Annotation:Fain I Would
X: 1 T:Faine I Would(If I Could). (p)1651.PLFD.024 T:Parthenia [2]. (p)1651.PLFD.024 M:6/4 L:1/4 Q:3/4=90 S:Playford, Dancing Master,1st Ed.,1651. O:England H:1651. Z:Chris Partington. K:F g3 ^f3|g3 b3|a2 g g>ag |f3-f2 d/e/| f>gf e d2|c3 d3|c2 B B>cA|B3-B2:| |:F|F2 G A2 B|c3-c2c|d2 c B>cd/e/|f3-f>gf| e d2 c2 B|A3 b3|a2 d g>a^f|g3-g2:|
FAIN I WOULD. AKA - "Faine I Would if I Could." AKA and see "Coffin for King Charles (A)," "Jolly Beggars (The)," "Matchless Shepherd (The)," "Parthenia (2)," "King's Complaint (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 time). D Minor (Chappel, Raven): G Minor (Barnes, Sharp). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Chappell, Raven): AABB (Barnes, Sharp). The air appears in John Playford's English Dancing Master of 1650 and Elizabeth Rogers' Virginal Book (where it is called "The King's Complaint"). It dates to at least the mid-17th century, and, according to Chappell (Old English Popular Music, 1859, p. 295), it was probably originally a dance tune adapted to a ballad whose words were lost. In later editions of the Dancing Master the tune is also called "Parthenia," although the ballad from which that title derived has also been lost. After the Danicng Master 8th edition of 1690 the piece was dropped from the Playford publications. Keith Whitlock notes that "Fain I would" "is an elaborate dance performed whilst the court was at Oxford"[1] (During the English Civil War Charles I's court, denied access to its usual country residences, was forced to set itself up in a series of makeshift locations. The most important of these was Oxford which Charles converted into a large and well-organized courtly campus.).
- ↑ Keith Whitlock, “John Playford’s English Dancing Master 1650/51 as Cultural Politics”, Folk Music Journal, vol. 7, No. 5, 1999, p. 568.