Annotation:Tray Ace
X:1 T:Tray Ace M:C| L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (1740, p. 63) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D A4c4|d4f4|e2d2c2d2|edcB c2B2|A4 c4|e4 b4| ag f2 gf e2|d8::F2A2d4|F2A2d4|F2A2E2A2| F2A2A,2A2|G2A2 d4|F2A2d2B2|F2F2G2E2|D8:|]
TRAY ACE. English, Country Dance Tune (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Tray Ace" was printed by London music publisher John Walsh in his Second Book of the Compleat Country Dancing Master, 3rd Edition (c. 1735, p. 60, reprinted in 1749), and in publisher John Johnson's Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (c. 1740, p. 63). 'Tray' is a variant spelling of 'trey', meaning a three of cards. We can assume the title has to do with a card game, perhaps the tavern game of Put, in which the three, the highest card, trumps the ace.
Scottish musician and dancing master David Young entered a tune with a similar title, "Tres Ace" in his Drummond Castle Manuscript (1734), but it is musically unrelated to Walsh's tune.
