Annotation:Yarmouth Reel

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YARMOUTH REEL, THE. AKA and see "Galopede," "Persian Dance (A)," "Persian Ricardo." English, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Raven): AABC (Kennedy, Sweet). The title "Yarmouth Reel" for the tune does not appear to be very old, appearing first in print in Peter Kennedy's Fiddler's Tune Book, vol. 1. Kennedy's book was, for many years, a standard text for English Country Dancing, and so the "Yarmouth Reel" tune and title were widely disseminated (to North America, and Australia, for example). It was used as an accompaniment for the dance Galopede, a realtively simple and popular country dance, and, by association, also came to be called by the name of the dance (as often happens). However, the tune itself has some antiquity. It can be found as "Persian Dance (A)" printed by Edinburgh bandleader and music publisher Nathaniel Gow in 1812. John Clare (1793-1864), a musician and poet of Helpston, near Peterborough, Northamptonshire, included an untitled version in his music manuscript collection.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book, vol. 1), 1951; No. 63, p. 31 (appears as "Galopede"). Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 149. Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1965/1981; p. 60.

Recorded sources:

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