Morris dancing in 7/8 time

[Jim Besser]

My group, the Foggy Bottom Morris Men, dancing

a new dance with a new tune written by our foreman

[Anglo Enthusiast]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing, Jim, and well played.

[Ondrej]

Super music. The rhythm is impressive.

[Paul Read]

Jim,

That's the tune that Maple Morris do their dance to. I thought one of them wrote it (or was it Gus?) The dance is similar too. Did youy base it on theirs?

[Jim Besser]

Jim,

That's the tune that Maple Morris do their dance to. I thought one of them wrote it (or was it Gus?) The dance is similar too. Did youy base it on theirs?

 

Andrew Marcus wrote the tune ("The Battle of Waterloopin") with the idea of someday using it for a Morris dance.

 

Part of the dance was worked out by Maple at the Rock Creek anniversary ale a few years back; the Foggy Bottom version is a variant by Andrew.

If I remember, TfM was at that ale; while we were singing inside, the Maple kids were outside working out the dance.

 

We have a second 7/8 dance, this one hankie, but it's not ready for prime time!

 

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2012 by Jim Besser

[Paul Read]

This from Stefan Read and Justin Morrison of Maple:

"Workshopping that dance with Andrew (he'd written the tune and had a

vision of corner crossing challenges) was a highlight of the Quail Ale

for us - so much so that we kept dancing and writing (to nickelharpa,

next to a trampoline) after Andrew went home. I'm not sure what he

thought of the result in the morning, but he was kind enough to play

it for us throughout the next day. Very cool to see how the original

dance turned out - I think this whole thing is a very good example of

the folk process in action"

 

Andrew Marcus is on both Foggy and Maple and he wrote the tune and the original dance (which I think both versions are different from now). Maple worked up one version and I suppose he worked up another with the Foggies.Also, Crystal Bailey deserves all credit for the title.

[Jim Besser]

This from Stefan Read and Justin Morrison of Maple:

"Workshopping that dance with Andrew (he'd written the tune and had a

vision of corner crossing challenges) was a highlight of the Quail Ale

for us - so much so that we kept dancing and writing (to nickelharpa,

next to a trampoline) after Andrew went home. I'm not sure what he

thought of the result in the morning, but he was kind enough to play

it for us throughout the next day. Very cool to see how the original

dance turned out - I think this whole thing is a very good example of

the folk process in action"

Andrew Marcus is on both Foggy and Maple and he wrote the tune and the original dance (which I think both versions are different from now). Maple worked up one version and I suppose he worked up another with the Foggies.Also, Crystal Bailey deserves all credit for the title.

 

Yep, that's about the way it happened. I watched Maple at the Quail Ale as they worked out the dance with Bruce Sagan playing nyckelharpa; really wonderful to watch all that creativity.

 

Bruce was on our UK tour last year, and when he wasn't dancing Plumb Boogery he was playing it with me - great fun. By the end of the tour we had a pretty cool sound worked out.

 

Here's another Foggy Bottom example of the dance:

Here's Maple doing the dance: