Haste to the Wedding, a jig, has Irish, Scottish, and English origins at least dating back to 1767 when it appears in the pantomime, The Elopement, staged in London. The first verse of the song is:

Come haste to the wedding, ye friends and ye neighbours,
The lovers their bliss can no longer delay;
Forget all your sorrows, your care, and your labours,
And let ev’ry heart beat with rapture to-day:
Ye votaries all, attend to my call,
Come revel in pleasures that never can cloy:
Come, see rural felicity,
Which love and innocence ever enjoy.¹

The tune is found in America in the late 18 th century music copybooks (handwritten sheet music books) of Henry Livingston, a Major in the 3 rd New York Regiment that participated in the failed attempt to take Montreal from British control in 1775.² It appears in Elias Howe’s publications, Musician’s Omnibus (Boston, 1850) and School of Fife (Boston, 1851),² and was used on both sides of the American Civil War as a military quickstep (brisk music played during marching).³ Perhaps because of its military history, the tune became especially popular in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia in the early 20 th Century.⁴ Haste to the Wedding can be heard in Old Time Jams, Contradances, and Irish and Scottish Sessions everywhere.