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Annotation:Fifer's Delight (The)
X:1 T:Untitled T:Fifer’s Delight, The M:6/8 L:1/8 R: S: Seth Johnson – Woburn Fife Manuscript (c. 1807-40?, p. 33) N:The tune is categorized as a march only due to its inclusion N:in a fifer’s ms., however the Woburn Fife Manuscript also contains N:dance tunes that may or may not have been employed as marches. Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G d|g>fe e>dB|g>fg G>Bd|g>fe e>dB|d>BA A2d| g>fe e>dB|g>fg a2b|g>fe e>fg|d>BA A2:| |:(3A/B/c/|d2B d2B|g>fg G>AB|d2B d2B|e>cA A2 (3A/B/c/| d2B d2B|g>fg a2b|g>fe e>fg|d>BGA A2:| |:d|g>dB g>dB|g>fg G>Bd|g>dB g>dB|e>cA A2d| gdB gdB|g>fg a2b|g>fe e>fg|d>BA A2:|]
FIFER'S DELIGHT, THE. AKA and see "Beer and Ale and Brandy", "Black Rogue (2)," "Bundle and Go (6)," "Carle's Cows (The)," "Wee Wee Man (The)," "When I was a Younker." American, Jig or March (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (most versions): AABBCC (Woburn Fife). This 6/8 melody appears in "A. Shattuck's Book," a music manuscript commonplace book compiled by Abel Shattuck(1759-1816) of Colrain, Massachusetts, supplemented by Park Shattuck. It was compiled around the year 1800. The tune appears as an untitled march in three parts in the Woburn (Mass.) Fife Manuscript, a ms. collection inscribed with the the name Seth Johnson and "Woburn. April 20th day, 1807. I Bought this Book, 5:3." Entries were made between 1807 and as late as 1840. There are other, different, tunes with the title "Fifer's Delight". See also Irish versions of the tune under the alternate titles above, and the Scottish "Carle's Cows (The)" from the 1848 bagpipe collection of Glasgow piper, pipe teacher and pipe-maker William Gunn.
