Annotation:Sukey bids me
X:1 T:Sukey bids me M:C L:1/8 R:Country Dance Tune B:Hinton - Universal Magazine of Knowledge and B:Pleasure (December, 1749, p. 280) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G G2 DE G2e2|dBAG AFED|G2 DE G2e2|dBcA G4:| d2 Bc d2g2|fafe ege^c|d2 Bc d2g2|fae^c d4| dgfe dcBA|B2 BG AFED|G2 DE G2e2|dBcA G4||
SUKEY BIDS ME. AKA - "Sucky bids Me,” “Suky bids Me." AKA and see “Miss Connell's Reel” Scottish, English, American; Reel. England; Northumberland, Cumbria, Lincolnshire, London, Somerset. USA, New England. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Athole, Gow, Kerr, Vickers): AABB (Cole, Thompson, White). The melody appears earliest in English publications such as John Hinton's Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure (Dec., 1749, p. 280), John Johnson's 200 Country Dances (1751), The Imperial Magazine (1761), and David Rutherford's 200 Country Dances (1756, p. 25). It was also entered into the music commonplace book of Walter Rainstorp, dated 1747--Rainstorp was a musician from Cheapside, London. The tune was contained in the Northumbrian music manuscript collection of John Smith, dated 1752, which is unfortunately now lost. The contents of Smith's ms. were copied by 19th century folk-music collector John Stokoe in 1887, when the manuscript was in the possession of Lewis Proudlock. Stokoe's volume Northumbrian Minstrelsy had been printed five year prior, and his interest in Smith’s ms. demonstrates Stokoe's continuing commitment to older Northumbrian music. The Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768), gives an early Scottish version, and it was entered by Cumbrian musician John Rook into his 1840 manuscript collection. In America, “Sukey” appears in the Walpole, New Hampshire, Collection of Contra Dances of Late, Approved, and Fashionable Figures (1799), and dance directions with the tune also appear in Clement Weeks' Greenland, New Hampshire, dance MS copybook of 1783 (p. 20). Elizabeth Van Rensselaer included it in Boston in her music copybook, 1782. The melody also appears in the late 18th century manuscript copybook of Henry Livingston, Jr. Livingston purchased the estate of Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1771 at the age of 23. In 1775 he was a Major in the 3rd New York Regiment, which participated in Montgomery’s invasion of Canada in a failed attempt to wrest Québec from British control. An important land-owner in the Hudson Valley, and a member of the powerful Livingston family, Henry was also a surveyor and real estate speculator, an illustrator and map-maker, and a Justice of the Peace for Dutchess County. He was also a musician and presumably a dancer, as he was elected a Manager for the New York Assembly’s dancing season of 1774-1775, along with his 3rd cousin, John Jay, later U.S. Chief Justice of Governor of New York.
