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Annotation:Faraway Wedding (1) (The)
X:1 T:Farraway Wedding [1], The M:9/8 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (1740, p. 49) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:A cAA f2e cAA|cAA f2e gBB|cAA f2e cAA|BGB gae dBB|| c2e fga ecA|c2e fga BGB|c2e fga ecA|BGB g/(a/g/f/e/) dBB|| c2A AcA AcA|c2A AcA BGB|c2A AcA AcA|BGB g(a/g/f/e/) dBB||
FARAWAY WEDDING [1]. AKA - "Far Away Wedding (The)," "Far Awa' Wedding." English, Scottish; Country Dance and (Slip) Jig (9/8 time). England, Northumberland. A Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. It was an old tune by the time the Gows printed it in 1802, and it is interesting to compare their version with Daniel Wright's version in his Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances (printed in London by John Johnson, c. 1740). The versions are harmonically and melodically very similar, but differ in details of melody. Another tune in the same Wright collection, "Border Reel" is a reworking of the same melodic material albeit in 6/8 time, and is consistent with the tune "Faraway Wedding (3) (The)."
Music for "Far Away Wedding" was printed by John Walsh, with dance figures, in The Third Book of the Compleat Country Dancing-Master (London, 1735, reprinted in 1749). The melody was employed in the production Sancho at Court, or the Mock Governor, by Thomas Ayres, staged in London in 1742.
See also the related "How She’ll Ne’er be Guided" and the second strain of "Joyful Days is Coming."
"Faraway Wedding" is one of the "missing tunes" from William Vickers' 1770 Northumbrian dance tune manuscript. However, Vickers' "Scots came over the Border (The)" employs much of the same melodic material.
