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"Saturday night and Sunday morn" is an English country dance tune in 6/8 time and
D Major. The parts are played AB.
The melody was published by John Playford in the first edition of The English Dancing Master (1651) and was retained in every subsequent edition through the 18th and final edition of 1728 (when it was published by John Young, heir to the Playford publishing concerns). "Saturday Night and Sunday Morn" was also printed by rival publisher John Walsh (father and son) in all editions of their Compleat Country Dancing Master, beginning in 1718. It was a survivor in widespread oral tradition in Cotswold morris dancing several hundred years later, with a Longborough version being called “The Marriage Vow”. It was printed in Barnes' English Country Dance Tunes (1986), Elias Howe's Musician’s Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7 (1880-1882), Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984) and Sharp's Country Dance Tunes (1909). It was recorded by The Playford Players on Come in from the Rain (1985), Brass Monkey on Flame of Fire (2004) and The New York Renaissance Band on Country Capers: Music from Playford's The English Dancing Master (2008). |