, 2007 Z:abc’s:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D D|F>GA dBG AFD|EFG efg Tc2A|F>GA B/c/dB AFD|FAF Edc d2:| |:g|f>ed (f/g/a)f ecA|BGB efg c2A|FDF ABc def|Bgf edc d2:||
TRIFLE. English, Slip Jig (9/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "The Trifle" appears to be unique to London music publisher Charles and Samuel Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3 (1773), although the title is one of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript, and was presumably the same tune printed by the Thompsons. There was a song of the same period called “The Trifle,” set to a 6/8 tune, and another (musically unrelated) country dance called "The Trifle" was printed by John Walsh in his Compleat Country Dancing-Master. Volume the Third (London, c. 1749). Sixteenth and seventeenth century country dance tunes sometimes had the word "maggot" in their titles, perhaps derived from Italian Maggiolatta or Italian May song, but used to mean a whim, fancy, plaything, 'trifle'--essentially an 'earworm'.
