format…

We delve into the history of the tune…

“The music notation appears on its own within music collections, starting with Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, 1770-1785. The tune was still popular in England into the mid 1800s, as it makes a cameo appearance in Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd…”

We look at the dances and dancers associated with the tune…

“Jockey to the Fair features in three separate dance traditions; English country dancing, Morris dancing, and Irish step dancing. Jockey to the Fair was published in Skillern’s Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1780, with dance instructions…”

We provide the staff notation for the tune…

Where a song is linked to the set dance, we include its lyrics too…

“Twas on the morn of sweet May-day,
When Nature painted all things gay;
Taught birds to sing and lambs to play,
And deck’d the meadows fair:
Young Jockey, early in the morn,
 Arose and tripp’d it o’er the lawn; 
His Sunday coat the youth put on, 
For Jenny had vow’d away to run
With Jockey, to the Fair…”

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