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Annotation:Old Morpeth Rant
X: 1 T:Old Morpeth Rant T:Morpeth Rant - Old R:Hornpipe C:Trad. O:England, North Z:Paul Hardy's Session Tunebook 2014 (see www.paulhardy.net). M:4/4 L:1/8 Q:1/4=160 K:G DE/F/|"G"G2DC B,G,B,D|"C"ECEG "D"FDFA|"G"BGcA dBAG|"D7"F2A2 A2 GF| "G"G2DC B,G,B,D|"C"ECEG "D"FDFA|"G"Ggfe "D7"dcBA|"G"G2G2 G2:| |:ef|"G"gdBG "D7"FAce|"G"dBAG "Em"GFED|"Am"cAcA "G"BGBG|"D"F2D2"Dm"D2=F2| "C"ECEG "Am"cBAG|"D"FDFA dcBA|"G"Ggfe "D7"dcBA|"G"G2 G2 G2:|
OLD MORPETH RANT. AKA and see "Morpeth Rant (2)." English, Reel or Hornpipe. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. One of many versions of the well-known Northumberland tune "Morpeth Rant (1)," different especially in second strain. The 'rant' of the title refers to a dance step. See note for "Annotation:Morpeth Rant (1)" and "Annotation:Morpeth Rant (2)" for more. Paul Hardy finds a version of "Old Morpeth Rant" in an untitled hornpipe in the 1858 music manuscript collection of William Clarke [1] (Feltwell, Norfolk) (No. 113, p. 52). The Morpeth Rant was the name of a dance, for which various tunes and tune variants were played over many years; thus there are a number of tunes called "Morpeth Rant" or "Old Morpeth Rant" that have varying degrees of similarity.
The American reel "Old Time Billy in the Lowground" seems to have been derived from "Old Morpeth Rant," particularly in the first strain. The second strain of the American tune is less clearly related, but retains a general similarity to the Northumbrian tune.
