Annotation:Smith's Rant
SMITH'S RANT. AKA and see "Cuckow (1) (The)," "Cuckoo (The)," "May Day (7)," "Smith's New Rant." English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody, with instructions for a country dance, first appeared in print in John Playford's Dancing Master in the supplement to the third edition (1665). It was retained in the long-running Dancing Master series of editions through the 18th and final edition of 1728 (then published by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concerns). However, in Playford's editions 5-8, "Smith's Rant" becomes the alternate title, with "The Cuckow" becoming the main title; in later editions it reverts back to "Smith's Rant" as the name. The piece was also printed by rival London music publisher John Walsh in his Compleat Country Dancing Master, editions of 1718, 1731 and 1754, and in his Compleat Country Dancing Master, Volume the Fourth (c. 1740).