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X:1
T:Furbelows and Apricocks
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:Country Dance
B:John Young - Second Volume of the Dancing Master (1710, p. 34)
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:Bb
B2b agf|g3 d2e|fed cAB|GcB AGF|
B2b agf|g3 d2f|-efg cfe|f3-f2:|
|:f|cde dcB| bag ^f2d|gab g2^f|g3 b2a|gfe dcB|
eAB cfe|dgc c2B|A3 f2d|gab c2B|B3-B2:|]
FURBELOWS AND APRICOCKS. AKA - "Mad Frolick (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody appears in all four editions of John Young's Second Volume of the Dancing Master (1710, 1714, 1718, 1728), and in all three editions of Walsh's Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (1719, 1735, 1749). As "Furbelow'd Apricocks" it was also printed by Johnson in Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, vol. 2, of 1749.
'Apricocks' are what we call today the fruit apricot. A cordial was made of apricots that in Queen Anne's time was called 'Ratafia of Apricocks'. However, Furbelows refers to an aspect of womens' dress in the era, a pleated ruffle or ornamental frill. Mrs. Centlivre's play The Platonick Lady, written in 1707, relates the country lady who comes to town to learn 'breeding':
Mrs. Dowdy: Ladyship, why what a main difference is here between this town and the country. I was never called above forsooth
in all my live. Mercy on me, why you have spoiled my petticoat, mum, zee, Peeper, she has cut it in a thousand bits.
Peeper: Oh, that's the fashion, these are furbelows madam--'tis the prettiest made coat.
Mrs. Dowdy: Furbelows, a murrain take 'em, the spoil all the zilk. Good strange, shour London women do nothing but study vashions, they never mind their dairy I warrant.
Turnup: Ladies have no other employment for their brain--and our art lies in hiding the defects of nature. Furbelows upwards were
designed for those that have no hips, and too large ones, brought up the full-bottom'd furbelows.
However the term furbelow also came to mean 'a decoration of color or interest that is added to relieve plainness', and in that context a 'furbelow of apricocks' might mean a decoration of either the fruit or the color.
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Why there is a Need for the Traditional Tune Archive
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Although we are not trained musicologists and make no pretense to the profession, we have tried to apply such professional rigors to this Semantic Abc Web as we have internalized through our own formal and informal education.
This demands the gathering of as much information as possible about folk pieces to attempt to trace tune families, determine origins, influences and patterns of aural/oral transmittal, and to study individual and regional styles of performance.
Many musicians, like ourselves, are simply curious about titles, origins, sources and anecdotes regarding the music they play. Who, for example, can resist the urge to know where the title Blowzabella came from or what it means, or speculating on the motivations for naming a perfectly respectable tune Bloody Oul' Hag, is it Tay Ye Want?
Knowing the history of the melody we play, or at least to have a sense of its historical and social context, makes the tune 'present' in the here and now, and enhances our rendering of it.
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Andrew Kuntz & Valerio Pelliccioni
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