No Man's Jig - Cecil Sharp

[adrian brown]

Recorded at one of our recent Scottish concerts, this is our attempt at adapting one of Sharp's beautiful piano arrangements for the recorder and anglo.

 

https://youtu.be/MHTBpMV_xeU

Adrian

[Chris Drinkwater]

Recorded at one of our recent Scottish concerts, this is our attempt at adapting one of Sharp's beautiful piano arrangements for the recorder and anglo.

 

https://youtu.be/MHTBpMV_xeU

 

Adrian

 

 

Lovely, Adrian.

 

Chris

Edited November 17, 2015 by Chris Drinkwater

[Jim Besser]

Recorded at one of our recent Scottish concerts, this is our attempt at adapting one of Sharp's beautiful piano arrangements for the recorder and anglo.

 

https://youtu.be/MHTBpMV_xeU

 

 

Gorgeous. You a deft touch with doing accompaniment on the Anglo - no easy feat.

[adrian brown]

Thanks! I've always had a soft spot for Cecil Sharp's arrangements - I think this is because my first exposure to folk music was at primary school where our young teacher (she's probably in her 70's now!) would pound out songs like "Admiral Benbow" and " Oh No John No" on the class piano. It's a shame Sharp's arrangements are so seldom heard these days - I personally find them both innovative and inspiring (as well as being quite tricky to play) - they are probably due their own revival…

Adrian

[Jim Besser]

Thanks! I've always had a soft spot for Cecil Sharp's arrangements - I think this is because my first exposure to folk music was at primary school where our young teacher (she's probably in her 70's now!) would pound out songs like "Admiral Benbow" and " Oh No John No" on the class piano. It's a shame Sharp's arrangements are so seldom heard these days - I personally find them both innovative and inspiring (as well as being quite tricky to play) - they are probably due their own revival…

 

Adrian

 

Yep. I've always heard this tune performed for sword dancing -and in that context, it's never very interesting.

 

One of the things that's interested me in recent years is playing Morris tunes in a concert context, as Dapper has done. Some of the tunes are so lovely, and deserve to be played with more attention to melody than we can do when playing for Morris.

[Brian Peters]

Very sweet!

[adrian brown]

Yep. I've always heard this tune performed for sword dancing -and in that context, it's never very interesting.

 

One of the things that's interested me in recent years is playing Morris tunes in a concert context, as Dapper has done. Some of the tunes are so lovely, and deserve to be played with more attention to melody than we can do when playing for Morris.

 

 

 

Very sweet!

 

Thanks!

 

It's a tune that seems to have happily existed in both "high" and "low" cultural settings. The earliest version of this tune I've found is a dorian version in the supplement to the 6th edition of Playford's Dancing Master (1679). From the 7th edition (1686) onwards it's written as a G major tune and also makes an appearance in Walsh's Compleat Country Dancing-Master of 1740

 

Sharp collects the tune as a Sword dance in Sleight, Yorkshire in 1912 and publishes his piano arrangement in his second volume of Sword Dances, presumably aimed primarily for middle class consumption. We've split this basically 4 part arrangement between us, with the recorder taking the melody line.

 

Adrian

[David Barnert]

It's also very similar to a tune I've always known as "Buttered Peas."

X: 1
T:Buttered Peas
M:C|
L:1/4
K:G
  d/c/|Bd dc/B/|ce ed/c/|Bd dc/B/|cA Ad/c/|
       Bd dc/B/|ce ed/c/|Bd A > c|BG G   :|
|:d/c/|Bd g > a|g/f/e/d/gd   |Bd gf/g/|aA Ad/c/|
       Bd g > a|g/f/e/d/gd/c/|Bd A > c|BG G   :|

Edited to add:

 

Edited December 14, 2015 by David Barnert

[adrian brown]

It's also very similar to a tune I've always known as "Buttered Peas."

 

 

It's very close, isn't it David! I've not found any collected versions of "Buttered Peas" in the Full English, just a reference to a morris tune from Upton Snodsbury. Nice to know there's a morris connection too...

 

Adrian

[David Barnert]

... a reference to a morris tune from Upton Snodsbury. Nice to know there's a morris connection too...

 

The guy I learned it from played it for a team of Garland dancers (in Massachusetts). I love the last line in your reference:

 

They danced to the tune of Buttered Peas, but Mr. Reynolds could not remember how it went.

Edited December 16, 2015 by David Barnert

[adrian brown]

 

 

The guy I learned it from played it for a team of Garland dancers (in Massachusetts). I love the last line in your reference:

 

They danced to the tune of Buttered Peas, but Mr. Reynolds could not remember how it went.

 

 

...or perhaps it was "Come into the Garden Maud"

 

Adrian

[David Barnert]

...or perhaps it was "Come into the Garden Maud"

 

I have no doubt that's absolutely hilarious, Adrian, but even being familiar with the Tennyson, I have no idea what you're on about.

 

[Edited to add link]

Edited December 18, 2015 by David Barnert

[adrian brown]

 

...or perhaps it was "Come into the Garden Maud"

 

I have no doubt that's absolutely hilarious, Adrian, but even being familiar with the Tennyson, I have no idea what you're on about.

 

[Edited to add link]

 

Well David, I've always felt "Come into the Garden Maud" was a variation on the "Come and look at my etchings" gambit. And since the collector of the source we were discussing was Maud Karpeles…

 

I'll admit it was perhaps too oblique a reference, so my apologies are due :-)

 

Adrian