Annotation:Nymph (The)
X:1 T:Nymph, The M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance Tune B:Gow - 2nd Collection of Niel Gow's Reels, 3rd ed., p. 36 (orig. 1788) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C cTc/B/ cG|cege|fdTcB|(c/B/c/d/) cG|cTc/B/ cG|cege|fdTcB|{B}c2 c2:| |:(fe) e2|(dc) Tc2|Bcde|(f/g/f/e/) d2|(fe) e2|(dc) Tc2|ec (e/d/)c/B/|{B}c2 c2:| |:e3g|{B}c3e|(^cdf)d|{c}B2 AG|{c}B2 AG|Tc2 de|f3e|dc {e}dc/B/|{B}c2 c2:|]
NYMPH, THE. Scottish, English; Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). D Major (Aird, Huntington/Litten, Manson, Wilson): C Major (Dale, Gow, Thompson): G Major (Sumner). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Huntington/Litten): AABBCC (Dale, Gow, Manson, Sumner/Gibbons). A very popular country dance tune judging from its many appearances in late 18th-early 19th published collections and musicians' manuscript copybooks. It was also apparently frequently employed as a marching air, from its inclusion in fifing publications and manuscripts. The Gows printed the melody in their 3rd Collection (1788) in a section of country dances fashionable in Edinburgh in the 1787–88 season. Amateur musician Joshua Gibbons (Lincolnshire) set the tune originally in the key of 'C' major in his music manuscript, although John Carter (England) set his in the key of 'D' in his 1792 copybook, as did William Brown (Romford, England) in his 1797 commonplace book. "The Nymph" can also be found 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.
The tune appears in American musicians' manuscript as well--Eleazer Cary's c. 1797–1799 copybook (Mansfield, Connecticut), for example, and William Patten's music manuscript book (perhaps from Philadelphia, Pa., c. 1800). It was included in America in Norris & Sawyer's Village Fifer, published in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1808.
