What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is)

Subject: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is)
From: matt milton
Date: 13 Jun 16 - 04:56 AM

I play several of them - Mr Beveridge's Maggot, Hare's Maggot and others - but it occurred to me the other day that I've no idea what they are and I can't see that they have much in common in terms of form. While I know what a jig is, what a slip jig is, what a reel is, I've no idea what a maggot is. That's the English dance tune, not the parasite. Can anyone enlighten me?

Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Jun 16 - 05:09 AM

'Maggot', as part of the title of a tune, doesn't, I believe, mean an actual dance step, but means somebody's 'favourite' [as in the old phrase, to have a maggot for, meaning a taste for]. So Mr Beveridge's Maggot would mean Mr B's favourite tune -- he being, presumably, some sort of patron of the composer; and hence, in a dance context, a dance arranged to it, or for which it provides an appropriate rhythm.

I think I have that right. Anyone confirm?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is)
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 13 Jun 16 - 05:39 AM

I thought it meant the same as earworm - a tune that gets stuck in your head, but the Concise Oxford Music Dictionary gives support to MGM's view:

maggot. Old Eng. word meaning 'fanciful idea', used by 16th- and 17th-cent. composers in titles of instr. pieces, often country dances, e.g. 'My Lady Winwoods Maggot'. Revived in 20th-cent. by Peter Maxwell Davies in his Miss Donnithorne's Maggot.

LFF

Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is)
From: matt milton
Date: 13 Jun 16 - 06:00 AM

I always thought of it as being like an earworm too, it's only recently I started to wonder if it had any actual formal meaning

Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is)
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 13 Jun 16 - 06:58 AM

I thought it was similar to Irish tunes like So and So's Fancy eg The miller's Maggot

Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is)
From: Sugwash
Date: 13 Jun 16 - 08:35 AM

Another interpretation of maggot is:

"The musical meaning of ‛maggot' is a short tune, probably from the ancient Italian word maggioletta, meaning a plaything."

I recall Vin Garbutt, on the sleeve notes of one of his albums, saying that it was a tune that went on and on without an end. I'm relying on my memory for that though, never a good move.