Annotation:Del Caro's Fancy

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DEL CARO'S FANCY. English, Country Dance (2/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Madam Del Caro was an entertainer of the late eighteenth century. The same tune (and title) appears in Joshua Cushing's Fifer's Companion No. 1 (Salem, Mass., 1805). A different tune called "Del Caro's Fancy" appears in J. Wilson's Pocket Preceptor for the Fife (London, 1805), but Wilson's tune is always elsewhere called "Del Caro's Hornpipe."

Source for notated version: William Litten's music manuscript collection, c. 1800-1802 [Huntington]. Litten was a ship's fiddler with the British East India fleet in the early years of the 19th century. His manuscript came into the hands of Allen Coffin of Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, who may (or may not) have been a shipmate. Coffin brought the ms. back to Martha's Vineyard where today it is in the hands of the Dukes County Historical Society.

Printed sources: Huntington (William Litten's), 1977; p. 19.

Recorded sources:

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