Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 01:33 PM

Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Forty Thieves: A Grand Melo-Dramatic Romance was staged at around the time (or a bit earlier; I haven't found a firm date so far) that Morgiana tunes began to appear. The show certainly involved songs and incidental music (examples can be seen at Levy), though I don't think any are the Morgiana that John Clare knew. There may be a connection; there may not. It seems like a possibility worth exploring further, at any rate.

The Morgiana in... tunes would be commercial spin-offs from Morgiana, I suspect, and adopted into tradition in England and Ireland pretty much simultaneously from the stage, concert-hall or assembly-rooms.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 12:30 PM

Link seems to work in spite of a mistake.
I forgot the link to early American secular music, mention of Russell MS 1812: Colonial Dancing

Subject: RE: Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 12:15 PM

In addition to comments by Malcolm- Morgiana was a servant girl in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. It became popular as a first name (see Macleod family genealogy, among others).

Morgiana in Ireland is in the Russell MS of 1812. It is listed as the name of an Irish jig (see also Morgiana in England).
See Morgiana Ireland (/a) for chords, tune.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?
From: IanC
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 12:15 PM

PP

Quite interesting.

I don't think there's any doubt the name came from Ali Baba. The earliest printed version of the story I could find (including those done for plays etc.) in the British Library is dated 1820. By then, the tune was already codified as a "standard" for English dances ... see Page 184 of Wilson's "The Complete System of English Country Dancing" (pub. March 7th 1820) for example.

The plays, as far as I can see, came somewhat later (possibly after the story was included in Burton's "Arabian Nights" in 1850). Certainly all of the major literary quotes (e.g. Dickens' "Hard Times" Chapter 2, 1852) postdate Burton. No information is not negative information, however, and Malcolm could well be right ... it would make good sense.

:-)

Subject: RE: Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?
From: Pied Piper
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 11:39 AM

Thanks a lot Malcolm.
So she escaped from a pantomime;interesting.

All the best PP

Subject: RE: Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 10:19 AM

Morgiana in Ireland (sometimes Morgiani) turns up in a whole cluster of MS tunebooks, tutors and so on from around the first decade of the 19th century onwards, along with Morgiana / Morgeana / Morgeanne, which appears to be a little earlier, Morgiana in Spain, and Morgiana in England. Probably the other tunes are "sequels", so to speak, to Morgiana, which was evidently popular. In such cases (and without being in a position to check at the moment) the usual explanation is that the tune is from a popular stage show of the day; quite possibly a pantomime, which were very elaborate affairs in those days.

Morgiana in Ireland seems to have been the biggest success of the group. J. Blewitt (who wrote -presumably- the popular slip-jig Barney Brallaghan, originally as the music for a comic song) published an arrangement of it as a rondo for piano, and it was used as the tune for several songs, for example

Lavender Girl (Lester Levy Collection, n.d)

and the thoroughly odd  Rimes's Alley  (Bodleian Library).

Subject: Folklore: Where is Morgiana from?
From: Pied Piper
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 08:06 AM

There are several jigs with the title "Morgiana in (country)".
I've found out that she is a character in "Ali Baba" but what accounts for here peripatetic association with Trad dance Music?

All the best
PP