Annotation:Vulcan's Cave

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VULCAN'S CAVE. AKA and see "Bunty's Ghost," "Cabbages and Onions," "Cannibal Islands (The)," "Cotton Lords of Preston," "Cumberland Reel (1)," "Deux Rivales (Les)," "Double-dee-Doubt," "Ghost that Haunted Bunty (The)," "Handcart Song (The)," "Hilly-Go Filly-Go All the Way," "Hokee Pokee Wonkee Fum," "King of the Cannibal Islands," "Nottingham Swing," "Phillebelula All the Way," "Stanla Markit," "Stanley Market." English, Jig (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Vulcan's Cave" was a popular melody in England going by several names. However, it was composed and first published by a musician from Bath, England, by the name of John Charles White (1795-1845), who published it as the second figure (l'Ete) in his White's Third Set of Quadrilles (1815) where it is called "Les Deux Rivales." John Charles was a member of a family of musicians and music sellers in Bath; his father, John White, was a performer at the Pump-room at Bath, and ran the family retail music business assisted by his sons. John Charles was by all accounts a very talented and accomplished musician at a young age, and a prolific composer of country dances^[1].

White later adapted "Les Deux Rivales" as a country dance, publishing it as:

The celebrated dance of Vulcan’s Cave, introduced at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, performed at the Amicable Society’s Balls, Willis’s Rooms, and all Fashionable assemblies in London, Bath, Cheltenham, Brighton etc. Originally composed as the Quadrille of Les Deux Rivales in White’s third set, and now adapted as a Country Dance, by John Charles White. Bath, published at White’s, Music & Piano Forte Warehouses, 1, Milsom Street & 3, George Street.

The melody appears under the title "Vulcan's Cave" in the music manuscript copybooks of several English musicians from the early-to-mid 19th century.

Some of the alternate titles are the names of songs set to the tune, the most popular of which was "King of the Cannibal Islands". It is possible that "Vulcan's Cave" was also turned into a song. There is a fragment of a song entitled "Vulcan's Cave" printed in George Coward's The Songs and Ballads of Cumberland (1874, No. 221), although whether there is any association with the country dance tune is unknown.

How we work, like jovial fellows,
Drink and sing and blow the bellows,
When hissing sparks around us fly,
And lips are parch'd and throats are dry,
Then, then's the time to wet your eye,
And blow, blow the bellows. — (Blows) —
Twank-a-dillo, twank-a-dillo,
Twank-a-dillo — dillo — ditto ;
And we play'd our merry pipes
Down by the green willow.

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↑ The White family was involved in an early and interesting copyright case involving another of John Charles White's compositions, "Captain Wyke," named in honor of a Master of Ceremonies at the Bath Rooms. The case involved a number of London country dance figures of importance of the time and seems to have been closely followed by music sellers and publishers. See Paul Cooper's article "White vs. Gerock, 1818", Paper 14, at regencydaces.org [1].

[1] The White family was involved in an early and interesting copyright case involving another of John Charles White's compositions, "Captain Wyke," named in honor of a Master of Ceremonies at the Bath Rooms. The case involved a number of London country dance figures of importance of the time and seems to have been closely followed by music sellers and publishers. See Paul Cooper's article "White vs. Gerock, 1818", Paper 14, at regencydaces.org [1].

[1]