Annotation:New Cossak (The)

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NEW COSSAK, THE. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The melody appears in Hodsoll's Collection of Popular Dances No. 24, an undated manuscript containing tunes with Napoleonic-era titles and simple dance instructions for each melody.

Frank Kidson has this to say of the publisher, in his British Music Publishers, Printers and Engravers (1900) [1]:

Hodsoll, William. A music seller who in 1794 was at Seven Oaks, Kent, and who about or prior to the year 1800 entered into the premises formerly occupied by John Bland, at 45, Holborn. His name is in the directory for 1800 till at least 1830. He issued sheet music and sets of yearly country dances in the usual form, oblong 8vo and oblong 4to. He published also two thin folio volumes entitled "Terpsichore's Gift," the work consists of his separately published sheet songs and pieces. Another of his publications, in oblong quarto, bears the same title and allegorical vignette.

The tune may predate Hodsoll, however. "New Cossack Dance (The)" in 2/4 time was printed in London in 1775 by Longman, Lukey & Broderip in their Bride's Favorite Collection of Two Hundred Select Country Dances (section 3, p. 2), and may be the same melody.

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