Find traditional instrumental music
X:1
T:Roving Sailor [3]
M:2/4
L:1/8
Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion
K:G
(3A/B/c/ | d>B GA | BB (3B/c/B/A | d>B GA | Be eg |
d>B GA | BB (3B/c/B/A | G>g fg | ed e :|
|: z | d>g fg | ed (3B/c/B/A | G>g fg | af az |
d>g fg | e>d eg | d>B GA | Be e :|]
ROVING SAILOR [3], THE. AKA and see "Rolling Sailor (The)," "Sailor's Return (4)." American (?), March or Polka. G Major/E Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune was printed in Alvan Robinson Jr.'s Massachusetts collection of martial musick: containing a plain, easy and concise introduction to the grounds of martial musick (Exeter N.H., 1820, p. 46) as "Sailor's Return (4)," and in Elias Howe's Musician's Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (Boston, 1880-1882, p. 604) as "Rolling Sailor (The)."
Additional notes
Source for notated version : - the 1938 typewritten manuscript of New Hampshire fiddler John Taggart (1854-1943), entitled “Recollections of a Busy Life” (New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, N.H.). Taggart wrote in his ms. that the tunes “were all taught me during my boyhood days in Sharon (N.H.), by the various fiddlers in that vicinity” [Miller]. Miller points out that Sharon is in “the heart of the Monadnock Region of southwestern New Hampshire, where fiddlers and contra dances abound to this day” (pref. iv) [Miller].
Printed sources : - Miller (Fiddler’s Throne), 2004; No. 255, p. 207. Sweet (Fifer’s Delight), 1965/1981; p. 41.
Recorded sources : - New Hampshire Fiddler’s Union, Miller & Peery – “The Music of John Taggart” (1989). North Star Records NS0038, "The Village Green: Dance Music of Old Sturbridge Village."
Back to Roving Sailor (3) (The)
