Annotation:Mage on a Cree

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MAGE ON A CREE. English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA. The tune appears in John Playford's English Dancing Master (1651, p. 20), the first edition of the long-running Dancing Master series. It continued to be published as "Mage on a Cree" until the 4th edition of the Dancing Master, published in 1670, when the title was altered to "Mage on a Tree." The 'Tree' version of the title was retained through the 7th edition of 1686. In the 8th through 16th editions the title was altered again, to "Madge on a Tree," and in the final editions of the Dancing Master it appears as "Madge on a Tree; or Margery Cree." The melody was also published by the Walshes, in The Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, editions of 1718, 1731 and 1754).

The title has not been definitively explained, although it may have been a corruption of an Irish word or phrase. A broadside ballad using the name is entitled (with misspellings retained) "Good admonition, or, To al sorts of people this counsell I sing: that in each ones affaire, to take heed's a faire thing: to the tune of, Magina-cree," and dates to c. 1630.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Barlow (Complete Country Dance Tunes from Playford's Dancing Master), 1985; No. 57, p. 28. Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Fleming-Williams (English Dance Airs; Popular Selection, Book 1), 1965; p. 10. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pp. 24 & 38. Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1994; p. 15. Walsh (Complete Country Dancing-Master, Volume the Fourth), London, 1740; No. 29.

X:299
T:B299-  Magina-Cree
Q:1/4=120
L:1/4
Z:Bruce Olson
M:6/4
K:Gdorian
B3/2 c/ d/e/f2c|A2Fc2A|B3/2 c/dd3/2 c/d|B3/2 A/Gd2G|
B3/2 c/ d/e/f2c|A2Fc2A|B3/2 c/de3/2 f/g|^f3/2 e/fg2G|]

Recorded sources: