Annotation:Shepherd's Holiday

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X: 1 T:Shepherd's Holiday. (p)1651.PLFD.091 T:Labour In Vain. (p)1651.PLFD.091 M:6/4 L:1/4 Q:3/4=100 S:Playford, Dancing Master,1st Ed.,1651. O:England H:1651. Z:Chris Partington. F:http://www.john-chambers.us/~jc/music/abc/England/Playford/ShepherdsHoliday_PLFD1651_091.abc K:Bb d|d>ed g3|f3 f e2| d>ed cdB| AGA B/A/B/c/d/e/| f>ed cdB| B>cB B2:||:d|d>ef dcB|f2 d f2 F|B>cd BAG| d2 G d3|G>AB GFE|B3 c>de/f/|d>cB/A/ B>AG|G3 G3:|



SHEPHERD'S HOLIDAY. AKA and see "Labour in Vain". English, Country Dance Tune (6/4 or 6/8 time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody was published by John Playford in his English Dancing Master (1651) and retained in subsequent editions through the 10th, published in 1698 (by his son Henry). Other tunes by this name were printed by John Walsh and the Thompsons. The title probably comes from Ben Johnson's Jacobean era masque, Pans Anniversary, or The Shepherd's Holiday (designed by Indigo Jones), dated variously 1620, 1621 or 1625, or from Joseph Rutter's c. 1630's pastoral The Shepherd's Holiday. The alternate title “Labour in Vain” was also the name of an old tavern in England, whose sign was “illustrated by a woman with a Negro child in a tub, whom she is endeavouring to scour white” (Hackwood, 1909).

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Barnes (English Country Dance Tunes), 1986. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 47 (a facsimile copy of the Playford original). Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909; p. 33.

Recorded sources: - Les Witches - "Nobody's Jig: Mr. Playford's English Dancing Master" (2008).



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