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Haste To The Wedding (Brostuig Go Dti An Posad)
British Isles, New England, American, Canadian, Old-Time (fiddlers in the Appalachians seldom knew or played jigs - when they did this tune was one of the most frequently played.); Jig, Country Dance, Long Dance (Irish), Morris Dance Tune, or Quadrille (meaning 6/8 tunes from Midwestern USA).
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1944;
OTHER NAMES: "Carrickfergus," "Come, Haste to the Wedding," "Rural Felicity," "The Long Eight," "Perry's Victory" (American), "Footprints," "Granny Plays the Fiddle," "Trip to the Dargle," "A Trip to the Gargle," "Let Brainspinning Swains," "The Small Pin Cushion." My Love Came to Dublin
RECORDING INFO: Antilles (Island) AN-7003, Kirkpatrick & Hutchings - "The Compleat Dancing Master" (1974). Edison 50653 (78 RPM), John H. Kimmel (accordion player from N.Y.C.), 1920. F&W Records 4, "The Canterbury Country Orchestra Meets the F&W String Band." Folkways FG 3531, Jean Carignan- "Old Time Fiddle Tunes." Folkways 8826, Per's Four--"Jigs and Reels." Front Hall 01, Fennigs All Stars- "The Hammered Dulcimer." Gennett 6088 (78 RPM), Uncle Steve Hubbard and His Boys (New England?), c. 1928. June Appal JA 029, Guy Carawan - "Jubilee" (1979). Library of Congress AFS L62, "American Fiddle Tunes." North Star NS0038, "The Village Green: Dance Music of Old Sturbridge Village." Rounder Records, "Jerry Holland" (1976). Victor 19940 (78 RPM), Mellie Dunham, 1926 (appears under the title "Mountain Rangers"). Voyager VRCD 344, Howard Marshall & John Williams - "Fiddling Missouri" (1999. Learned from Missouri fiddling tradition). Baldwin, Stephen. English Village Fiddler, Leader LED 2068, LP (1976), cut# 3; Beers Family. Dumbarton's Drums, Columbia CS 9472, LP (197?), cut# 7; Beers Family. Golden Skein, Biograph BLP-12054, LP (1972), cut# 7; Campbell, Gerard. Wandering Minstrel, London LL 1714, LP (195?), cut#B.04; Carawan, Guy. Jubilee, June Appal JA 0029, LP (1979), cut#A.05; Carignan, Jean. Old Time Fiddle Tunes played by Jean Carignan, Folkways FG 3531, LP (1960), cut# 2b; Douglas, Jim. Contentment or, the Compleat Nutmeg-State Songster, Pedlar, LP (1986), cut#B.03b; Faier, Billy. Art of the Five String Banjo, Riverside RLP 12-813, LP (1957), cut#A.04c; Gifford, Paul. American Hammer Dulcimer, Troubadour TR-6, LP (1978), cut# 19b; Gorman, Skip. New Englander's Choice, Folk Legacy FSI 095, LP (198?), cut# 15a; Holland, Jerry. Jerry Holland, Rounder 7008, LP (197?), cut# 4d (Cape Breton's (Jig)); Hutton, Bruce. Old-Time Music - It's All Around, Folkways FA 2402, LP (1978), cut# 5b; MacArthur Family. MacArthur Road, Front Hall 040C, Cas (1989), cut# 3e; MacArthur, Margaret. Old Songs, Philo 1001, LP (1975), cut# 1; MacArthur, Margaret. How to Play the MacArthur Harp, Front Hall FHRBP 1005, Cas (1986), cut#p.26; O'Boyle, Neil. Milestone at the Garden. Irish Fiddle Masters from the 78 RPM..., Rounder 1123, CD (1996), cut#18a; Ransom, Stan. I Love Long Island, Connecticut Peddler, CD (1997), cut# 4b; Scott, Mrs. Ben. American Fiddle Tunes, Library of Congress AFS L62, LP (1971), cut# 9; Spence, Bill. Hammered Dulcimer, Front Hall FHR-001, LP (1973), cut# 5c; Tucker, Stephen B.. American Fiddle Tunes, Library of Congress AFS L62, LP (1971), cut# 22;
SOURCES: Hill Country Tunes: Instrumental Folk Music of Southwestern Penn, Amer. Folklore Society, fol (1944), 22 Bob Walters (Burt County, Nebraska) [Christeson]: Smith Paine (Wolfeboro, N.H.) [Linscott, 1939]: Candace Woltz [Phillips]: Emery Martin, Dunbar, Pennslyvania, October 14, 1943 (learned from his father) [Bayard]; Milo Jouf, 1877 (New York State; learned from his father) [Bronner]; James Marr (elderly fidder from Missouri, 1949), and 21 southwestern Pa. fiddlers and fifers [Bayard]; Mrs. Ben Scott (Turlock, California) [Kaufman]; Blackwell via Dr. Kenworthy Schofield [Bacon]; Jehile Kirkhuff (Pa.) [Phillips/1995]; fiddler Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Begin]. Adam, No. 15. Allan's Irish Fiddler, No. 15, pg. 5. The American Veteran Fifer, 1927; No. 49. Bacon (The Morris Ring), 1974; pgs. 12, 107, 189. Bayard (Hill Country Tunes), 1944; No. 22. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; Appendix No. 33, pgs. 585-586, and No. 447, pgs. 420-428. Begin (Fiddle Music from the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 61, pg. 70. Brody (Fiddler's Fakebook), 1983; pg. 131. R.P. Bronner (Old Tyme Music Makers of New York State), 1987; No. 1, pg. 10. Burchenal (Rinnci na h-Eireann), pg. 104. Burchenal (American Country Dances, Vol. 1), 1918; pg. 42. Christeson (Old Time Fiddlers Repertory, Vol. 1), 1973; pg. 121. Cole, 1940; pg. 53. Cranford (Jerry Holland's), 1995; No. 198, pg. 57. DeVille, No. 61. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 53. Hardings All Round Collection, 1905; No. 190, pg. 60. Hardings Original Collection, 1928; No. 8. Jarman (The Cornhuskers Book of Square Dance Tunes), 1944; pg. 13. JEFDSS, III, 208 (from a fiddler's book formerly the property of Thomas Hardy's father), 210 (see Bayard's note). JFSS, VIII, 220, 221 (a Manx vocal set). Jigs and Reels, pg. 22. Karpeles & Schofield (A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs), 1951; pg. 8 (altered version appearing as "The Long Eight"). Kaufman (Beginning Old Time Fiddle), 1977; pg. 46. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book), Vol. 1, 1951; No. 81, pg. 40. Kerr (Merry Melodies), Vol. 1; No. 4, pg. 27. Krassen (Appalachian Fiddle), 1973; pg. 86. Linscott (Folk Songs of Old New England), 1939; pg. 88 (appears as "Come, Haste to the Wedding"). MacDonald (The Skye Collection), 1887; pg. 168. Miller & Perron (New England Fiddlers Repertoire), 1983; No. 30. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 19, pg. 122. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 49. O'Neill (1850), 1903/1979; No. 987, pg. 184. O'Neill (1001 Gems), 1907/1986; No. 203, pg. 48. Phillips (Fiddlecase Tunebook), 1989; pg. 25. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 367. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; pg. 102. Robbins, No. 5. Roche Collection, 1983, Vol. 2; No. 291, pg. 37 (listed as a Long Dance). Ruth (Pioneer Western Folk Tunes), 1948; No. 5, pg. 4. Saar, No. 44. Seventy Good Old Dances, pg. 6, No. 6. Sharp and Macilwaine, Morris Dance Tunes, pgs. 10-11 (as a handkerchief dance). Sharp (Country Dance Tunes), 1909/1994; pg. 10. Southern Folklore Quarterly, VI, pg. 8 (Wilkinson- "Virginia Dance Tunes"). Spandaro (10 Cents a Dance), 1980; pg. 45. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 145. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1965/1981; pg. 24. Thomas and Leeder (The Singin' Gatherin'), 1939; pg. 63 (appears as a waltz, "Footprints"). Trim (Thomas Hardy), 1990; No. 1. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Vol. 1), 1999; pg. 30. White's Excelsior Collection, 1907; pg. 76; Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p 53a; Krassen, Miles. Appalachian Fiddle, Oak, sof (1973), p86; Scott, Mrs. Ben. Beginning Old-time Fiddle, Oak, sof (1977), p46; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: "D Major (most versions): C Major (Harding's, Sharp): F Major (Bacon-Adderbury): G Major (Bacon-Brackley): A Major (Cranford). Standard. AB (Bacon-Adderbury, Bayard, Harding, Kerr): ABB, x4 (Bacon, Mallinson): AABB (most versions): AA'BB' (Cranford): ABCD (Bayard {Marr}). "The tune 'Come, Haste to the Wedding,' of Gaelic origin, was introduced in the pantomime, The Elopement, in 1767. This version is known as the Manx tune and was printed by the Percy Society in 1846. It is the basis of the Manx ballad, 'The Capture of Carrickfergusby,' written by Thurot in 1760" (Linscott, 1939). Samuel Bayard (1944, 1981) comments on the popularity of the air over the past two centuries as well as the tenacity of the main title to stick with the tune. When Chappell printed his well-known set in National English Airs (1840, I, No. 163; notes, II, 129; reprinted in JEFDSS, III, 210.), he traced the tune to the year 1767, when it was used in pantomime, to a song beginning 'Come, haste to the wedding, ye friends and ye neighbors!' This version of the air, continues Bayard, is still the earliest known, and it may be that the popularity of the song occasioned the fixed quality of the title. In his 1944 work Bayard posses the question as to whether the words were included in the original pantomime as a result of its associations, or whether the later uses of the tune secured it. (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"If it at first achieved popularity as a stage piece, it was soon after quickly disseminated, entering folk tradition. Chappell noted that the tune was "more frequently to be heard upon the chimes of country churches than any other, and usually played when a wedding is about to take place." Caoimhin Mac Aoidh (1994) reports that in County Donegal tradition a bride was 'hauled' (marched) from her house to the chapel along with her family and guests, led by a fiddler playing this tune. Morris dancers picked up the melody and morris dance versions have been collected from the villages of Adderbury (Oxfordshiere), Brackley (Northamptonshire), and Headington (Oxfordshire) in England's Cotswolds. The author of "English Folk-Song and Dance" found the melody in the repertoire of fiddler William Tilbury (who lived at Pitch Place, midway between Churt and Tilbury in Surrey), who used, in younger days, to play at village dances. Tilbury learned his repertoire from an uncle, Fiddler Hammond, who died around 1870 and who had been the village fiddler before him. The conclusion was that "Haste to the Wedding" and other country dance tune of similar type had survived in English tradition (at least in southwest Surrey) well into the second half of the 19th century. In southern Ireland "Haste" is often the first tune played in a set (along with "Leslie's Hornpipe" and "The German Beau") for the set dance The Three Tunes, which dates to the ceili dance revival of the 1930's." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"In America the piece was printed by Burchenal under the title "Green Mountain Volunteers" along with a New England contra dance by the same name. It was recorded for the Library of Congress by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph from Ozark Mountain fiddlers in the early 1940's, and also was recorded by Herbert Halpert for the same institution in 1939 from the playing of a Lauderdale County, Mississippi, fiddler named Stephen B. Tucker. The title appears in a list of Maine fiddler Mellie Dunham's repertoire (the elderly Dunham was Henry Ford's champion fiddler in the late 1920's) and it was a favorite dance tune in western New York at the turn of the century (according to Bronner's source, Milo Kouf). As "Hasten to the Wedding" it was mentioned in an account of a fiddlers' convention at the Pike County Fairgrounds in the Troy Herald of July 6th, 1926. Winston Wilkinson ("Virginia Dance Tunes," Southern Folklore Quarterly, VI, 1, March, 1942) calls it "one of the best-loved tunes in Virginia." He collected it from Albermarle County fiddler James H. "Uncle Jim" Chisholm, who had played it and other tunes in the 1930's at the White House for President and Mrs. Roosevelt." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
"An odd alternate title called "A Trip to the Gargle" appears in O'Neill's 1001 Gems (probably a corruption of "A Trip to the Dargle") while as "Carrickfergus" it appears in Brysson's A Curious Selection of Favourite Tunes with Variations to which is appended Fifty Favourite Irish Airs (Edinburgh, 1790). The classical composer Camille Saint Saens used "Haste to the Wedding" in his opera Henry VIII, and John Powell employed a variant he collected from Mrs. John Hunter, a Virginia fiddler, in the last movement of his symphonic composition Set of Three (Wilkinson). The English novelist Thomas Hardy, himself an accordion player and fiddler, mentions "Haste to the Wedding" in Under the Greenwood Tree, as one of the tunes the wedding-guests danced to after the marriage of Dick and Fancy." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
LYRICS:
Come haste to the wedding ye friends and ye neighbors,
The lovers their bliss can no longer delay.
Forget all your sorrows your cares and your labors,
And let every heart beat with rapture today.
Come, come one and all, attend to my call,
And revel in pleasures that never can cloy.
Come see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.
Let Envy, Let Pride, Let Hate & Ambition,
Still Crowd to, & beat at the breast of the Great,
To Such Wretched Passions we Give no admission,
But Leave them alone to the wise ones of State,
We Boast of No wealth, but Contentment & Health,
In mirth & in Friendship, our moments employ
Come see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.
With Reason we taste of Each Heart Stirring pleasure,
With Reason we Drink of the full flowing Bowl,
Are Jocund & Gay, But 'tis all within measure,
For fatal excess will enslave the free Soul,
Then Come at our bidding to this Happy wedding,
No Care Shall obtrude here, our Bliss to annoy,
Come see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.
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