The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75559   Message #1328281
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
16-Nov-04 - 03:53 AM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Lump of Pudding (Jig)
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Lump of Pudding (Jig)
It isn't usually claimed as Irish, though it's been suggested that Contentment is Wealth may be based on it, perhaps deriving its title from the song that Burns set to the tune (Contented Wi' Little). As so often happens, there is disgreement over whether it began life as a Scottish or English tune; but it is a matter of record that it appeared in Playford's Dancing Master in 1701; and thereafter all over the place. More information, and an abc of the tune as it appeared in Oswald's Caledonian Pocket Companion (1759/60), can be seen at The Fiddler's Companion, while Playford's notation can be found at The Dancing Master 1651-1728: An Illustrated Compendium.

The tune featured in The Beggar's Opera (1728),and a song from D'Urfey's Pills to Purge Melancholy (1720, vol VI, 300-301) is in the DT: Lumps of Pudding.