Annotation:Arundel Street

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ARUNDEL STREET. English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody and dance instructions were first published in Henry Playford's (1657-c. 1707)Dancing Master, 9th edition (1695), and was retained in all subsequent editions through the 18th and last edition of 1728 (which was, at that time, published by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concerns). Dance and tune was also publshed by John Walsh in his Compleat Country Dancing Master (1718, and subsequent editions of 1731 and 1754).

Arundel Street was built in 1678 on part of the site of Arundel House, originally the town house of the Bishops of Bath and Wells during the Middle Ages. It was in the possession of Thomas Seymour, executed for treason by Henry VIII, and then sold to Henry Fitz Alan, 12th Earl of Arundel. The street was the location of the buildings of the Academy of Vocal Music (later the Academy of Ancient Music), first instituted in the year 1725 or 1726, although Cassell (Old and New London, 1878) dates it to the reign of Queen Anne (Queen 1702–1714). Arundel Street was perhaps the scene of musical activity at the time of Playford's publication (1695). However, the title may also refer to the Playford home on Arundel Street. Frank Kidson, in his article "John Playford, and 17th-century Music Publishing" (Musical Quarterly, vol. IV, 1918, p. 530) notes:

At the death of his father [John Playford], Henry Playford appears to have returned tot he old address, as his imprints give "Near the Temple Church", but in 1696 his address is altered to "near Temple Bar", or "Temple Change", or at the publisher's "house in Arundel Street over against the Blew Ball". This house was probably one occupied by his father in his later years after the disposal of that at Islington.

Kidson also remarks the house was situated "towards the lower end (of the street) not far from the mud which is now so happily covered by the Thames Embankment."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Walsh (Complete Country Dancing-Master, Volume the Fourth), London, 1740; No. 131.

Recorded sources:




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