Annotation:Barr a Barr

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BARR A BARR. AKA and see "Windsor Tarras," "Windsor Terrace (1)." English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). D Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The melody, with country dance directions ("Longways, for as many as will"), was published in the first two editions of London publisher John Young's Second Volume of the Dancing Master [1] (1710 and 1714), and in John Walsh's New Country Dancing Master...Second Book (1710).

A 'Barr' was a raised estuary sandbank often used for walking on in the 17th century. However, the title probably refers to Barabar (or Bar-a-bar), a red wine from Mediteranean regions now known as Barbara. Graham Christian (2015) says the popular wine was "the specialty of Thomas Tomkins, who sold it at Lloyd's Coffee-House on Lombard Street, as well as an anonymous merchant who sold at the Black Lion and promised a brew "neat, deep, fresh, and strong, no Bar-a-Bar in England so good."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Christian (A Playford Assembly), 2015; p. 4. Young (The Second Volume of the Dancing Master, vol. 1), 1710; p. 144.

Recorded sources:




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