Annotation:Rakes of Rochester (The)
X:1 T:Rakes of Rochester M:2/4 L:1/8 B:Walsh - Caledonian Country Dances (c. 1737, No. 319, p. 59) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A V:1 e/d/|c A2 E|F2 EA|GAdc|B/A/G/F/ Ee/d/|c A2 E|F2 EA|GA c/B/A/G/|{G}A3:| |:B|c2 Be|c2 Bd|cB/A/ GA|B/A/G/F/ EB|c2 Be|c2 Bd|cB/A/ BA/G/|{G}A3:| V:2 clef=bass z|A,2C2|D2 CA,|B,A,G,A,|E,2 z2|A,2C2|D2C2|B,A, E,E,,|A,,3:| |:z|A,2G,2|A,2E,2|A,2 E,F,|E,2 z2|A,2G,2|A,2E,2|A,2E,2|A,,3:|]
RAKES OF ROCHESTER. English, Country Dance Tune (2/4 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. A very popular English country dance. The melody was first printed by John Walsh in his Caledonian Country Dances, vol. II (c. 1737), and later in his Fourth Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1747). It was followed by inclusion in John Johnson's Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 4 (London, 1748). “Rakes of Rochester” also appears in the music manuscript copybooks of London fiddlers Walter Rainstorp (1747) and Thomas Hammersley (1790), English musician John Shepherd (1787), and 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.
Rochester is a town in Kent, one of a number of towns throughout Britain and Ireland whose rowdy young gentlemen were celebrated in "Rakes of...." tune titles.
