Annotation:Madrigal (The)
X:1 T:Madrigal, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Country Dance N:"Siciliano" B:James Aird - Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3 (Glasgow, 1788, No. 224, p. 163) N:"Humbly dedicated to the Volunteers and Defensive Bands of Great Britain and Ireland" Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C G|c2c cBA|G2G G2G|A2d BAB|c2c c2G| c2c cBA|G2G G2G|A2d BAB|c2c c2:| |:G|d2f e2c|BAB c2G|d2f e2c|BAB cec|A2A cBA| G2E G2G|c2c edc|g2g gec|A2A BAB|c2c c2:|]
MADRIGAL, THE. AKA and see "Miss More of Raedens Favorite Dance." Scottish, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Aird printed the word "Siciliano" with the tune, implying this was one of the 'foreign airs' in his 1788 volume. The Madrigal was originally an Italian country dance with singing; grandually, the singing took precedence and developed into a brisk part-singing form, usually with a rather simply stated melody to which ever-more intricate variations were appended.
Aird's publication of the tune was predated by printings in Preston & Son's A New and Complete Tutor for the Violoncello (London, 1785, pp. 18-19) and Samuel, Ann and Peter Thompson's Compleat Instuctions for the Clarinet (London, 1785). Thomas Cahusac also printed the tune the same year as did Aird, in the former's The Compleat Tutor for the German Flute (London, 1788). It continued to be included in various tutors and collections for the next twenty years. Archibald Duff included it in his c. 1812 Choice Selection under the title "Miss More of Raedens Favorite Dance."
The tune's popularity is also attested by its inclusion in many musicians' manuscripts of the era, including flute player Micah Hawkin's copybook (New York, 1794), keyboard player Elizabeth Van Rensselaer manuscript (Boston, 1782), George Otis manuscript (Worcester, Mass., 1793), William Adams (London & U.S., 1795), Josiah Adams (Framingham, Mass., 1808), clarinet player John Williams (Salem, New York, 1799), Betsy Perkins (Litchfield, Conn., 1800), and Ensign Thomas Molyneaux (Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1788). The tune was also entered in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter (1774-1861), a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset, southwest England.
