Annotation:Lord Nelson's Waltz
X:1 T:Lord Nelson's Waltz M:3/8 L:1/8 R:Waltz B:William Campbell – “Campbell’s 14th Book of New and Favorite Country Dances & B:Strathspey Reels for the Harp, Piano-Forte & Violin, with their Proper Figures, as B:Danced at Court, Bath, Williss’s, & Hanover Square Rooms” (Soho, London, c. 1799, p. 3) F: https://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/usimg/9/9a/IMSLP655932-PMLP1052069-campbells12thboo00camp.pdf Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:C V:1 (3G,/A,/B,/|CCC|C/B,/D/B,/G,|CCC|C/B,/D/B,/G,|CEG|ceg|g/f/e/d/c/B/|c2:| |:z|e2g|g2e|aaf|gge|ceg|gge|fdB|c2:| P:Harp Solo K:F [Ac]|[Ac][FA][GB]|[Ac][Bd][ce]|{g}[df][ce][Bd]|{d}[A2c2][Ac]|[GB][GB]c|[FA][FA]c|[GB][GB]c|[F2A2]c| [Ac][FA][GB]|[Ac][Bd][ce]|{g}[df][ce][Bd]|[A2c2][A/c/]c/|[GB][GB][E/G/]B/|[FA][FA] F/A/|BG[CE]|[A,2F2]|| V:2 clef = bass z|C,E,C,|G,G,,z|C,E,C, |G,G,,z|C,2E,|E,2C,|E,G,G,,|C,C,,:| |:z|C,2C|C2C,|F,2A,|C2z|C,2C|C2C,|D,2G,|C,2:| K:F z|F,,F,F,|F,,F,F,|F,,F,F,|F,,F,z|E,C,E,|F,F,,F,|E,C,E,|F,2z| F,,F,F,|F,,F,F,|F,,F,F,|F,,F,z|[C,E,G,C][C,E,G,C]z|[F,,A,,C,F,][F,,A,,C,F,]z|B,,2C,|F,F,,||
LORD NELSON'S WALTZ. AKA - "Nelson's Waltz." English, Waltz (3/8 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. This early waltz appears in William Campbell's Campbell’s 14th Book of New and Favorite Country Dances & Strathspey Reels (London, c. 1799), Gilfert's Gentleman's Pocket Companion for the German Flute or Violin (New York, 1802) and Thomas Ball's The Gentleman's Amusement Book 2 (Nofolk, c. 1815), and in several British musicians' music manuscript collections of the early 19th century, including those of Thomas Sands and William Mittell (1799, New Romney, Kent). Stephen Campell finds it in an anonymous early 19th century English musician's manuscript set in the key of 'G', for the flute (as "Nelson's Waltz"). The waltz dance was introduced to England from the Continent in the latter 18th century, and the couples form was still considered a risque dance form in 1802, just prior to its fashionable adoption in the Regency period. Associating the waltz with Horatio Nelson was perhaps not simply because he was a national hero. Nelson had been carrying on a widely publicized affair with Emma Hamilton, wife of a British diplomat and ambassador, and was considered quite scandalous despite Nelson's martial achievements.
Campbell's setting is unique in that it specifies a "Harp Solo" for the third strain. Indications are that Campbell was friends with the Weippert family, and a number of Weippert compositions or tunes named for them are to be found in Campbell's collections. They were a musical clan whose sion, Johann Erhardt Weippert (1766-1823) had emigrated at an early age from Germany to become a naturalized British citizen. He was a composer and a harpist, and it is possible that he is associated in some way with Campbell's 'harp solo' in the waltz[1].
