Jamaica: A Song History

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"Jamaica" is an English country dance tune that first appeared in John Playford's The Dancing Master with its fourth edition, under the spelling "Jameko," and the Traditional Tune Archive follows it through every later edition up to 1728 and into John Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing Master of 1718, 1731 and 1754.^[1] The Country Dance and Song Society's bibliography of the Dancing Master dates that fourth edition, enlarged with dances not printed before, to 1670.^[2] In the second volume of his Popular Music of the Olden Time (c. 1859), William Chappell printed the melody under the song title "My Father Was Born Before Me," noted that the English had taken Jamaica from Spain in 1655, and suggested that the title probably came from some song marking that capture; he also listed several songs sung to the tune.^[3] The Traditional Tune Archive instead says the title comes from a ballad, "Joy after Sorrow, Being the Sea-mans return from Jamaica," which, according to Bruce Olson, was written in 1655 and entered in the Stationers' Register in March 1656, so sources differ on exactly which song lent the tune its name.^[1]

Cecil Sharp included the dance in Part II of The Country Dance Book, first published in 1911; the revised 1913 edition takes it from the 1670 printing and sets it as a longways dance for any number of couples, in two parts.^[4][5] In his version the first part is built from crossings and a figure eight around the second couple, and the second from a series of turns, including a once-and-a-half turn by which the dancers progress.^[4] The Traditional Tune Archive lists recordings by Bare Necessities, on English Country Dances (1987), and by the Broadside Band, and it notes the tune's similarity to "Rogue's March," especially in the second strain.^[1] Jamaica is among the old English dance tunes that Mark Gilston has arranged for dulcimer in English Country Dance Tunes, Volume 2, a book sold for download whose listing stresses that each piece is enjoyable to play and has a history behind it.^[6]

Sources

1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Jamaica".
2. Country Dance and Song Society: "The English Dancing Master: Bibliography".
3. Internet Archive: "William Chappell, Popular Music of the Olden Time, Vol. 2 (c. 1859)".
4. Library of Dance: "Cecil J. Sharp, The Country Dance Book, Part II, second edition (1913)".
5. The Round (Cambridge University English Country Dance Club): "The Country Dance Book".
6. Mark Gilston: "English Country Dance Tunes, Volume 2".
7. Image: Winslow Homer, Skating on Jamaica Pond, near Boston, wood engraving, 1859. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

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