Annotation:Under the Rose (2)

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UNDER THE ROSE [2]. English, Country Dance Tune and Jig (6/8 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The term 'under the rose', or in Latin, sub rosa, has long been used to mean that a secret was to be kept. It is sometimes used in the theater or in entertainment venues, to denote that the audience should refrain from divulging the contents. However, it has historical antecedents from Christianity as the periodical The Theatere (August 1, 1881) explains:

The rose is a flower that, when in old days it was blessed by the Pope, was hung up on the arch of the confessional, as a type that everything connected with this sacrament was sacred. And so the story of the rose went on. Architacts, in old days, carved a rose in the centre of the wooden ceiling of the refectory, as an emblem of the preservation of sacred secrets. Anything that was spoken sub rosâ or under the rose, was on that account strictly private.

There was a song, "The Grand Conversation of Napoleon Under the Rose," although Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821) was only a year old when Longman & Co's volume was published. The title's meaning was that the song purports to be derived from a private conversation with Napoleon.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Longman & Co. (Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1770), 1770; p. 34. Longman, Lukey & Broderip (Bride's Favourite Collection of 200 Select Country Dances, Cotillons), 1776; p. 34.

Recorded sources:

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