Dan Worrall's CDRom on Anglo

[michael sam wild]

I just got an email from Rod Stradling of Musical Traditions and have ordered Dan Worrall's eagerly awaited CD-Rom 'book' House Dance on older octave styles. £12 + p&p

[12barblues]

Thanks for the tipoff, Mike. I've ordered a copy as well. Dan will be getting rich!

[Dan Worrall]

Michael, you beat me to the punch; I've been traveling and couldn't get home before Rod sent the notice out.

 

First off, I won't be "getting rich"! It is strictly a not-for-profit endeavor, and I won't earn a dime. This is a digital book with embedded sound files of early players of the Anglo-German concertina from the four countries where recordings of early players (all were active players before 1920) exist: England, Ireland, Australia, and South Africa.

 

I've posted Rod's letter below, which has all the info as well as an ordering link. For Australians, the National Library of Australia will soon (weeks?) be selling copies at their site. We may soon have a vendor in South Africa as well.

 

All sales in Europe and North America, from Musical Traditions, will benefit the Musical Traditions song and music weekends as well as the EFDSS Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. Sales at the NLA will benefit the National Library of Australia, who are the premier agency for collecting and archiving traditional music in that country. Any sales within South Africa (when that link is up) will benefit the Traditional Boeremusiek Club of South Africa, who have worked to preserve the old recordings of Boer musicians there. We're exploring getting a few other vendors in North America and Ireland.

 

The effort began after the completion of my history books on the Anglo-German concertina (see my website, link below). When people began to write me for help finding some of the recordings that I had transcribed from some of the old time players, I realized that many if not most modern Anglo players had not heard many if not most of the few recorded classic players of the past, and (like me at one time) were largely unaware of how global a movement the house dances were. And that few young players of the Irish style had much awareness of the great change in both playing style and traditional music repertoire between the old-time Irish concertina players of the generation who came of age before 1920, who played for house dances, and those of the middle twentieth century to today...and why that abrupt change happened.

 

I hope you enjoy it! There is much to be savored in the playing of the old-timers.

 

Just a brief word of thanks to the many, many people in these four countries who helped in providing audio and text material, and helped with editing the work. They are too numerous to list here, but are found in the acknowledgment section of the CD-Rom book.

 

Cheers,

Dan

-----

Here is Rod Stradling's notice:

 

Dear All,

 

I'm very pleased to announce a new CD-ROM release from Musical Traditions Records.

 

House Dance (MTCD251) is a Digital Book with embedded audio files, by Dan Worrall - a well-respected authority on the Anglo concertina.

 

The heyday of the Anglo-German concertina (1860s to World War I) coincided with a time when social dances in houses, barns, woolsheds and community halls were all the rage in working class urban and rural areas. Here are 172 archival recordings of 36 early concertina players performing schottisches, polkas, quadrilles, waltzes, barn dances, mazurkas, and varsovianas from Ireland, England, Australia and South Africa - plus more from modern players in the old octave style. The digital book explores such topics as:

Nineteenth century social dances

Global sources of the house dance repertoire

Old-style octave playing on the concertina

The banning of house dances in early twentieth century Ireland

Biographies and playing styles of early concertina players (with archival recordings)

Modern players in the old octave style (with recordings)

 

It also includes:

A tutorial on octave playing (with recordings, walking you through playing in octaves and across the rows)

A 'resources' page, giving details of the real and virtual information available on the subject.

A discograpy of all the recordings used.

 

The whole thing includes more than 150 photos and graphics, and more than 200 sound files in MP3 format.

 

The players are:

Australia: Dooley Chapman, George Bennett, Con Klippel, Jim Harrison, Charlie Ordish, Fred Holland, Clem O'Neal, Susan Colley, Ernie James, Percy Yarnold.

Ireland: Musicians of the house dance repertoire: Mary Ann Carolan, Ella Mae O'Dwyer, Katey Hourican, Terry Teahan, Stack Ryan, Jim Droney, Martin Howley. Musicians of the céilí dance era: Elizabeth Crotty, William Mullaly, Michael Doyle, Patrick Flanagan, Tom Barry.

England: William Kimber, Scan Tester, Ellis Marshall, Fred Kilroy, Eric Holland, Bill Link.

South Africa: Faan Harris, Chris Chomse, Kerrie Bornman, Hans Bodenstein, Willie Palm, Pietie Prinsloo, Silver de Lange.

Modern players in the old style: Australia: Ian Simpson, Ray Simpson, Keith Klippel, Peter Ellis, Dave de Hugard. England: Will Duke, Dave Prebble, Harry Scurfield. Ireland: Sean O'Dwyer. South Africa: Stephaan van Zyl.

 

This fine CD-ROM is available now from the MT Records website . Price £12.00.

 

 

Rod Stradling

Musical Traditions Records

with on-line credit/debit card purchasing at: www.mtrecords.co.uk

Musical Traditions Internet Magazine at: www.mustrad.org.uk

1 Castle Street, Stroud, Glos GL5 2HP, UK

01453 759475 Mobile: 0793 099 1641

rod@mustrad.org.uk

[Dan A]

As a young player of the Irish style whose favorite Anglo player remains Ella-Mae o'Dwyer, allow me to say that I AM SO EXCITED OMG OMG.

 

Seriously, thank you so much for the time and energy of love and scholarship that went into making this happen!

 

--Dan

[Takayuki YAGI]

Thanks Dan for making this great work. And thanks Mike to let us know. I've just ordered one copy.

For these years I am sticking to octave playing, and looking forward to reading chapters and listening to sounds soon.

--

Taka

[Marcus]

Placed my order too - looking forward to hearing the Australian and South African recordings the most!

[Dan Worrall]

Placed my order too - looking forward to hearing the Australian and South African recordings the most!

 

Marcus,

 

You will no doubt enjoy the musicians of both countries. The Aussies will no doubt be especially surprising, as many modern-day players even in Australia have heard so few of these Aussie old-timers (Dooley Chapman being an exception). George Bennett, born 1878, is simply amazing, recorded well into his nineties. And anyone who hasn't heard Faan Harris simply hasn't heard one of the greatest concertina players who ever lived.

 

Dan A., listen to Mary Ann Carolan if you like Mrs. O'Dwyer. Both were great players whose playing style and house dance repertoire is all but ignored in Ireland today. And Mike, I tried to emphasize how similarly all these guys in all four countries played back then...in octaves for dancing for their friends, not for big inanimate concert crowds. Hope you all enjoy it!

 

Cheers,

Dan

[michael sam wild]

What an excellent CD-Rom!. It's an ideal way to put out a multimedia product. For those who can't easily access the tracks it is a boon.. Thanks to you Dan and Rod Stradling of Musical Traditions and all the generous collaborators and contributors. Would taht tere were more of these compilations .

[andydiamond]

My copy is ordered and paid for - - - this is a "must have" for Anglo players - - - and I havn't even heard it yet!

If Rod says it's o.k. that will do for me - - -

 

Looking forward to listening to the Aussie players, maybe we could re-start the House Dances, the current session/club scene in my area ( N.E.Lancashire ) is not what it was, a few house dances may be the way forward in these recessionary times?

 

Not "kicking up the sawdust" - - - "kicking up the carpet" !

 

Andy.

 

clock maker and repairer

[Dan Worrall]

Michael, thanks for the kind words....glad you like it. Andy, a house dance is always a great idea!

 

Those who buy it, please let me know which players are your favorites; I'm curious. Also, give me a count of how many of these 34 old time players you had ever heard a recording of before (not just heard the name). I can tell you that before 2008, when I started researching this topic, my number was about 10, or only about 30%.

 

One other thing. This is a CD ROM, not a CD, which means you must play it on a PC or Mac, not a boom box. I've copied a few notes from the intro below, just in case any of you have issues in opening it. In particular, you should be able to play this so that you can read the text and play recorded tunes at the same time. If your PC's music player obscures the text when playing (this should not be a problem with most of you), then follow the instructions below.

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

This CD-ROM project is composed of Web Pages, and runs on your Web Browser. It should auto-run when you put it in your CD/DVD drive. If it doesn't, start your web browser and Open the file 'index.htm' in the CD-ROM.

........

The MP3 sound file links are shown by the name of the tune (or piece of speech) being displayed in red, bold and underlined. When placed over them, the cursor will change to a pointing hand. When clicked, the link will activate your currently installed media player - which may obscure much of the page you were reading at the time!

 

If you use the Windows Media Player, you can set it to run in 'Compact Mode', which overcomes this problem. To do this temporarily, click the button in the bottom/right corner of the Player (the text 'Switch to compact mode' will pop-up). To do it a little more permanently, click on the Windows Media Player's 'Tools' menu and select 'Options'. In the 'Player settings' section, select the 'Start the mini Player for file names that contain this text' option, and type .mp3 in the box below it, and click OK.

 

Once activated by playing the first sound clip, just click anywhere in the main page (even whilst it's still playing) and it will disappear, but continue to play, and return again when you play the next sound clip.

 

If you use a different Media Player, you may be able to set it to run in a similar compact mode.

[Takayuki YAGI]

I received my copy on Friday

As I like old players in Ireland, I first listened to tracks from chapter 8 and very much impressed especially with playing of Katey Hourican and Martin Howley. I like old Clare polkas and I realized that polkas were played in other counties as well with concertina.

I also listened to tracks form Australia. They were completely new to me and I like the playing of Dooley Chapman. It was interesting for me to find some tunes from Australia are sharing very similar melody with English/Irish/Scottish tunes I've heard. The description on the book about tune origin is very informative.

Thanks again Dan for the great work and sharing with us. I will be excited to listen to remaining chapters and read the book.

 

--

Taka

[Dan Worrall]

Just to let everyone know that I have added a section of "Errata and Additions" to my website ( www.angloconcertina.org ) for my new digital book, described elsewhere in this thread. There are only a few items there so far, but some may be of interest to those who purchased the CD.

 

In any complicated project like this, that features often obscure players from four countries on three continents, it is inevitable that glitches creep in. I try to capture them as they arrive, from readers who are kind enough to pass them on. It is my goal to produce a corrected second edition by the end of 2012, which will be sent to the main physical libraries of record in the traditional music world, at least as regards the concertina: ITMA and CCÉ archives in Ireland, the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library in London, the National Library of Australia, and the archives of the Traditional Boer Music Club of South Africa. Each already has the original version.

 

Fortunately, what I am beginning to receive is not just errors, but also first hand accounts that help fill out the story of the early concertina players. These can add greatly to our understanding of that earlier world, and generally come from people who I may not have known existed when preparing this digital book and music archive. Thus, this online section consists of both corrections of errors and additions of new information.

 

Please, if you know of material pertaining to either, send it in!

 

And, by the way, the kind comments I have received are greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers,

Dan

[Chris Timson]

I've had the CD for a couple of weeks but pressure of time has meant I've only been able to make a couple of quick dips into it. That's been enouh to know that I need to set aside some time to do it proper justice. I'm looking forward to that.

 

Nice one, Dan.

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

[Dan Worrall]

I've had the CD for a couple of weeks but pressure of time has meant I've only been able to make a couple of quick dips into it. That's been enouh to know that I need to set aside some time to do it proper justice. I'm looking forward to that.

 

Nice one, Dan.

 

Cheers,

 

Chris

 

Thanks, Chris.

 

By the way, someone told me there was a glitch in opening the errata file; that has been corrected now. Please send anny errata or additions, if you have them, to me via the email function on this concertina.net site.

Thanks,

Dan

Edited February 20, 2012 by Dan Worrall