The Cuckoo's Nest
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Cuckoo's Nest" is an English reel and morris dance tune in 4/4 time and<br> G Major (Longborough, Ilmington versions), G Minor/Dorian (Bacon & Raven-Bledington version) or<br> E Minor (Mallinson-Bledington). The parts are played AABA (Bacon-Longborough), AAB, x4, AA<br> (Ilmington, Longborough), AABBCC (Raven-Bledington), AABB,AABB,AACC,AACC,AA (Bacon &<br> Mallinson-Bledington).<br> The version given here is the Bledington version.<br> It is sometimes known as "The Old Cuckoo's Nest" to differentiate it from what is perceived as<br> newer airs with that title.<br> "The Cuckoo's Nest" has had great currency as a morris dance tune from many villages of England's<br> Cotswold region; it is melodically similar in the areas of Ilmington, Longborough and Bledington<br> although it has a wide variation in other locales. John Kirkpatrick (1976) notes that the<br> Longborough dancers were particularly proud of their jumps which occur after every bar of<br> stepping and that the music should reflect and allow for this practice.<br> In folksong, the 'cuckoo's nest' is sometimes a euphemism for female genetilia (Simpson & Roud,<br> Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, 2000).<br> It was printed in Bacon's A Handbook of Morris Dances (1974),<br> Mallinson's Mally's Cotswold Morris Book, vol. 1 (1988),<br> Mallinson's Mally's Cotswold Morris Book, vol. 2 (1988 and<br> Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984)(two versions).<br> It was recorded by Hutchings et al on Morris On (1983/1972) and<br> John Kirkpatrick onPlain Capers (1976/1992).<br>
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