Annotation:Leave Well Alone
X: 1 T: Leave Well Alone M: 12/8 L: 1/8 R: slide K: Dmaj |:f2A f2A f2e e2f | dBc d2f edB ABd | f2A f2A f2e e2c | dBB ABd e3 d3 :| |: ABd def a2f e2d | Bee efe d2B BAB | ABd def a2f e2d | Bee efe d3 d3:|
LEAVE WELL ALONE. AKA and see "Golden Valley (The)." Irish, Slide (12/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. "Leave Well Alone", a Munster slide, has English and Irish antecedents as a "popular organ tune", as stated on the cover of a issue of Samuel Lover's song "When and Where," set to the air. The first stanza of Lover's song goes:
Oh! tell me when and where am I to meet with thee my fair?
Oh! tell me when and where am I to meet with thee;
I'll meet thee in the secret night,
When stars are beaming gentle light,
Enough for love, but not too bright
To tell who blushes there.
It can be found in three untitled entries[1] in the mid-19th century music manuscript of William Winter (1774-1861), a shoemaker and violin player who lived in West Bagborough in Somerset. Fr. John Quinn and Conor Ward find another two cognate English versions from Tyneside musician John Moore (c. 1841) and an anonymous early 19th century ms. from Staffordshire. Both of these collections indicate Italian origins for the tune in their titles (which does not rule out it also being an organ piece).
- ↑ The c. 1850 Winter ms. has the tune as "Popular Organ Tune" (ms. p. 18), "Quadrille in D" (ms. p. 52), and "Quicksteps" (ms. p. 104).