Annotation:Enrico
X:1 T:Enrico M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance Tune B:William Cahusac – The German Flute Preceptor (c. 1814, p. 18) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D A|df/e/ d/c/d/B/|AA FF|df/e/ d/e/f/d/|e2 {^g}a2| df/e/ d/c/d/B/|AA FF|df/e/ f/d/e/c/|ddd:| |:f/g/|aa/g/ ff/e/|dd/e/ f/d/e/f/|g/a/g/f/ e/f/e/d/|c/d/e/c/ AA| Ad c/e/c/A/|Ad c/e/c/A/|Ad c/e/c/A/|Add:|]
ENRICO. AKA – "Henryco," "Water Loo Fair." AKA and see "Fountain's Hornpipe," "Jacob," "Merry Quick Steps," "Reel de la jument grise." English, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. In England (where it has for years been extremely popular in sessions) “Enrico” is now usually played as a reel or hornpipe, but evidence suggests it was originally a march. Older hornpipe versions did exist, however.
The two strains of "Enrico/Jacob" are found in Ireland (e.g. Roche Collection, vol. 3, no. 198, p.77), preceded by a first strain from the march "Dog and Gun", patched together as an Irish march under the title of “Mountcashel's Brigade”. Fr. John Quinn finds cognates in the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork uillean piper and cleric James Goodman under the title Fountain's Hornpipe
(AKA "Miss Lacey's") and as an untitled tune in the 1883 music manuscript collection of County Leitrim fiddler and piper Stephen Grier.
Montreal fiddler Joseph Allard recorded a version of "Enrico" in 1931 under the title "Reel de la jument grise"
<div class="mw-ext-score" data-midi="/w/images/lilypond/d/9/d91pn62fjqnhhrw9olstmr0p0161sks/d91pn62f.midi"><img src="/w/images/lilypond/d/9/d91pn62fjqnhhrw9olstmr0p0161sks/d91pn62f.png" width="697" height="97" alt="
X:1
T:Reel de la jument grise
M:C|
L:1/8
R:Reel
K:D
A2|d2 fe dcdB|ABAG F2A2|d2 fe d2f2|e2a2 agfe|
"/></div> (Gray Mare Reel).
The tune appears in the Thomas Hardy MSS, where the famous author, for reasons which are not apparent, also bestows the alternative title of “Jacob” on it. It was said to have been his favourite tune (although “Soldier’s Joy” is also credited as such). The title appears in Hardy's (who was also an accomplished accordion player and fiddler) drama The Dynasts:
Let us go and look at the dancing. It is 'Voulez-vous danser'
– no, it is not, – it is 'Enrico' – two ladies between two gentlemen.
According to Hardy's biography, the four-year old Hardy would sometimes burst into tears when his father played this and other tunes to him on the fiddle. Hardy, around the year 1925, wrote that "Enrico" was the usual vehicle for the country dance called Bonnets of Blue, or in Dorset when he was young, Hands Across. In his novel Under the Greenwood Tree the dance is described (but not named) as the one in which Shiner refuses to cast off (E.F.D.S. News, No. 12, Sept., 1926). The 19th century Welch family (Bosham, Sussex) music manuscripts gives the alternate title "Water Loo Fair" (whilst calling "Enrico" by the name "Henryco"). The Rev. Robert Harrison (Brampton, Cumbria, 1820) music manuscript gives the title as "Errico," and W. Cock's (Northumberland) manuscript collection has it as "Henrico." James Haslingden (Midlands?, 1827), Miss Best (c. 1850), and a manuscript of unknown date and origin (called MS36) all contain the melody under the "Enrico" title. A 2/4 time version of the tune may also be found in the mid-19th century music manuscript (p. 101) of William Winter (1774-1861), a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England. It appears there as "Merry Quick Steps," reinforcing the tune's dual use as a march.
