Annotation:Windsor Forest

Find traditional instrumental music


Back to Windsor Forest


X:1 T:Windsor Forest M:C L:1/8 B:Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2 (London, 1765) Z:Transcribed and edited by Fynn Titford-Mock, 2007 Z:abc’s:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Bb BdfB AcfA|Ge/d/ cB AGFE|DFBD CEAc|{Bc}d2 FA B2 B,2:| |:BdfB AcfA|Gf=ef (g/f/=e/d/) cB|AcfA Gf=eg|(f/g/a) c=e f2 F2| dfbd cbac|Bg/f/ e/d/c/B/ AGFE|DFBD CBAc|{Bc}d2 FA B2 B,2:||



WINDSOR FOREST. English, Country Dance Tune (whole time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB.

John Linnell (1792-1882), Woodcutters in Windsor Forest

Windsor Forest was a royal forest and hunting preserve that at one time covered most of Berkshire, England. In 1713 Alexander Pope published a topographical poem called Windsor Forest that reflects British history and politics within its 422 lines. Pope (who grew up near Windsor Forest) described it but filled it with allusions to historical events, wars, people and places throughout.

The melody was printed in numerous publications in the mid-latter 18th century, including David Rutherford’s Choice Collection of Sixty of the Most Celebrated Country Dances (London, 1750, and in a second volume in 1760), John Johnson’s Two Hundred Favourite Country Dances, vol. 7 (London, 1756), Charles and Samuel Thompson’s 1765 country dance collection, and Neil Stewart’s Select Collection of Scots, English, Irish and Foreign Airs (Edinburgh, 1788). In addition, it appears in the music manuscipt collections of London musician Thomas Hammersley (1790), Northumbrian musician William Vickers (1770, as "Winser Forest"), and Buckingham County, Virginia, fiddler Linnaeus Bolling (1785).


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Hime (Forty Eight Original Irish Dances Never Before Printed with Basses, vol. 1), Dublin, 1804; No. 20. Rutherford (Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 Country Dances, vol. 2), 1760; p. 59. Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 193.






Back to Windsor Forest

0.00
(0 votes)