Annotation:Odiham Races

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ODIHAM RACES. English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. One of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript. It does appear in Thompson's Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3, printed by Charles and Samuel Thompson in London c. 1772. As with numerous other melodies from the Thompson's 1773 collection, it was entered into the 1788 music manuscript copybook of fiddlers John and William Pitt Turner (Norwich, Conn.).

Odiham is a village in north Hampshire, about 45 miles west of London, near which is located the site of a racecourse that existed from 1760-1875. Horse races were run on a heath in the month of June.

There are similarities in the first strain with "Ladies March" and "Ymdaith Caerffili" (Caerphilly March).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Thompson (Twenty-Four Country Dances for the Year 1770), 1770; p. 66. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 3), 1773; No. 120.

Recorded sources:

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