New publication: second supplement to British Dance and Song

English, Scotch, and Irish Dance and Song: Supplement 2 was just published on Texas Scholar Works. Here is the link: supplement 2. And here is the abstract:

Another supplement to the essay English, Scotch, and Irish Dance and Song, which is primarily a documentation of rising cadence figures in dances, fiddle tunes, and songs from late eighteenth and early nineteenth century published sources. Gathered here are an additional 70 examples taken from files downloaded in May and June 2017.

More on "The Moon and Seven Stars" (Calvert manuscript book)

I was surprised to learn that "The Moon and Seven Stars" is a common fiddling tune. I was not surprised to find that the first C# in the final bar of the Calvert manuscript version is very likely a copying error. In notated versions readily available online, the end of both strains is identical: A-D-C#-D. See, for example, Seven Stars or listen to David Hansen. In this performance, Anahata mixes "The Moon and Seven Stars" and another tune called the "Spanish jig" and, just after the minute mark, closes the first tune with what sounds like a mistake, either D-D-C#-D or C#-D-C#-D. It is anomalous but makes perfectly good musical sense -- that is, it seems to realize the ascending line implicit in the consequent phrase, as I argued in my original post.

A dance from the William Calvert ms. booklet

One page from a manuscript fiddler's tune book that, according to its IMSLP entry, dates from 1812. The tune at the top is "The Moon and Seven Stars" -- see the facsimile. It is a jig in two strains, the first of which holds close to the ^5-^8 interval frame it announces immediately, the second of which realizes a rising figure within that space, a figure that was possible but remained unrealized in the first strain. See the second graphic, an analysis with comments; and also the third graphic, which shows the interval spaces (proto-backgrounds).

Facsimile:

 Analysis:

Proto-background (intervallic) spaces: