Country Dance Tunes, vol. I (LHS)

“Cecil Sharp was born in London in 1859.  Having received a degree in music from Clare College at Cambridge University, he went to work for the Chief Justice of Southern Australia.  While there he founded a music school and was also the cathedral organist in Adelaide.  After returning to England, Sharp became head of the Hamstead Conservatoire in London.  His life changed direction on Boxing Day, December 26, 1899, when he saw Morris dancers for the first time and began to discover his country’s rich folk traditions.  From then until his death in 1924 he collected folk songs and dances both in Britain and America.  Many volumes of his arrangements were published and his papers are now held in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House, the London headquarters of the English Folk Song and Dance Society.”

Notes on the contents:

“Barrack Hill is an Irish melody from the Petrie Collection.

Jenny Pluck Pears appears in John Playford’s English Dancing Master of 1651.  Jenny was a common name for a country sweetheart.

Nancy’s Fancy and Three Meet were collected in Devonshire in 1907.

Drive the Cold Winter Away is included in a book of pieces for cittern of 1666.  The words of one version are “…Good fortune attend each merry man’s friend,  That doth but the best that he may; Forgetting old wrongs, with carols and songs, To drive the cold winter away.”

Row Well Ye Mariners, a political ballad of the 16^th Century, is in Robinson’s School of Music of 1603.  Another song with the same music is called John and Joan.

Killiecrankie commemorates a battle in central Scotland in the year 1689.

Scotch Cap, also called Edinburgh Castle, can be found in Playford’s Dancing Master.  It may refer to King Charles’ visit to Edinburg in 1633.

Lull Me Beyond Thee is an old air about a deserted lover.

Morpeth Lasses, originally a Northumbrian bagpipe tune, was one of those selected by Sharp and now is played for the Ampleforth Sword Dance from North Yorkshire.

The Triumph has been used since the 18^th Century for country dances.  One variation was found played by gypsies in southern England.

Step and Fetch Her is both a Morris dance tune from the village of Brampton, in Oxfordshire, and a country dance tune.”

— J. Altshuler