Annotation:Dance in Queen Mab

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 DANCE IN QUEEN MAB. AKA and see "Pheasant's Dance." English, Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). Queen Mab was a pantomime or an afterpiece (a short play after the mainpiece; in this instance, "Queen Mab" was staged after a revival of "The Beggar's Opera") written by Charles Burney (who composed the music, although it also contained music by James Oswald and others) and the actor Henry Woodward and staged in Drury Lane the day after Christmas, 1750. It was advertised: 'A New Entertainment in Italian Grotesque Characters call'd Queen Mab, Harlequin by Mr. Woodward'..." The melody was also entered into the 1790 music manuscript copybook of musician Edward Murphy, of Newport (probably Rhode Island) under the miss-spelled title "Dance in Queen Mal".  Source for notated version:   Printed sources: Aird (Selections of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs), vol. 1, 1782; p. 16.   Recorded sources:

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