Peas Upon a Trencher
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"Peas(e) Upon a Trencher" also known as "Pis air an mias" or "The Time I've Lost in<br> Wooing" is an English and Scottish Country Dance Tune in 2/4 time, American march or<br> Irish air in F Major (Raven) or G Major (Merryweather & Seattle, O'Flannagan, O'Neill).<br> The parts are played AB (O'Flannagan, O'Neill) or AABB (Merryweather & Seattle, Raven).<br> A trencher is an oblong trough-shaped shallow dish formerly used instead of a plate.<br> The melody appears in a number of musicians’ manuscript copybooks, including those of<br> Henry Beck (1786), John Fife (compiled 1780–1804 in Perthshire, Scotland, and possibly<br> at sea), William Calvert (North Yorkshire, 1812), Oliver White (Conn., 1775), fifer Aaron<br> Thompson (New Jersey, 1777–1782) and Ebenezer Bevens (Middletown, Conn., 1825), among<br> others.<br> In print it can be found in James Aird’s Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign<br> Airs, vol. 1 (Glasgow, 1782), Neil Stewart’s Select Collection of Scots, English, Irish<br> and Foreign Airs, Jiggs, and Marches (Edinburgh, 1788) and in numerous fife tutors and<br> martial publications of the early 19th century. It was a melody in John O’Keefe’s opera<br> The Poor Soldier (1784). The melody can be heard played by a musical clock of 1798-99,<br> from the shop of famous New Jersey clock-makers Leslie and Williams.<br> The melody saw martial use as the regulation signal for breakfast and supper, sounded<br> by fifers. It was used for this purpose as early as 1816 when its use was identified<br> in a volume called The Martial Music of Camp Dupont, published in Philadelphia. A version<br> of the melody appears in Alvan Robinson’s Massachusetts Collection of Martial Musick,<br> first published in Maine in 1818 (with later editions in 1820 and 1824). Its martial<br> use continued through the American Civil War (c.f. Bruce & Emmett's Drummers and Fifers'<br> Guide, 1862): "[It] Is the signal for breakfast, and it is to be beat at 7 o'clock, or<br> at any other hour set apart for the same. Fifteen minutes before which, the Drummer's<br> Call will be beat by the drummer of the guard."<br> It was printed in Aird's Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1<br> (1782),<br> Bruce & Emmett's Drummer's and Fifer's Guide (1862),<br> P.M. Haverty's One Hundred Irish Airs, vol. 2 (1858),<br> Hime's Forty Eight Original Irish Dances (1804),<br> Johnson's Kitchen Musician No. 16: A Further Collection of Dances, Marches, Minuetts and<br> Duetts of the Later 18th Century (1998),<br> Mattson & Walz's Old Fort Snelling: Instruction Book for the Fife (1974),<br> Merryweather & Seattle's The Fiddler of Helperby (1994),<br> O'Flannagan's The Hibernia Collection (1860),<br> O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903),<br> Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984) and<br> Riley's Flute Melodies, vol. 1 (1814).<br> It was recorded on Williamsburg Music Master.<br>
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