Included here are the details of tracks on a Compact Disc included with issue No. 20
of the Society's Journal B. C. Folklore.
The tracks were uploaded to CD primary in order to make the vinyl or plastic discs
less susceptible to damage and to any possible further deterioration through handling
while, at the same time, making the music more accessible for future use. A side
benefit of the process enabled us to provide copies of the CD recording to our members.
With the exception of a single track taken from an L.P., all the vinyl records
transferred are from 7”, 45 rpm discs that belong to the Society's “Kenneth C.
Savory Collection” of books, records and photographs, and all are of English (or
are English variants of) traditional folkmusic.
Recordings played on pipe and tabor by Kenworthy Schofield.
· The English Folk Dance and Song Society RPL 1113 [P.R. 303] (n.d. 1958?)
Recordings played on pipe and tabor by Kenworthy Schofield.
· The English Folk Dance and Song Society RPL 1115 [P.R. 304] (n.d. 1958?)
Recordings by The Country Dance Band Leader: Nan Fleming-Williams
Recorded under the auspices of the English Folk Dance and Song Society
· His Master’s Voice Folk Dance Series: “English Folk Dances for Young
People”
E.M.I. 7EG 8533 [TEA1064: side 1; TEA1065: side 2] (n.d. prob. 1959)
To summarise, the list of tunes and songs copied to the CD are as follows:
Kenworthy Schofield (Pipe and Tabor):
Dr. Robert Kenworthy Schofield (1901-1960) first became involved in English folk
music and folk dance during the Peace Day celebrations of 1918, at the end of the
First World War (1914-1918). At Cambridge University he joined the local branch of the
English Folk Dance Society and became a founder member of "The Travelling Morrice". It
was on Morris tours in the Cotswold that he met some of the surviving traditional
dancers and musicians. His notes about these encounters can be found in the EFDS
Journals for 1928, 1930 and 1934. Later he was one of those responsible for the
formation of "The Morris Ring". Outside his music Dr. Schofield was a physicist who,
after leaving Cambridge, worked at the Rothamsted Research Station in St. Albans. He
was the author of a number of scientific papers.
Jack Armstrong (and his Northumbrian Barnstormers):
Jack Armstrong was a folk musician of some considerable consequence. His dedication to
Northumberland’s folk-traditions made him particularly well-known throughout the North
of England through three distinct aspects of musicianship; as a player of the
Northumbrian Small Pipes, as a Small Pipes instrument builder and as a fiddle player,
particularly coupled with his folk dance band the Northumbrian Barnstormers. But it
was not only in the north of England that he was appreciated; his recordings with the
Barnstormers were enjoyed throughout the country and became particularly popular with
folk dance and country dance enthusiasts. Jack was born in 1904 in Wideopen,
Northumberland and took up the Small Pipes in 1927. He developed a steady and
distinctive style that won him numerous awards and in 1949 he was appointed “Piper
to the Duke of Northumberland,” an honorary position going back 250 years. As an
instrument maker he made some 70 sets of Small Pipes with such care in their turning
that they became greatly treasured by players.
Nan Fleming-Williams and The Country Dance Band:
Most of what little information we have been able to find out about Nan Fleming-Williams
has come from Elaine Bradtke, the Assistant Librarian of the Vaughan Williams Memorial
Library, Cecil Sharp House, who kindly sent us a copy of the obituary for Nan Fleming-
Williams that appeared in the Spring 1991 issue of Mardles, the English Folk Dance and
Song Society Suffolk District Magazine. Ms. Fleming-Williams, née Butler, was a folk
dancer and a violinist to whom, in large part, a debt of gratitude is owed for the
revival of English folk dance music. Square dance was initially brought to England, as
a single music example, by Cecil Sharp in 1919. Further examples were collected and
developed by Douglas and Helen Kennedy2 and, about 1943, the Kennedys, together with
Nan Fleming-Williams and her husband Brian, started practising as a folk dance quartet,
with Nan on violin, Helen on English concertina, Nan’s husband Brian on guitar and
Douglas playing the side drum. In 1944 they began playing for Saturday dances at Cecil
Sharp House, with Douglas “calling” where appropriate, and “The series
has since continued weekly, year in and year out for nearly twenty years”
(Kennedy 1964, p. 27-28). A number of the recordings of both the Square Dance Band and
the Country Dance Band, on the original 78 rpm discs, were part of the original
donations to the Society by Mrs. Savory from her husband’s collection and are in our
Library. Nan developed her folk playing style and repertoire from traditional
musicians during field research throughout England but she was also a folk dancer of
some repute and she taught violin professionally. Mrs. Savory, through whose generosity
the British Columbia Folklore Society was created, knew her in London during the Second
World War and remembered her fondly as being referred to as “Flaming-Williams””.
The arguments which induced us to accept the popular and prevalent theory that the Morris-dance was of Moorish origin were these:
(1) The accepted derivation of “Morris” from “Morisco”;
(2) The fact that the dance is to be found to this day on both sides of the Franco-Spanish border, and in a form remarkably like that which we are familiar in England;
(3) The custom observed by many Morris men of blackening their faces, a practice which still obtains in Worcestershire, Herefordshire, and other parts of England, and has been traced in France, the Netherlands, and in Germany.
These considerations taken together, undoubtedly make a formidable prima- facie case in favour of the theory we originally propounded. Nevertheless, as we have since found, this explanation, plausible as it looks, will not bear examination. In the first place, the Morris-dance, in various forms, is found very widely distributed—pretty nearly all over Europe. If, therefore, we ascribe to the English dance a Moorish origin, we must, to be consistent, attribute a like source to all the similar dances found in this extended area. Then, again, we have this significant fact, that, wherever it is found, the Morris is nearly always associated with certain strange customs which are apparently quite independent of the dance itself and contribute little or nothing to the fun or beauty of it. These customs, moreover, are found in England and elsewhere either separately or attached to ceremonies and pastimes other than the Morris-dance, notably the Sword-dance and Mummers’-play.
Now, it is just conceivable that the Morris, on its own merits, might have spread from Spain over the whole of Europe, but it is extremely improbable that those who were attracted by the dance would have also appropriated in every case customs which have no obvious connections with it. The position is briefly, this: Either we must assume that European customs have been contaminated very generally by Moorish influence, or that the Morris dance is a development of a pan-European, or even more widely extended custom. The latter hypothesis is, we believe, the true one, as it is also the one generally accepted by folk-lorists. (Sharp & Macilwaine 1912, pp. 9-10)As for the name Morris, they add, after some preamble:
There still remains the question of the word Morris. …as Mr. E. K. Chambers has it, “the faces were not blackened because the dancers represented Moors, but rather the dancers were thought to represent Moors because their faces were blackened.” (Sharp & Macilwaine 1912, p. 11)
The Dancers:
“…we have seen again and again how easily the Morris may degenerate into a disorderly romp. Slovenly dancing of this sort can only create a false and mischievous impression of the æsthetic nature of the Morris dance, and thereby retard the progress of the movement [to document and preserve the traditions of Morris] in which we are so deeply interested.
Now, to dance the Morris ungracefully is to destroy it. It is true that the dance is vigorous, or nothing; but vigour and grace are not incompatible, and the impression left on the minds of those who, like ourselves, have constantly seen the dance performed in country places, is one first of beauty, solemnity and high restraint, then of vigour.” (Sharp & Macilwaine 1910, p. 8)
Women and Morris:
“ Since the later part of the Twentieth century we have become used to seeing women
Morris sides and our readers are undoubtedly aware that there was and still is some controversy
as to whether this is a acceptable departure from tradition. Women’s sides exist today and
therefore the argument can be of little real value but, writing in 1910, Cecil Sharp noted, in
reference to the individual nature of Derbyshire Morris, that:
They possess…several points in common with the normal Morris dance, e.g., the steps and hand-movements; some of the evolutions; the use of handkerchiefs; certain points in the costume; the extra characters—fool, witch, king and queen—who accompany the dancers; the exclusion of women from performance; and, finally, in the formal and ceremonial way in which the dance is performed on certain prescribed occasions.” (Sharp & Macilwaine 1910, p. 12)
The first two 45rpm EPs recorded onto the disc are Morris tunes, for dance or for Rapper Sword, played by Kenworthy Schofield on pipe and tabor. In the list of tunes and songs that follows we have attempted to give notes where possible but notes to some of the titles are missing, we simply don’t have such detailed, historical reference materials relating to them in our Library. Nevertheless, what we do have is of value and provides an interesting insight into the musical traditions of Morris dancing, Rapper Sword, Country Dance and traditional English folksongs.
The Pipe and Tabor.
Writing of the two instruments, Douglas Kennedy says:
“The folk version of the whistle pipe could be made with a penknife out of a twig of soft wood. The twig was first hollowed and a whistle fashioned at one end, by making a hole and inserting a plug which allowed the breath to pass over the lip of the hole. The hollow pipe was then shortened by cutting off enough to leave a total length of about twelve to fourteen inches. The three holes were cut out, two on the front of the pipe and one at the back. These were so placed, that the pipe could be held between the fourth and fifth finger, the first and second fingers closing the two front holes and the thumb closing the back hole. These three holes correspond to the lower three holes of a six-holed tin whistle.
The great advantage of the three-holed whistle is that it can be held and fingered by one hand, leaving the other hand free to play an accompanying instrument, usually some form of percussion.This combination of instruments known in Shakespeare’s day among the lordlings as the pipe and tabor and among the groundlings [common folk] as the whittle and dub, was familiar in town and country as the one-man band of popular dance music.” (Kennedy 1964, pp. 97-98)
“…English players use a combination of three-holed whistle and drum or tambourine, the whistle being played by the left hand, while the tambourine, slung on the left wrist, is beaten by a small stick carried in the right hand. This one-man band evidently sufficed for many hundreds of years. In England the combination was known as the ‘pipe and tabor’ (pronounced ‘tabber’). While there were probably different methods of striking the tabor, a regular way seems to have been to hole the short stick in the middle and, using both ends of it, to beat out a continuous tattoo. This tattoo imparted a tremulous character to the music and to the dance, giving every individual movement a preliminary shake or shiver. This shivering effect, so essential a character of the traditional Morris step, is emphasised by the ringing of the bells fastened to the lower part of the [Morris dancer’s] leg.” (Kennedy 1949, p.112)
Cecil Sharp, who founded the English Folk Dance and Song Society—the E.F.D.S.S.— (amongst a great many other accomplishments to the benefit and preservation of folk dance and folksong), wrote of the music of the traditional Morris dance:
The pipe and tabor were at one time the traditional instruments of this country, and until recently they were almost invariably used to accompany the Morris dance. Although they fell into disuse less than a generation ago [about 1885 or so], we have only once seen and heard them played. We have, however, secured two specimens of the instruments and have experimented upon them, and in a manner learned how to manipulate them. In this way we were helped by the description given by Mersennus, an early writer on musical instruments (1627), in whose treatise the pipe and its scales are carefully explained.3
The pipe—often called the “whittle,” “whistle” or “fife”— is a small wooden, cylindrical flûte à bec [recorder] or flageolet, about thirteen inches long and of small diameter. At the upper end it is fitted with a whistle attachment, the tongue of which is usually made of metal; while at the lower end it is pierced with three holes, two in front to be stopped by the first and second fingers, and one at the back for the thumb. The pipe can therefore be held and played with the fingers of one hand, the left, leaving the other (the right) at liberty to tap or “dub” the tabor, which is suspended from the left wrist by means of a leathern thong.The scale is diatonic, and its compass as octave and three notes. In addition, it is possible to sound the first four notes of the lower octave, but these are too faint to be of any practical value.
The tabor, often called the “dub,” is a small, shallow drum or double tambourine; the words “tabor” and “tambour” are onomatopœic, and derived from the same root. The frame, which is usually made of wood, is decorated with bunches of ribbons, and sometimes rudely carved. The parchment sides—one of which is fitted with a snare, should, we are told, be cut from an old will or testament, because the skins upon which these were engrossed were peculiarly resonant!
The whittle and dub, after they fell into disuse—apparently because the younger men would not, or could not, learn them—were superseded by the fiddle, concertina, or melodeon. Many old Morris men have told us that they gave up dancing when the pipe and tabor were superseded by the fiddle, because they found it impossible to dance to dance to the latter instrument. Probably they missed the rhythmical support of the drum-notes; but the sound of the pipe and tabor is so distinctive that one can well understand that those who had never heard any other instrument might find it difficult to become reconciled to anything else.
The Morris airs have, of course, suffered considerable change in the transference from pipe to fiddle or concertina; we have found that of the tunes which we have noted down from fiddlers, &c., only very few are capable of being played on the more ancient instrument.
(Sharp & Macilwaine 1912, pp. 33-35)
While looking for more information on the Net about the E.F.D.S.S. pipe & tabor recordings we have on 45rpm discs, it was with some surprise that we found they don’t appear on any of the Kenworthy Schofield/pipe & tabor websites.
As a very curious, final note, the following has been downloaded from an MIT website on the Net:
“In modern times this instrument has become favored [sic.] by truckers and other long haul drivers, since the pipe can be played while keeping one hand on the wheel. I would respectfully request that you not try to play the tabor in addition while sharing the roadway with me.”
http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/ijs/pipe-and-tabor.html
Rigs of Marlow
This is in Karpeles & Schofield, “A Selection of 100 English Folk Dance Airs”
(1951) 33 (in schottische style, featuring the Scottish snap). It is actually the
Irish air Rakes of Mallow (Na Racairide Ua Mag-Ealla). T. Crofton Croker
quotes the words of the original song in “The Popular Songs of Ireland”
(1839; ed. of 1886, 249), of which the first verse is as follows:—
The song was to be sung to ‘Sandy lent the man his mill’, according to Croker, who expurgated one line and deleted one verse. It occurs in The Charmer, 3rd. ed., 1765, where it is given in eight line verses, which fits the whole tune. The tune is among several “Scots” ones in the overture to the Arnolds’ comic opera Auld Robin Gray, and earlier in another comic opera.
[Sharp-MacIlwaine (1912, pp. 36-37):]
This air is printed in “Burke Thumoth's collection of Irish Airs” (1720), in Holden’s “Old Irish Tunes” (1806), and in “Songs of Ireland,” p. 164 (Boosey).
Mr. Kimber [Billy Kimber Jr., who played concertina and, as a young man, also danced for the Headington and Bampton Morris, learnt the tunes from his father] could only give us the first stanza of the Headington song, which, it will be seen, is quite different from the Irish words:Mallow is in County Cork, on the river Blackwater between Limerick and Cork City, and was a fashionable watering-place in the eighteenth century, when it was known as the “Irish Bath” [the city of Bath, in England, was famous as a spa]. Croker says that the young men of that fashionable water-drinking town were proverbially called “the rakes of Mallow,” and he adds: “A set of pretty pickles they were, if the song descriptive of their mode of life, here recorded after the most delicate oral testimony, is not very much over-coloured.”
- When I go to Marlow Fair
- With the ribbons in my hair,
- All the boys and girls declare,
- Here comes the rigs o’ Marlow.
Neither the Oxfordshire nor the Gloucestershire Morris-men, from both of whom we recovered this tune, had probably heard of “Mallow”; it was natural enough, therefore, to substitute “Marlow” [in Buckinghamshire], which, of course, they know very well.
The earliest appearance of the tune is in Walsh’s Caledonian Country Dances (1733), 34. “Aird Selections, II” (1782), 8 (no. 21), as Rakes of Mallo; “Kerr’s Merry Melodies, III.41” (no.371); “Kerr’s Caledonian Coll.” 16; Moffat “Minstrelsy of Ireland” (1897), 21; O'Neill “Music of Ireland” (1903), 341, no. 1814; Raven “English Country Dance Tunes” (1984), 169. It appears as Romping Molly in Shaw’s “Cowboy Dances” (1943).
The “Sandy’s Mill” song is in the Herd MSS. (ed. Hecht), 204 (no. LXXXVI), 2x4 lines:
Hans Hecht compares “Sandy he belongs to the mill” in Northall English Folk Rhymes, 366. Cf. Rymour Club Misc II (1912-19), 70, from Kingarth, Bute:
Bean Setting
In Karpeles & Schofield “100 English Folk Dance Airs”, 32.
Jockie to the Fair:
This air is widely known amongst Morris Dancers and, as a song, is still popular amongst folk-singers. It may not be a genuine folk-tune, but a “composed” tune of the eighteenth century. As a song it has been in print since 1780. (Sharp & Macilwaine 1909, p. 7)Aird Selections II (1782), 2 (no. 5). Karpeles & Schofield (1951), 34, 38. The Irish title is An Riamanaige/Marcac Ag An Aonac; sets in O’Neill (Music of Ireland), 1903/1979; No. 1796, pg. 336, idem Dance Music of Ireland (1907/1986) 166, no. 969 (as The Jockey at the Fair); Raven English Country Dance Tunes (1984) 79. Roche Collection (1983) Vol. 2, 32, no. 277 (as Jockey at the Fair). See Chappell PMOT II.712.
Fool’s Dance:
The purpose of this dance is to enable the fool, who is usually a very clever dancer, to show his prowess. To this end, the Foot-up and the Jig should be danced at the highest possible speed, compatible with a proper and neat execution of all the steps and movements.
No handkerchiefs are used, but the fool holds in one or other of his hands a stick about five inches in length and one and a-half inches in diameter. In the Foot-up and Capers the stick is held in the right hand.
(Sharp & Macilwaine 1910, p. 76)
The Jig:
Throughout this movement the stick is passed rapidly from one hand to the other, alternately under the right and left knee, as each is raised in turn…The dancer, to exhibit his cleverness and agility, will gradually increase the speed, raise the free leg as high as possible, and swing the arms wide apart in the intervals between passing the stick from hand to hand. These embellishments should not, of course, be attempted until after the movement has been thoroughly mastered…
(ibid.)
[tune Roxburgh Castle]
Roxburgh Castle
Reel/Scots Measure/Hornpipe, by Alex. Given of Kelso. In Hunter Fiddle
Music of Scotland (1988), No. 316; Karpeles & Schofield, 7; Raven English Country
Dance Tunes (1984), 188.
Bacca Pipes:4
“This tune [Green Sleeves] is a favourite with all Morris Dancers, and is always associated with the “bacca pipes” jig.” (Sharp 1909, p. 8) “This is traditionally a solo Jig: it may however be danced simultaneously by two or more performers” (Sharp ibid., p. 33) “A mistake [while dancing] 5 leading to the breaking of one of the pipes was, according to custom, penalized by the payment of the fine of a shilling, which was expended in the purchase of refreshment for the company. At Stow-in-the-Wold we were told that during the performance of this jig the fool used to run round amongst the spectators singing the following words:We have taken down several variants of the air, four of which we have used in the four figures of the dance. It is worthy to remark that the seventh note of the scale in every one of our versions is flattened; whereas in all the printed copies we have seen, in Chappell and elsewhere, the seventh is sharpened. This is a good example of the way in which folk-tunes have, in the past, suffered at the hands of musicians.
- Green sleeves and yellow leaves,
- Boys and girls they work apace;
- They earn some money to buy some lace
- To lace the lady’s green sleeves.
Green Sleeves is the parent tune of many well-known airs, e.g., I saw three ships come sailing in, Dame get up and bake your pies, O shepherd, O shepherd, will you come home, &c. The second strain of the air is almost identical with that of The Rigs o’ Marlow, and it is also the basis of There’s nae luck about the house.”
(Sharp & Macilwaine 1909, p. 8-9)
[Tune Greensleeves]
Greensleeves
(6/8) Emmerson RPTS 20 (G) [from SMM 1792]; [Green Slives]
Gillespie MS. (1768), #179 [pt 4 #31]. [Green Sleeves]; SM 82-83; [Green Sleevs] CPC
8, 4. [Green sleeves] Balcarres Lute Book.
An old English air. Whitelaw says it’s also called Nobody
can deny, from the burden of various ballads sung to it. [SMM #388. Simpson, BBBM
p. 268.]
See Chappell, PMOT, I.239 ff (earliest mention, 1580).
The first time it appears in Playford (7th ed. 1686), it is called Green Sleeves and
Pudding Pyes, one of the songs in Sportive Wit, or the Muses’ Merriment, 1656.
In later editions it is called Green Sleeves and Yellow Lace, from Herd’s third
stanza. (Cf. the Fool’s verse quoted above.) A text of the “Pudden-Pyes” song
in Hecht, Herd MSS., 177 (no. LVII). 3x4 lines. Being a bit bawdy, it turns up in
the Merry Muses [MMC (1964), 86n.; Randall Merry Muses (1966),
176]. Burns collected another (“Green sleeves and tartan ties/ Mark my true love whare
she lies”), and transformed it into what Kinsley calls “a double entendre of some
lyrical beauty.” A Jacobite version, taken down by Boswell from Flora MacDonald’s
dictation, is in Tour of the Hebrides 26 Sept. 1773. There is also a children’s
version, “Green peas, mutton pies,/ Tell me where my Jeanie lies,/ And I’ll be with
her ere she rise,/ And cuddle her to my bosom.” - Sandy Candy (1948), 112
(#178), and elsewhere, e.g. a game sequence in Golspie, “Green peas, mutton pies,/
Tell me where my Bella lies./ I love Bella, she loves me,/ And that’s the lass that I’ll
go wee.” (See Opies Singing Game (1985), 329-33.) See also Chappell PMOT
116, 227, 228, 230-33; 232, 775.
Jigs for Rapper Sword, etc.:
There are two main types of English Sword dance:
1. The Long-sword Dance, which belongs to Yorkshire, for which long rigid swords
are used…;
2. The Short-sword or Rapper Dance, which belongs to Durham and Northumberland, for
which two-handed flexible swords are used…;
A distinctive feature of the Sword dances, which recurs a number of times during any performance, is the Lock or Nut, in which the swords are plaited together. One such “lock” has been adopted as its badge by the English Folk Dance and Song Society…
“The English Sword dances must be clearly distinguished from the Scottish Sword dance, in which the swords are not held in the hands but two swords are laid crosswise on the ground, and the dancer performs his steps over and between the swords. The corresponding English dance is the Bacca Pipes Jig, danced over two churchwarden pipes laid crosswise…”
(Peck 1959, p. 7)
O Dear What Can the Matter Be
Called an “Irish air”, 6/8, in Manson (1846), II.62. Cox MS., 27. Variations
on the tune were printed in Köhler’s Violin Repository, 265 (G, 6/8). O’Neill
Music of Ireland (1903), 109 (#620). The Irish title is Oc on cad e do
tarlad. Kerr Merry Melodies, Vol. 2, 28. (no. 254), etc. etc. It is
described as “the favorite duet” in The British Lyre, or Muses’
Repository (1793). Tune, and the following words, in Chappell PMOT II.732:
Of course, there is a ubiquitous naughty parody to the tune:
Connachtman’s Rambles, The
Irish double jig (often spelt “Connaught”). Irish title, Triallta an
Connactaig. In Brody, Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983), 73; Kerr, Merry Melodies
I, 36; O’Neill, Music of Ireland (1903/1979), 187 (#1003); idem, Dance
Music of Ireland (1907/1986), 50 (no. 218).
Bonnie Dundee [new set]
Scottish jig;
Kerr’s Merry Melodies II.34 no. 307 (G); 6/8 Pipe March (K Co., Guards Depot)
SGSS 18 # 22; and many other printings.
This is a 19th-c. tune, probably deriving from the nursery song “Queen Mary,
Queen Mary, my age is sixteen”; arranged for piano as The Band at a
Distance, it became popular in mid-century (sung into fame by Miss Dolby), and
replaced the old 17th-c. air to Sir Walter Scott’s words.
Cock o the North.
The original version is evidently English, mid-seventeenth century, called
Joan’s Placket is Torn (referred to by Pepys, 1667), which appears in Playford’s
Dancing Master, 1686. In Manson (1853), I.10, as a “Gaelic Strathspey”.
Joan’s Placket first appears in print in 180 Loyal Songs (1685),
p. 143 [repr. in Simpson, BBBM 389]. Geo. R. Gleig, Family History of
England, 1836, II, 110-111, prints “the air which was played by the band at
Fotheringay-Castle, while Mary was proceeding to execution” in 1587; which is
called by Simpson “a military version of ‘Joan’s Placket,’ in slow tempo”;
repr. by Chappell (PMOT II, 519), who reasonably doubts the tradition. Also in
Kerr’s Merry Melodies II.34 (no. 311); Kerr’s Cal. Coll. 7; pipe version
in Logan’s Complete Tutor (1963). In Aird’s Selection of Scotch, English,
Irish, and Foreign Airs II (1782), no. 96, titled When I followed a lass.
Words are quoted in The Fiddler’s Companion:
[Fiddler’s Companion gives some interesting background:]
- When I followed a lass who was froward and shy
- I stuck to her, stuff
- Til I mad her comply.
- I took her so lovingly round the waist,
- And hugged her tight and held her fast;
- When hugged and hauled,
- She screamed and squalled.
- But, tho' she vowed all that I did was in vain,
- I pleased her so well, that she bore it again.
- I pleased her so well, that she bore it again.
- Hoighty toity, whisking frisking,
- Green was her gown upon the grass,
- * * *Oh, those were the joys of our dancing days,
- * * *Oh, those were the joys of our dancing days.
The ‘Cock o’ the North’ was an honorary title of the (fifth and last) Duke of Gordon, who held sway over the northern part of the Scottish Highlands (from a note in a monograph on William Marshall printed in his 1845 Collection). It was published by Oswald (Vol. 10) c. 1758, by Feuillet in Recueil de Contredanses (1706) in Paris, and by Playford in the 1674 and 1686 editions (and all subsequent editions) of his Dancing Master, each time under the title “Jumping Joan.” In fact, a Shetland reel version of the tune from the island of Whalsay collected in modern times still goes by the name “Jumping John” (Cooke, 1986).
The dance and ballad air was assumed into martial repertory, and it has been recorded that the melody helped win Gordon Highlander Piper George Findlater the Victoria Cross in 1897. It seems that while leading the charge storming Dargai Heights with other pipers, he was shot through both legs; “undaunted, he propped himself against a boulder, and continued to play” the stirring air to encourage the successful action (Winstock, 1970, p. 212). Kidson (1915) relates another military story of its earlier use in the siege of Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. The British were initially hard pressed and were for some time besieged in various locations in the city by native Indians. Signals had been regularly sent between the forces defending parts of the besieged town, and those under attack in the Residency quarters. A drummer boy named Ross, after the signalling was over, climbed to the high dome from which signals were sent and despite harassing fire from the Sepoys he sounded “Cock o’ the North” in defiance, rallying the English with his bravery (though being a drummer, exactly how he ‘sounded’ the tune remains a mystery, ed.) [Though beating out the rhythm would probably do the trick.- M.S.]
In England, Andrew Bullen (Country Dance and Song, May 1987, Vol. 17, pg. 11). suggests there is some evidence to think that “Cock of the North” was the tune traditionally used in the famous horn dance of Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire (currently performed in most Christmas Revels pageants). This standard version,: he states, “taken from Pruw Boswell's ‘Morris Dancing of the Lancashire Plain’, is used in the Wigan St. John’s Dance.” Wade records that the tune is still used for a single step dance in the North-West Morris tradition.
Miscellaneous notes:
The tune was used by Robert Burns for his song “Her Daddie Forbad and Her Minnie
Forbad.” In America, it was given to Bayard that there was an obscene New
England song to the tune called “Chase Me, Charlie,” but he did not hear it.
It is not, as has been proposed by Johnson-Stenhouse, the progenitor of
“Lillibulero”. Some printings: Bayard Dance to the Fiddle (1981) 513
(no. 580); Hunter Fiddle Music of Scotland (1988), no. 299; Kerr Merry
Melodies II, 34 (no.311); McDonald Gesto Collection (1895), 135; Raven
English Country Dance Tunes (1984), 105.
To the second (chorus) part of the tune [d’-s l-s etc.] a ribald rhyme is sung:
Shepherd’s Hey:
This is a handkerchief dance. Sharp and Macilwaine write:
At Salperton [in Gloucestershire] the Morris men used to sing the following words:
At Ducklington [in Oxfordshire] the words were:
- Her feet were cold,
- Her hands were warm,
- But her heart was chilled
- In many a storm.
- Her head was right
- But her heart was wild,
- And he never came back to claim her.
- I can whistle,
- And I can play,
- And I can dance
- The Shepherd’s Hey.
(Sharp & Macilwaine 1912, pp. 38-39)
They also tell us: “This air bears some resemblance to ‘The Faithful Shepherd’ in Thompson’s Complete Collection of Country Dances (circa 1775), which is reprinted in Mr. Kidson’s Old English Country Dances, p. 10.”
[Fiddler’s Companion:]Karpeles & Schofield p. 36 (Headington version); Raven English Country Dance Tunes (1984), pp. 93, 73.
English Morris Dance Tune (4/4 time).
The Shepherd’s Hey is the name of several variations of a dance popular among Cotswold morris for full teams or as a morris jig for three men; in fact, it is probably the most famous morris dance melody and can be found in various forms throughout England. During the dance the dancer keeps patting himself on the cheeks, breast and legs “in a most curious way.” One of the most widespread of the Cotswold morris melodies. The following ditties were sung during the dance, the first at Adderbury:
- Shepherds’ Hey, clover too,
- Rye-grass seeds and turnips too.
- and at Bucknell:
One can whistle, two can play,
- Three can dance the Shepherds’ Hey.
Country Gardens:
“This is the prototype of “The Vicar of Bray,” and Mr. Kidson tells us
that he has it in an old book of airs under the more ancient title. It is also called
“The Country Garden” in Playford’s Dancing Master, and in Chappell’s
National English Airs (Nos. 25 and 26). Chappell gives it in 3-4 time, and
remarks that it then becomes “a plaintive love ditty instead of a sturdy and bold
air.” The following words are sung [by the Morris men] in Headington:
[Two sets in Karpeles-Schofield: 100 tunes pp. 33, 56]
Cf. The Vicar of Bray: Chappell PMOT II.652.
[Fiddler’s Companion:]Fuld (1966) notes that Chappell included two versions in an early work on English airs (A Collection of National English Airs, London, 1838-1840) which “provide an interesting link between the 1728 version and the ‘Handkerchief Dance’ (i.e. Morris dance) tune collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Herbert C. MacIlwaine in 1907 and popularized by Percy Grainger in 1919.”
“English Air and Morris Dance Tune (4/4 time).
The song was first presented in 1728 in stage production The Quaker's Opera and subsequently appeared many other ballad operas of the 18th century. It was later included in Daniel Wright’s Compleat Tutor for Ye Flute (c. 1735).”
Lads A-Bunchum:
In The Morris Book Part IV, Sharp gives the title of the tune he noted in
Sherborne, Dorset, as Lads a-Bunchun, and says:
“The title of the Sherborne dance “Lads a-Bunchun” may, perhaps, throw some light on the meaning of the cryptic “Laudnum Bunches” of [The Morris Book] Part I. “A-Bunchun” may denote (see Wright’s Dialect Dictionary) butting or striking, dashing in dress or appearance; or it may simply mean bunched together, i.e., in a cluster as in a set-dance. On the other hand both “Laudnum Bunches” and “Lads a-Bunchun” may be corruptions of the original title which further research may some day unearth.”…all of which will undoubtedly be clear and of note to our readers! The dance is a corner dance. As for the tune: In Karpeles-Schofield 100 tunes, 37 (as corrected in the Society copy); Raven English Country Dance Tunes (1984), 77.
(Sharp 1911, p. 12)
[Fiddler’s Companion:]
“The tune is also called “Balance a Straw”, according to Bayard (1981), and both are simplified adaptations of The Tulip, which is a march composed by James Oswald, appearing in his Airs for the Spring, c. 1747. Bayard believes the title to be a corruption of “Laud’num Bunches”. This version is from the village of Adderbury, Oxfordshire, in England's Cotswolds, where the following bit of verse is sung in the village's morris tradition at the beginning of the dance:
- Oh dear mother, what a fool I be,
- Here are six young fellows come a-courting me.
- Three are blind and the others can’t see,
- Oh dear mother, what a fool I be. [ - Bacon]”
Cumberland Square:
This dance comes from Cumberland near the Scottish Border. Both of the tunes heard
here are Scottish with the first, My love is but a lassie yet, being perhaps
the primary tune used for the Cumberland Square Dance.
My love is but a lassie yet
The usual title is My Love She’s But a Lassie Yet (2/4 Scots Measure) in Kerr’s
Modern Album 19 (D); Kerr’s Caledonian Coll. 29; [omits “Yet”]
Kerr’s Merry Melodies 46; (2/4 Pipe March) SGSS 137 # 240; etc.
Tune is in Aird’s 2nd Selection (1782), under the usual title; first printed in
Bremner’s Scots Reels or Country Dances (1757), 19, as Miss Farquharson’s
Reel. Stenhouse says a MS. copy (post 1746) is called Lady Badinscoth’s
Reel. C. K. Sharpe (Add. Illus., *303) says the old title was Put up your
dagger, Jamie, the words being in Vox Borealis, 1641. Glen (ESM
134) points out that an air is neither given nor mentioned in Vox Borealis; and
he gives the tune Put up thy Dagor Jennie from (a transcript of) the Blaikie
MS. of 1692, which does not resemble our air at all. O’Farrell (Pocket
Companion, vol. II), c. 1806, p. 114. In Raven English Country Dance Tunes
(1984), 144, as The Duke of York. Yet another title is The Gordons hae the
guiding o’t (Strathspey).
The best-known words are by Burns, in SMM III (1790), 234 (# 225) (+ m.), 2x8
lines; and much anthologised. The last half-stanza [“We're a’ dry wi’ drinking
o’t”] is from “Green grows the rashes” in Herd II (1776), 224.
Allan’s Sc. Songs 31 (+ m.), with an inserted st. (8 lines), presumably by
Hector MacNeil. A variant of Burns’ text is mentioned in Greig FSNE lxx, 2, 4
lines; begins “Oh, sweet, but a beauty is my Jean”. The correspondent heard
it sung “many years ago by a beggar man who came from Skye, and was then 103
years of age.... The old man sometimes sang the song in Gaelic.... [As to the air:]
The second strain corresponds with what we find in book versions of the tune; but the
first strain is considerably different.”
Another text is by James Hogg {second line “A lightsome, lovely lassie
yet”), first pub. in the Edinburgh Literary Journal, and after in Songs by
the Ettrick Shepherd (Edin.: Blackwood, 1831). With the music in G. F. Graham
Wood’s Songs of Scotland (1850), I.116 (+ m.), etc.
Yet another, by James Morton (line 2 “She’s neither proud
nor saucy yet”) in Dun & Thomson Vocal Music of Scotland II.16 (+ m.).
3x8 lines [rhyming in couplets], ends “the blink o’ Mary’s e’e.”
Athole Highlanders, The
6/8 Quickstep
Kerr’s Caledonian, 4; Logan's Complete Tutor (1963), 24; 6/8 Pipe March
SGSS 78 # 181 (A); Kerr’s MM III 29 (G)[Atholl Gathering] Allan’s
Reels 29 (A); [Atholl Gathering] Marr 17 (A); [Duke of Atholl’s
Reel] RSCDS 16, 3 (A) [s--smd/smdrmf].
This is often called The Athole Gathering; but in the Cox MS., 164, as Duke
of Atholes Pibroach. In that MS., 9, occurs The Atholl Highlanders March
(4/4), a different tune entirely. [key A, 4/4: s,/d m-d s m-d/l s-s s ms/l- s fm rd/m
r-r r s etc.]
[Fiddler’s Companion:]
Musically, the tune contains a characteristic melodic cliché in Scottish music in which a figure is followed by the same or a related figure on the triad one tone below or above (Emmerson Rantin’ Pipe, 1971 [210]). The original Athole Highlanders (and the ones associated with the tune) were the old 77th Highland Regiment, raised in 1778 and commanded by Colonel James Murray. The 77th served in Ireland and was not engaged in active service, though its garrison services were apparently useful in freeing other units for the conflicts with America and France. They were disbanded in 1783 after those conflicts ended (although the disbanding may have come about because of a mutiny). The tune was later taken up as a march past by the 2nd Battalion of the Cameronians, the 90th Light Infantry, who over the years had shed their Scottish origins. However, when pipers were introduced in 1881 they recollected their Perthshire origins and chose to play “The Atholl Highlanders” (also known in pipe literature as “The Gathering of the Grahams”). The tune is associated in modern times with the dance called The Duke of Gordon’s Reel, so much so that Scottish dance musicians will sometimes call “Atholl Highlanders” by the name “Duke of Gordon’s Reel” (despite the fact that “Atholl Highlanders” is a jig). See also the early printing of the tune in Morison’s Highland Airs and Quicksteps, vol. 1 (No. 19), where it appears as “Duke of Atholl’s March”. Brody “Fiddler’s Fakebook” (1983), 27; Kerr “Merry Melodies” III, 29 (no. 265).
La Russe:
“La Russe”, as it is danced in the English-Scottish Border villages, is a
quadrille. Separately the tunes in the set are:
La Russe
Reel/Country Dance
Allan’s Reels 21 (G); Kerr’s Reels 25 (D); Raven English Country
Dance Tunes (1984), 144. Dance in Kerr’s collection, Border Dance Book.
Jane’s Fancy
This is by Alf Gray; in Charlton, F., Hall, J., and Ross, C. (1978). Northumbrian
Pipers’ Tunebook. Second ed., Rev. Newcastle upon Tyne: Northumbrian Pipers’
Society.
Nancy’s Fancy
The tune is not that of this title in Karpeles & Schofield, 1951, p. 3, and elsewhere
[Kennedy Fiddlers Tune Book, Vol. 2 (1954), 27; Raven English Country Dance
Tunes (1984), 146; Sharp Country Dance Tunes (1909/1994), p. 7]. It is
actually simply Nancy [properly Nancy Clough], a Northumberland tune
composed in the 1920s by Tom Clough (d. 1964), and apparently is supposed to depict
his wife tripping up and down the stairs. It seems to be a variation of “My Love
She’s But a Lassie Yet”.
Morpeth Rant:
Both Morpeth Rant, and Soldier’s Joy that follows it, are Northumbrian country dances
that were collected (first written into books of dance music?) by Maud Karpeles, a
close associate of both Cecil Sharp and Douglas Kennedy. Both dances are danced with
vigorous polka stepping.
Morpeth Rant
Robertson Athole Coll. (1884) 300 (Bf); Matthew SCD Music (1954), 26
(from the Wighton coll.); Köhler Violin Rep. 48 (G).
North Road
[NB: not the same as Willie Hunter’s “Da Nort Rodd” in Anderson & Georgeson
Da Mirrie Dancers, 31.] [mf/ s ms f rf/ m d dt, dm/ r t, t,le, t,d/ rd d etc.]
This is called in some sources The Girl with the Blue Dress On [U.S. title?]
Willie brewed a peck o maut
Tune is the modern set of that of Burns’ convivial song of 1789: originally in
SMM III (1790), 301 (# 291) (+ m.). 4x4 lines + cho. to the Masterton tune,
which has been excessively changed in later years. [This version in Manson (1853),
I.161.] G. F. Graham Wood’s Songs of Scotland (1850), II.80 (+ m.); and many
other collections.
A1 Hornpipe
[The title probably has a double meaning: A1, of course, means ‘first class’ but it
was also the name of a major, north-south highway in England, before motorways were
built and ‘M’ numbers were introduced to designate them—M1, etc. Otherwise we have no
information on the tune itself.]
Soldier’s Joy
Whinham’s Reel
[Fiddler’s Companion:]
Composed by Robert Whinham, an itinerant Northumbrian musician, fiddle and dancing master, teacher and composer, who lived between 1814 and 1893. Whinham ended his days in a workhouse in Morpeth where he was registered as a “teacher of music in Morpeth Northumbria.” The only known photograph of him was taken there.
Bracken Rigg
[No information]
Corn Riggs
Corn Rigs
Reel
Allan’s Reels 19 (D); Kerr’s Reels 16 (D); RSCDS 4, 12 (C);
[Corn Rigs are Bonny] (PM) SGSS 13 # 18; Robertson Athole Coll.
(1884), 148 (G).
In A. Munro’s Recueil des Meilleurs Airs Ecossois..., Paris, 1732. Also
[“Corn Riggs are Bonny”] in the John Campbell MS. (1713; in Glasgow
Univ. Lib.). [... are Bonny] Cox MS., 104.
The tune’s first title (as published) is Sawney Will Never Be My Love Again, taking its name from the refrain of a song written by D’Urfey for his comedy The Virtuous Wife (performed 1679, pub. 1680). The song (beginning “Sawney was tall and of noble race”) was printed with the music in Playford, Choice Ayres and Songs, 3rd Book (1681), p. 9, called “A Northern Song” [facs. in C.L. Day, The Songs of Thomas D’Urfey, p. 103; see Simpson, 633]. Since Thomas Farmer wrote other music for the play, Chappell (PMOT II, 618) suggested he composed this too. Also: 180 Loyal Songs (1685) [Sawney will never, etc.]; Apollo’s Banquet (1687) [Sawney]; words and music in Wit and Mirth (1698), I.133; PPM (1719), I.316. The song was popular, appearing in several places, as well as being parodied. Gay selected it for a song in Polly (1729): “Should I not be bold” etc. In some ballad operas (Mitchell’s The Highland Fair, 1731 [46, no. xxix], etc.) the tune is called Corn riggs are bonny, from Allan Ramsay’s popular song (begins “My Patie is a lover gay”) from his ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd (1729), later in TTM 1733 (II.144).
Craig’s Scots Tunes (1730), 42 [Corn Rigs is Bonny] [whence Dick Songs (1903), 6]; McGibbon Scots Tunes (1742), 20; Bremner Scots Songs (1757), 21, etc. Words and music in Orpheus Caledonius (1733), II, no. 18; Calliope, or English Harmony (1739-46), I.41; Universal Harmony (1745), p. 43; Alex. Smith’s Musical Miscellany (1786); SMM (1787) I.94 (no. 93); and several single-sheet edd. [While a tune New Cornrigges is in the Blaikie MS. (1692 or so), this does not necessarily mean that there was an earlier “Cornrigges” tune extant; and Simpson points out (contra Dick, in Notes, p. 90) that much of the MS. is 18c, despite the date on the MS.] Verdict: not proven; but I think it was originally Scots. See Glen ESM, 50-51, who argues against English origin. See Simpson, BBBM, p. 633, for English history.
Ramsay’s song is the first published, but probably not the first written. A fragment of Burns’s time is in Cromek Reliques of R.B. (1808), 231
Morpeth Rant [see above]
Durham Reel
[tune 100 Pipers; cf. 100 tunes, pp. 9, 44]
Hundred Pipers, The
Jig
Kerr’s Reels 34 (C); [“Wi’ a HP”]; RSCDS Gr 3 (F). Emmerson
(Rantin’ Pipe, 161n.) says that played as a Scots measure, this becomes The
White Cockade, and it is probable that it derives therefrom. Lady Nairne’s words
(beginning “Wi’ a hundred pipers an’ a’, an’ a’”) are well known; in Life
& Songs, 204 (4x8 lines + 4-line cho.).
Brighton Camp
Brighton Camp is familiar to a great many people as one or another popular
song, both in the British Isles and North America but particularly as the military
song The Girl I Left Behind Me. The title of the tune Brighton Camp (and
no doubt the tune itself) seems to date quite specifically from 1758—to the dismay of Fuld, if
he were still alive—and refers to one of nine short-lived military defence camps set
up along England’s south coast during the Seven Years War of 1756-1763 (see: Winstock
1970, p. 67-68). In Morris Dancing, Brighton Camp is usually a handkerchief
dance. As The Girl I Left Behind Me in O’Neill Waifs & Strays (1922),
36 (no. 52). G, 2/4. Anglo-Irish title, The Spalpeen Fanach. O’Neill’s set
is elaborate, with variations by Jeremiah Breen, a famous blind fiddler of North Kerry.
In spite of that 1758 date and Wm. Chappell’s comments in Popular Music of the
Olden Time (708 ff.), no 18th-century copy of text or tune has yet been located.
A song “The girls we love so dearly”, p. 69 of The New Whim of the
Night, 1799, calls for the tune, and I have not found the title earlier. There is
a text of about 1805 among the 100 issues of the Charms of Melody, Dublin, c.
1795 -1811, but there is no Brighton Camp in this.
The translation of the Irish Spaílpín Fánac is “The Rambling Labourer”, under which title it is in O’Neill Music of Ireland (1903), 52 (# 299), giving alternate titles The Girl (etc.), I Love my Love in the Morning, As Slow our Ship (from Thomas Moore’s song). Other words: “The Wicklow Rangers”. The song “The Girl I left behind me” (begins “I’m lonesome since I cross’d the hills”) is in Chappell and other places. Another set (begins “The route has come, we march away”), by A. P. Graves, in his Irish Song Book (1895), 68. 3x8 lines.
Haste to the Wedding
Double jig
O’Neill Music of Ireland (1903), 184 (#987); alt. titles: A Trip to the
Gargle; Let brainspinning swains. Kerr’s Cal. 17; Kerr’s Mod
13; Robertson Athole Coll. (1884), 145; as Rural Felicity in Aird’s
Airs I.30; The Small Pin Cushion in Oswald, CPC 10, 8, is almost
identical; identified by Bayard 2, #447, as “Haste to the Wedding”; however
Oswald’s printing is earlier than the 1767 date of latter. It is entitled Carrick
Fergus in Brysson’s Curious Collection (1791), and in Gillespie MS,
1768. A modern song (begins “I’ve polished the pewter, I tidied the kitchen”), by P. J. McCall, in Ward (1947), 68 (+ m.); 3x8 lines + var. cho. The
old words (“Come haste to the wedding, ye friends and ye neighbours”) in
Herd 1791, II.310; 1869, II.347 [title “The Country Wedding”], 3x6 lines +
cho. (“Come, see rural felicity”, etc., whence the occasional name of
the tune).
Ribbon Dance
Karpeles & Schofield, 100 Tunes, p. 6.
Sicilian Circle
[Not a dance per se, but a formation (couples facing couples in a circle)]
Recorded by Peter Kennedy6 in 1953, in English public houses, for the British Broadcasting Corporation, under the auspices of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Kennedy had been sent to East Anglia by the B.B.C. in search of traditional music and song. Released on the E.M.I. 45 rpm EP: H.M.V. 7EG 8288.
Still I Love Him (Bob Roberts Acc. Melodeon)
Also known as He Comes Down Our Alley, Kennedy 1984, gives a London version on
p. 460 (no. 203) with notes to further variants on p. 479. Hugill (1969) cites the
nautical version as given here as typical of the songs of bargees and coast fishermen,
particularly from East Anglia. The tune is an adaptation of the ubiquitous
Villikins.
Ref:
Still I love him, I’ll forgive him,
I’ll go with him where ever he goes.
The song was recorded at “The Butt and Oyster” Pinmill, near Ipswich, Suffolk while Bob Roberts was the skipper of the sprit-sail Thames Barge Cambria. He was a popular performer on the BBC’s Radio and Television during the 1950s and 60s, both through his singing and his storytelling, and he recorded a number of folksongs and shanties, particularly through the EFDSS collected under the direction of Peter Kennedy. A book about his life on board the Cambria titled Last of the Sailormen can be found listed on the Internet.
Blow the Candle Out (Edgar Button)
The song has been in print since 1720 (see: D’Urfey Vol. VI, p. 342, The London
Prentice) and has been widely collected throughout the British Isles and the
United States since then. Cf. Legman Roll Me In Your Arms; Kennedy 396, no.
170, and note p. 426.
The Foggy Dew (Harry Cox)
Numerous versions of The Foggy Dew have been collected, published and recorded
in Britain and the United States, and versions similar to this particular one have
been collected both in Somerset and in America. Also, Ye Banks and Braes of Bonny
Doon, by Robert Burns, used a variant of the tune. Harry Cox had a tremendous
repertoire and recorded more songs for the BBC Library archives than any other
traditional folksinger during the 1950s. Cf. Reeve Idiom 111 (no. 33); see
intro., 45-57; Kennedy 400 [no. 174]; note, 428.
The Nutting Girl (Cyril Poacher)
With the exception of Baring-Gould, who collected The Nutting Girl probably in the 1880's, (under the title A-hunting we will go), (q.v. Baring-Gould & Hitchcock 1974, pp. 12-13) this song has mostly been collected during the twentieth century, generally in the South of England and East Anglia, from Devonshire to Suffolk. The melody has been popular for a long time — probably for considerably longer than the words. Variously it has been used for English Country Dances and Morris Dances, and the tune has also been used for songs from Lancashire and Yorkshire, Mowing Match Ballad (or Song) given in Palmer 1979, pp. 200 to 203, and Howgill Lads, respectively. Both are cited by Kennedy, p. 435. In the mid-nineteenth century the Irish song writer, librettist, and Music Hall performer Samuel Lover (1797—1868) used the melody for his very popular song, The Low-Backed Car, (see Healy, Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland, Vol. 1, pp. 63-64) about Peggy, a pretty farm girl, driving her horse and trap to market. Roy Palmer, in his notes to the song, (1979, pp. 132-133) observes that hunting for nuts—mostly hazelnuts and beechnuts, when I was growing up in Devonshire—was generally done in September, at about the same time ploughing began in the fall. He also notes an old country saying, that a good season for nuts meant a good season for babies the following year!
Ballantyne 1994, p. 47.
ref:
With my fal-lal, to me ral-tal-lal, Whack fol-the-dear all day,
And what few nuts that poor girl had, She threw them all away.
With my fal-lal, to me ral-tal-lal, Whack fol-the-dear all day,
And what few nuts that poor girl had, She threw them all away.
The Barley Mow (Jack French)
Kennedy’s’ notes to the song (tune & text p. 595, no. 265) are worth quoting in full:
All over southern England this was the song to be sung at Harvest Supper. Here is a typical Cornish description taken from J. C. Tregarthen’s John Penrose: A Romance of the Land's End:Cf. also Chappell PMOT, 745.‘That night, as our custom is at ‘guldice’ [harvest supper], the firstling of the flock was served for supper with fresh-cut vegetables and baked figgy pudding to follow. Supper over, Miss Jennifer took down last year’s neck from near the blunderbuss and hump in its place the new neck, bedizened with pink ribbons while we harvesters upstanding sang The Barley Mow.’
The ‘neck’ is the last sheaf of corn8 or barley cut at the harvest. In some areas, particularly Somerset, there was a ceremony preceding the harvest supper which was called ‘crying the neck’ It was the custom for a young man to run with the last sheaf from the field into the farmhouse while all the women came out and threw buckets of water over him.
Kennedy 1984, p. 623
Notes:
1 With the one exception of the track Corn Riggs, by Jack
Armstrong’s Band, added as a filler.
2 q.v. Kennedy 1949 and 1964, both of which are in the Society’s Reference
Library.
3 i.e. Père Marin Mersenne (1588-1648), friend of Descartes and other
scientists. He studied the relationships of the notes of the scale and measured the
speed of sound. The author of Harmonie Universelle.]
4 The word bacca is short for tobacco and the pipes referred to are the
long, fragile, clay, churchwarden pipes.
5 The dancers danced over and round the pipes which were laid crosswise
on the ground.
6 son of Douglas and Helen Kennedy (q.v. under “Nan Fleming-Williams
and The Country Dance Band” above).
7 This verse (4) is missing from this particular recording.
8 Here ‘corn’ is a generic term for cereal crops; wheat, barley, oats or
rye, in particular.
9 Maid-of-all-work (O.E.D.)
10 “The tavern” is given in Kennedy as the last verse but is not
on this particular recording.
Bibliography.
BALLANTYNE, Mike
1994 Pint Pot & Plough. Thirty-One English Traditional
Folksongs . Cobble Hill: Barley Wine Music.
BARING-GOULD, Sabine and Gordon HITCHCOCK.
1974 Folk Songs of the West Country. Newton Abbot, London,
North Pomfret (VT) and Vancouver (B.C.): David & Charles.
D’URFEY, Thomas.
1719-20 Wit and Mirth: or Pills To Purge Melancholy. New
York: Folklore Library Publishers, Inc. 1959.
FULD, James J.
1985 The Book of World-Famous Music, Classical, Popular and
Folk. New York: Dover Publications, Inc.
English Folk Dance & Song Society.
1958 Journal of the E.F.D.S.S, Vol. VIII, No. 3. London.
HEALY, James N.
1985 Ballads from the Pubs of Ireland, Vol. 1. Dublin: The
Mercier Press.
HUGILL, Stan.
1969 Shanties and Sailors' Songs. New York: Praeger
Publishers.
KENNEDY, Douglas.
1949 England’s Dances. Folk-Dancing To-Day and Yesterday.
London: G. Bell & Sons, Ltd.
1964 English Folk Dancing. Today and Yesterday. London: G.
Bell and Sons Ltd.
KENNEDY, Peter.
1975 Folksongs of Britain and Ireland. New York: Schirmer. [British ed. pub. Cassell.]
PALMER, Roy.
1979 Everyman's Book of English Country Songs. London,
Melbourne & Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
PECK, Arthur.
1959 The Morris Dances of England. Privately printed for
The Morris Ring.
SHARP, Cecil J.
1911 The Morris Book with a Description of Dances as performed
by The Morris-Men of England. In Two Parts. Part IV. London: Novello and Company
Limited.
SHARP, Cecil J. and Herbert C. MACILWAINE.
1907 The Morris Book. A history of Morris Dancing with a
description of eleven dances as performed by the Morris-men of England. London:
Novello and Company Limited.
1909 The Morris Book with a Description of Dances as performed
by The Morris-Men of England. In Two Parts. Part II. London: Novello and Company
Limited.
1910 The Morris Book with a Description of Dances as performed
by The Morris-Men of England. In Two Parts. Part III. London: Novello and Company
Limited.
1912 The Morris Book with a Description of Dances as performed
by The Morris-Men of England. Part I (Second edition. Revised and entirely
re-written). London: Novello and Company, Ltd.
TREGARTHEN, J. C.
1923 John Penrose: A Romance of the Land's End. London.
John Murray.
WINSTOCK, Lewis.
1970 Songs & Music of the Redcoats 1642-1902. Harrisburg:
Stackpole Books.
A final note on the sound imperfections on the in vinyl records
Although we have tried our best to remove any pops and crackles that occur on the vinyl records, it has not always been possible to do so without compromising the integrity of the original music. Undoubtedly these slight imperfections will not interfere unduly with the listeners’ pleasure. However, it is also necessary to bring the listener’s attention to two skips that it was impossible to remove and for this, in particular, we apologise.
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| Last modified: December 20th 2005 |