Who’s posting these tunes?

I play fiddle, concertina, piano, viola, and sometimes viola with two bands in central North Carolina, near RDU and the Research Triangle (actually closer to Chapel Hill and Hillsborough than Durham, but anyway, central). You can see these two wedding ensembles at our site Wedding Music in North Carolina...

One is Mappamundi, which means "Map of the World" and which plays popular wedding music of Western and Eastern Europe, Jewish traditions (klezmer, yiddish, hebrew, israeli, sephardic, songs in Ladino) and American swing tunes for dancing and a little bit of Hispanic music as well.

The other is the Pratie Heads, a duo specializing in music of the British Isles (Celtic, Irish, Scottish, English) and early America - but recently branching out into many other traditions as well!

18th century English country dance for weddings: Dick’s Maggot

The name is sort of horrifying for us, but back in the day, not so. In Middle English it meant a whim or silly idea. “Anything that was considered fanciful was known as a maggot. A whimsical dance or piece of music was also known as a maggot e.g. “Betty’s Maggot”, “Huntington’s Maggot”, and “Captain’s Maggot” in the same way that there are some dances and pieces of music from this period called “fancies”. Both fancies and maggots tend to be tunes that are unique and unusual and don’t fit into other categories.”

This tune, and the others from the Playford Country Dance collection, are simply fabulous for weddings. Here, me and Bob Vasile of the Pratie Heads.

Dick's Maggot (Playford Country Dance)

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