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Fieldtown Morris tunes


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On 5/18/2020 at 9:56 PM, Robin Harrison said:

Just found these today...............just lovely anglo playing.

              He's going to be posting one a day.

Robin

 

Walk of the Twopenny Post man

Trunkles

 

Thanks Robin, Here are a few more:

 

Dearest Dicky

 

Mrs Casey

 

Fieldtown Processional

 

Glorisher

 

Cheers,

Adrian

Edited by adrian brown
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On 5/18/2020 at 3:56 PM, Robin Harrison said:

Just found these today...............just lovely anglo playing.

              He's going to be posting one a day.

Robin

 

Walk of the Twopenny Post man

Trunkles

 

 

Wow. I play two different versions of Trunkles, for Bledington and Bampton - the modal version and the more common one - but never heard this one. Amazing playing - as usual, from Adrian.

 

jb

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17 hours ago, adrian brown said:

 

Dearest Dicky

 

Mrs Casey

 

 

 

All great.  Dearest Dicky has always been one of my favorite Morris tunes - but sadly, none of the sides I've played for has danced it.

 

Glorishers - That's at least the third totally different tune I've heard with that name in the Morris realm, and by far the most interesting. Thanks for it

 

jb

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Thanks Jim, I remember dancing Glorisher as a teenager down in Sussex and ending up on my back in a rose garden after the last chorus - those were the days... I found this video of the dance on youtube, but it does seem to me the musicians are a trifle optimistic in their choice of tempo. You play for dancers all the time, what do you think?

I would love to be able to do justice to the Sharp piano arrangement of this tune, but it needs some adaptation to play it on the Anglo and I've never found a solution that works.

 

Adrian

 

 

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50 minutes ago, adrian brown said:

Thanks Jim, I remember dancing Glorisher as a teenager down in Sussex and ending up on my back in a rose garden after the last chorus - those were the days... I found this video of the dance on youtube, but it does seem to me the musicians are a trifle optimistic in their choice of tempo. You play for dancers all the time, what do you think?

I would love to be able to do justice to the Sharp piano arrangement of this tune, but it needs some adaptation to play it on the Anglo and I've never found a solution that works.

 

Adrian

 

 

 

Music sounds great to me .

 

I love hearing great Morris tunes out of context. So many are really nice tunes, but you tend to lose the loveliness in the clatter of sticks and the weird pacing the dancing requires.

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5 hours ago, adrian brown said:

 I found this video of the dance on youtube, but it does seem to me the musicians are a trifle optimistic in their choice of tempo. You play for dancers all the time, what do you think?

 

 

I watched the opening figure and chorus  That's a stately pace and many older dancers would struggle to make it flow that slowly.

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On 5/28/2020 at 7:47 AM, adrian brown said:

I found this video of the dance on youtube, but it does seem to me the musicians are a trifle optimistic in their choice of tempo.

 

On 5/28/2020 at 1:14 PM, Mikefule said:

That's a stately pace and many older dancers would struggle to make it flow that slowly.

 

5 hours ago, adrian brown said:

That was my feeling too Mike!

 

But these guys are young and seem to be having no trouble with it (except for the guy who drops a hankie).

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3 hours ago, David Barnert said:

 

 

But these guys are young and seem to be having no trouble with it (except for the guy who drops a hankie).

 

Yes, that's my thinking.

 

It's interesting, playing for a Morris side with diverse ages and wide-ranging athleticism.  I often find myself in a situation in which a robust, powerful young guy is across from a veteran who isn't nearly as spry.  The young guy wants the music really slow, with more variation to account for his air time;   the old guy (like my age) needs it a lot faster because he dances much closer to the ground.  There are times in the dance when the music is right for one, which means it will be wrong for the other. Looking for some happy medium generally doesn't work.

 

When I started playing for dancers a long time ago, one of the people who helped me along told me to play to the best dancer in the set, in the hope that  he/she will pull others along.  Not a perfect solution, but it seems mostly to work.

Edited by Jim Besser
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Firstly, thanks again Adrian for recording and posting these Morris tunes.

             So much  to enjoy just for listening and for learning.

                    I have always thought that anyone interested in playing the anglo concertina in an accompanied style can learn a huge amount from how you play.......and in turn I know you have acknowledged Gary Couver's books  in helping you.

 

Quote

I love hearing great Morris tunes out of context. So many are really nice tunes, but you tend to lose the loveliness in the clatter of sticks and the weird pacing the dancing requires.

 

 

    Jim B..............., I couldn't agree with you more on the two counts; the sometimes bizarre sound if you listen the music without the visuals and then the different pleasure from playing the tunes  with no constraints (ie out of context).

                  Both are wonderful......but quite different.

 

I play Glorishears for the (aging !) Toronto Morris Men. It is such a totally satisfying Morris tune to play for them to dance to, but at the tempo you need to play it, even if the men were 19yrs old, borders on odd.

       Likewise, I play Mrs.Casey for the men…………it makes a great session tune when played non-dance speed.

                 

 For interest, I put this set together and recorded it for the Toronto English music session, no concertinas played and not a Morris man in sight …..I call it the………….Joyous Morris set

      

              

          

                

             

 

                   

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7 hours ago, Robin Harrison said:

   

   Jim B..............., I couldn't agree with you more on the two counts; the sometimes bizarre sound if you listen the music without the visuals and then the different pleasure from playing the tunes  with no constraints (ie out of context).

                  Both are wonderful......but quite different.

 

I play Glorishears for the (aging !) Toronto Morris Men. It is such a totally satisfying Morris tune to play for them to dance to, but at the tempo you need to play it, even if the men were 19yrs old, borders on odd.

       Likewise, I play Mrs.Casey for the men…………it makes a great session tune when played non-dance speed.

                 

 For interest, I put this set together and recorded it for the Toronto English music session, no concertinas played and not a Morris man in sight …..I call it the………….Joyous Morris set          

 

                   

 

Great tunes, Robin. I seem to recall playing a rousing Constant Billy with you on the patio of a pub in London, Ont., years ago.  I do miss getting to play tunes with you!

 

Some Morris tunes that work great out of context:  Orange in Bloom; Step Back; Old Molly Oxford.

 

My English ceilidh band uses several Morris tunes for contras and ceilidhs, including Wm and Nancy, Valentine and the tune for the Upton Stick Dance - sped up and evened out.

 

Funny story: at a contra, we ended a set with Valentine, and for fun, we ended the tune with slows.  The dancers didn't get the joke, but the caller was a Morris dancer, and she totally cracked up.

 

 

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33 minutes ago, Devils' Dream said:

I'm sure most of you have Jeff Bigler's "Playing for Morris Dancing".  You are exactly right that one has to play for the dancers.

 

Of course that’s true not just for Morris Dancing, but for any kind of dancing. Standing there playing a stream of notes while people are dancing is not playing for dancing.

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But if you’ve got a, er, mixed ability set in front of you, do you play to the best dancer, or the worst, or ... I try to aim at the middle. If I get roughly equal complaints that it was too slow and too fast, I reckon I’ve done a good day’s playing :) 

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