"Hunting the Hare"

No personal notes.

Excerpts from TTA:

HUNTING THE HARE [1].

• AKA and see "Helar's Ysgfarnog," "Newcastle Beer" {AKA and see "Mr. Basse His Career," "Career (The)," "Mount Taragh's Triumph"-- alternates for an Irish tune called "Hunting of the Hare"}.
• English, Irish, American; Jig. USA, New England. England, Shropshire.
• F Major (Raven): D Major (Ashman, Cole, Joyce, Kerr, Williamson).
• AB (Cole, Joyce): ABB (Kerr, Raven): AABB (Ashman, Williamson).

The title "Hunting the Hare" probably has sexual connotations similar to "Cuckoo's Nest (The)." The melody appears in Twenty Four Dances for the Year 1768 (London: Chas. & Saml. Thompson) and was used as the melody for various song sheets in the 18th century, including a song called 'Newcastle Beer' by John Cunningham (1729-1773). Chappell traces the tune to an air for much older ballads, and notes that it was printed in 3/4 time in John Gay's ballad opera of Achilles (1738) entitled "A Minuet." He finds versions in Antidote to Melancholy (1661) and Pills to Purge Melancholy (1707) under the title "Green Gown (The)," a name derived from the last line of each stanza of the song. Finally, versions of the tune can also be found as "Room for Company," a balled in the Pepys Collection, and as "Room for Cuckolds" in Playford's Musick's Recreation on the Lyra Viol (1652).

The tune was also known in Wales by the name 'Helar's Ysgfarnog'" (Williamson, 1976). In the United States it appears in several MS collection of around 1800, state Van Cleef and Keller (1980). The title is not to be confused with that of another and different popular melody of the period, "Hunt the Squirrel."

Printed sources:

• Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 68a, p. 27 (appears as "Hunt the Hare").
• Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 77.
• Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 797, p. 388.
• Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 3); No. 241, p. 27.
• Preston (Preston's Twenty-Four Country Dances for the Year 1798), 1798.
• Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 119.
• Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 109.
• Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; p. 19.

From TS:

Also known as Dawns Gwyl Ifan, Hela’r Sgwarnog, Hela’r Sgyfarnog, Hela’r Sqwarnog, The Hunt Of The Hare, Hunt The Hare, St. John’s Eve Dance.