Annotation:Nine Pins (2)
NINE-PINS (NINEPINS) [2]. AKA and see "French Dance (2)," "Life of a Soldier (The)," "Oats Peas Beans (1)," "Portuguese Dance," "Soldier's Glory (The)," "Voulez Vous Danser{, Mademoiselle?}" "Old Amzi Eccles Tune" (Pa.) English, Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABC. One alternate title takes its name from the ditty sung to it, often by children as a play-party game.
Oats, peas, beans and barley grows,
As you and I and everyone knows...
Waiting for a partner.
There is a dance in New England called the "Ninepins Quadrille" that features designated dancers ('ninepins') scrambling for partners. In Scotland, too, Ninepins (or, as it was sometimes called, Ninepins Reel) was a part of the traditional dance repertoire, though it fell into a separate category from the reels and country dances. If set in reel time the melody is that of the French-Canadian classic "Bastringue (La)." The melody in jig time (6/8) is contained in the Joseph Kershaw manuscript as "Portuguese Dance." Kershaw was a fiddler who lived in Slackcote, Saddleworth, North West England, in the 19th century, and his manuscript dates from around 1820 onwards. Similarly, it was entered as "French Dance (2)" in the mid-19th century music manuscript of East Anglian musician William Clarke (Feltwell).
