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Annotation:New May Moon
X:51 T:Irish Wedding,The. RH.051 T:New May Moon,aka. RH.051 T:Young May Moon,aka. RH.051 R:Jig S:Rev.R.Harrison's MS,c1815,Cumbria O:England A:Temple Sowerby,Cumbria Z:vmp.Simon Wilson. Review PJH, 2008. M:6/8 L:1/8 Q:3/8=120 K:D d|d2B AFA|B2A ABc|d2d efg|f2d def|! g2g f2f|efd cBA|Bcd AFA|B2A A2:|! |:f/g/|a2a fdf|aba fdf|a2g fdf|g2e efg|! afa geg|fed cBA|Bcd AFA|B2A A2:|
NEW MAY MOON. AKA and see "Old Figary O'," "Young May Moon (The)." English, Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). England; Lincolnshire, Yorkshire. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Once a very popular tune in both England and Ireland. It appears in several English musicians' manuscripts from the first half of the 19th century, particularly from the North West. Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852) employed the melody for his song "The Young May Moon," and the jig is known in County Leitrim as "The Old Figaree/Figary." The melody appears in the old music manuscript of Yorkshire musician George Spencer as "The Young May Moon."
An old superstition in Sussex holds that the new May moon, aided by certain charms, has the power of curing scrofulous complaints (Charlotte Latham, "Some West Sussex Superstitions Lingering in 1868," The Folk-Lore Record for 1878, p. 45).
