Folk Group Term 32

20/09/2021

Here’s a great tune from ‘The Third Book of the most celebrated jiggs, Lancashire hornpipes, Scotch and Highland lilts, Northern frisks, Morris’s and Cheshire rounds with hornpipes the bagpipe manner, to which is added the Black Joak, the White Joak, the Brown,, the Red, and the Yellow Joaks. With variety of whims and fancies of diff’rent humour, fitted to the genious of publick performers.’

There is some question over which “Sunderland” is referred to here – it could well be the one known more commonly as Sunderland Point, which was up and running as Lancaster’s main out-port by this stage and continuing Lancaster’s role as the 3rd largest merchant port in the UK at the time. This would be in keeping with the published title of the book from Walsh, but it’s equally likely that the Sunderland referred to is the one with the rubbish football team (ha ha! my elder cousin’s team!).

Hornpipes weren’t associated with seafaring until much later

John Ravenscroft, the composer, was a classically trained and much celebrated violinist and fiddler in London.

MIDI FILE: Sunderland Hornpipe

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If there’s time we’ll re-visit Black’s Hornpipe and Tom Mellin’s

27/09/2021

Here’s a Mazurka I don’t know the name for – only that it’s considered to be Klezmer.

MIDI FILE: Klezmer Mazurka

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We will also re-visit Thomas’ Mazurka

04/10/2021

Here’s a very well known English tune, known locally as the Cumberland Reel. This version is based on an old broadside I found scanned and published on the internet dating from 1820-ish. Not long after (c.1830), lyrics were added for a Music-hall act – “King of the Cannibal Islands”, which was very popular at the time (and still sung by certain folkies), but are really very racist, so I’ve not included them on the print outs as I find them offensive. If you’re interested you can read them here and decide for yourselves.

More recently Brian Peters put some lyrics to the tune based on the unrest around the miss-treatment of Cotton Mill workers by the owners in 1850 (Charles Dickens based Hard Times on the same struggle). The Cotton Lords of Preston

MIDI FILE: Vulcan’s Cave

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We’ll also re-visit Love Laughs at Locksmiths

11/10/21

TONIGHT: Unfortunately I am having cold like symptoms and a member of the band has tested positive. I’ve had a test at the drive through this morning, but we have agreed to cancel tonight and tag an extra session on at the end. I’m super careful as much as I can be and hope it’s just a cold, but better safe than sorry.

18/10/2021

Here’s a couple of Irish Jigs with enigmatic names!

MIDI FILE: The Eavesdropper

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MIDI FILE: Scatter the Mud

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01/11/2021

A great couple of Klezmer tunes, one of which fits diatonic instruments.

MIDI FILE: Ale Brider

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Lyrics

MIDI FILE: Broyges Tantz

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If there’s time we will also re-visit Aleni Zvezdi from Bulgaria

08/11/2021

Here’s a great waltz – it’s become a popular standard amongst the Old-Time and Bluegrass players and despite having been claimed as a composition in the 1940s (named after the Texas town), it’s very obviously based on a traditional Polish waltz.

MIDI FILE: Westphalia Waltz

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I also thought we could have a go at a genuine Texas waltz (Tex-Mex), from Flaco Jiménez, “Over the course of his seven-decade career, he has received numerous awards and honours, including Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Grammys, Americana Music Awards, Tejano Music Awards, and Billboard magazine.” Wikipedia

MIDI FILE: La Tuna

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15/11/2021

Here’s a truly lovely tune that appears in many, many Scottish manuscripts as early as 1725 under the title “Through the Woods Laddie”. There is some argument over its origin, as some scholars believe it to be from NW England, despite its popularity North of the border. This version is a somewhat edited (by me), version from Swinton, Lancs (Now Greater Manchester – near Eccles) 1860 in Dm. It’s also found in the Winder Manuscripts in much closer format to this version.

MIDI FILE: Through the Wood Lady/ Laddie

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Scottish poet Scottish poet Allan Ramsay 1723:
O, Sandy, why leave thus thy Nelly to mourn?
⁠Thy presence could ease me,
⁠When naething can please me;
Now dowie I sigh on the bank o’ the burn,
Or through the wood, laddie, until thou return.

Though woods now are bonnie, and mornings are clear,
⁠While lav’rocks are singing,
⁠And primroses springing;
Yet nane o’ them pleases my eye or my ear,
When through the wood, laddie, ye dinna appear.

If there’s time we’ll also revisit the Sheep Under the Snow

22/11/21

A couple of lovely Polskas from Sweden. Check out that crazy rhythm!

MIDI FILE: Bjorskottens Polska

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MIDI FILE: Polska fr Älvsdal

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29/11/21

I was going to do something different, but following the recent weather around the area I was reminded of this tune. I originally transcribed the Old-Time version (Snowshoes), but then heard the Bluegrass version and was intrigued by the B-part’s weirdness (Snow Flake Reel), so I’ve included both. Which do you prefer?

MIDI FILE: Snowshoes

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If there’s time we’ll have a look at Julianne Johnson too

06/12/2021

Two more tunes on the Snow theme – I believe The Snowdrops would have been played for a show or event – certainly sounds like it.

MIDI FILE: Snow Drops, The

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This is a lovely “song to the tune of another” as a reaction to compulsory conscription. MIDI FILE: The Snows They Melt the Soonest

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Ian Walton

Following the sad news about Ian, I’ve talked to Grace and she offered for me to pass on details for Ian’s funeral, which will be 3:30pm next Thursday (16th Dec), at the Crematorium. He’d been ill for a while and was in hospital for care and operations etc. He’d managed to have three days at home but was sent back in following a complication and was just about to go for a further operation on his lungs when he caught Covid.

Grace was very stoic on the phone, of course. I told her about the group and how we all had memories of him last night and she was touched.

She was very pleased about the idea of a charity fundraiser and thought Ian would be pleased too. I’ve agreed to get in touch with her in the new year to arrange something and discuss a suitable charity.