Annotation:Copenhagen Waltz
X:1 T:Danish or Copenhagen Waltz M:3/8 L:1/8 R:Waltz B:William Cahusac – The German Flute Preceptor (c. 1814, p. 21) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D f/<a/|g/<a/ f/<a/ e/<a/|f/<a/ d d/<f/|e/<g/ A c/<e/|d/>f/ A f/<a/|g/>b/ f/<a/ e/<g/| f/<a/ d d/<f/|e/>g/ A c/>e/|d2::f/<a/|e/<g/ A c/<e/|d/<f/ A f/<a/|e/<g/ A c/<e/| d/<f/ A f/<a/|g/<b/ f/<a/ e/<g/|f/<a/ d d/<f/|e/<g/ A c/<e/|d2:| |:a|baf|d2a|baf|e2a|baf|(d/c/d/f/a/f/)|(e/^d/e/f/g/e/)|d2:|
COPENHAGEN WALTZ. AKA - "Danish Waltz." English, Scottish, American; Waltz (3/4 or 3/8 time). G Major (O'Farrell, Raven): C Major (Howe/Accordeon, Linscott, Plain Brown): D Major (Ashman, Doyle, Howe/Diamond, Kennedy, Kerr, Miller, Riley, Sumner). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC (Doyle): AABBC (Howe/Accordeon): AABBCC (most versions). "('Copenhagen Waltz' is a) ...melody characteristic of the 18th century, says Linscott, although in fact it was a quite popular tune dating from the beginnings of the fad for waltzes in the early part of the 19th century. It may be even earlier. Danish fiddle player Harald Haugaard has found the tune in the 1790 music notebook of Erik Hensen (Skanderborg, Jutland) where is is called "Vals som er ganske ny" (A somewhat new waltz), and a number of versions are known in Danish spillemand music, including "Meget Gammel Vals " (A Very Old Waltz) from Vendsyssel (Jutland) or "Avet Vals" from Taasinge (an island off Funen)[1]. The melody appears in numerous British fiddlers' manuscripts throughout the 19th century as it was, for example, in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter, a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England. The waltz was even collected in tradition as late as the 1950's, in Yorkshire (the fiddle playing of Billy Pennock, recorded in 1953 by PK Goathland).
Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin records that the waltz was known also to have been in the repertoire of Welsh Gypsy harpers, including John Roberts (known as Telynor Cymru, 'the harpist of Wales') in whose 1872 music manuscript can be found a version of the tune[2].
