Annotation:Lads and Lasses (2)
LADS AND LASSES [2]. AKA and see "Betsy Baker (1)," "Captain O'Neill," "Colonel J. Robertson's Favorite Reel," "Gorans (The)," "McClellantown Hornpipe," "Push about the Jorum (1)," "Rowan Tree (1) (The)," "Rattle the Bottles (1)," "Whitby Abbey." English, Reel. England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Seattle): AABB (Kennedy). The melody was published in John Johnson's A Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (London, 1750) and Longman's Compleat Instructions for the German Flute (London, 1769). "Lads and Lasses" also appears in several musicians' manuscript collections (as "Lads and Lasses") from northern England, including T.J.Dixon (Lincolnshire, 1798), Joseph Barnes (Carlisle, 1762), R. Hughes (Whitchurch,Shropshire, 1823), and the 1770 music manuscript copybooks of Northumbrian musician William Vickers and Lincoln fiddler William Clark, about both of whom little is known. It also appears under the "Lads and Lasses" title in the Joshua Jackson manuscript (Yorkshire), and the Thomas Hammersley manuscript (London, 1790). Scottish and English 18th century collections give the tune as "Push about the Jorum (1)."
As in England, "Lads and Lasses" appears in American musicians' manuscript collections of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, including flute players Henry Beck (1786), Micah Hawkins (New York, 1794) and John Hoff (Lancaster, Pa., 1797); and in Edward Murphy (Newport, 1790), and Abel Shatuck (Colrain, Mass., 1801). It appears in fifer John Treat's manuscript, c. 1779, with the alternate title "Bunkerhill." A version also appears in Bayard's Hill Country Tunes (1944) as an untitled reel collected in Western Pennsylvania; see his note for "Talk:Honeycomb Rock (The)." Early American publications including the reel are Norris and Sawyer's Village Fifer (Exeter, N.H., 1808), Alvan Robinson's Massachusetts Collection of Martial Musick (Hallowell, Maine, 1818), and G.E. Blake's Gentleman's Amusement (Philadelphia, 1824).
The earliest 'recording' of the tune is to be found on a musical clock made in the 1770's by Bucks County, Pennsylvania, clockmaker Joseph Ellicott.
