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13 Jun 16 - 04:56 AM (#3795232) Subject: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is) From: matt milton 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? |
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13 Jun 16 - 05:09 AM (#3795234) Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is) From: MGM·Lion '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≈ |
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13 Jun 16 - 05:39 AM (#3795243) Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is) From: Long Firm Freddie 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 |
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13 Jun 16 - 06:00 AM (#3795245) Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is) From: matt milton 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 |
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13 Jun 16 - 06:58 AM (#3795256) Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is) From: GUEST,Peter Laban I thought it was similar to Irish tunes like So and So's Fancy eg The miller's Maggot |
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13 Jun 16 - 08:35 AM (#3795285) Subject: RE: What is a maggot? (folk dance, that is) From: Sugwash 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. |