Buy-a-Broom Waltz

 BUY-A-BROOM WALTZ. AKA - "Union Waltz." English, Waltz (3/8 time). C Major (Ashman, Howe): D Major (Sumner): D Major {'A' and 'B' parts} & D Minor {'C' and 'D' parts} (Kennedy). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Ashman, Howe): AABBCC (Sumner): AABBCCDD (Kennedy). The tune is familiar as the vehicle for the words to the nursery song known variously as "Did you Ever See a Lassie," "I'm a Little Dutch Girl" or "Lieber Augustine." Editor Ashman notes that Dutch and Deutsch (for 'German') seem to have been confused in Shropshire {as they were in the United States when the German immigrant Amish were labelled Pennsylvania Dutch'}, and that 'buy-a-broom' girls from Bavaria were in trouble as itinerants in England in the early 19th century. In fact, the tune is an adaptation of the German melody "O Du Lieber Augustin." Wulf Stratowa, writing in Oesterreichishce Lyrik aus Neun Jahrhunderten (Vienna, 1848) identifies the composer as Marx Augustin, an itinerant bagpiper who was said to have survived a number of calamities, including the plague in 1679 and the Turkish occupation of Vienna in 1683. Augustin died on an Austrian highway in October, 1705. "Buy a Broom" was popularized in England in the early 19th century by the famous singer and actress, Madame (Eliza) Vestris (1797-1856), who sang the song on the London stage in 1826, dressed as a Bavarian peasant. The "Buy a Broom" title appears in a list of Maine fiddler Mellie Dunham's tunes (Dunham was Henry Ford's champion fiddler in the latter 1920's). The song was published in Philadelphia by George Willig in 1827. Sources for notated versions: a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman]; the 1823-26 music mss of papermaker and musician Joshua Gibbons (1778-1871, of Tealby, near Market Rasen, Lincolnshire Wolds) [Sumner]. Printed sources: Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 44b, p. 16. Howe (Complete Preceptor for the Accordeon), 1843; p. 23. Howe (Diamond School for the Violin), c. 1861. Kennedy (Fiddler's Tune-Book: Slip Jigs and Waltzes), 1999; No. 103, p. 25. Sumner (Lincolnshire Collections, vol. 1: The Joshua Gibbons Manuscript), 1997; p. 79.

X:1 T:Union Waltz T:Buy a Broom L:1/8 M:3/4 S:Elias Howe - Diamond School for the Violin (c. 1861) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D df | a2 abag | f2d2d2 | e2A A2 | fede fg | a2 abag | f2d2d2 | e2A2A2 | d4 :|
 * cd | e2A2A2 | f2d2d2 | e2A2A2 | fede fg | a2 abag | f2d2d2 | e2A2A2 | d4 :||

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