Morris Tune

[BAs]

Can anyone identify this Morris Tune played in the 3rd episode of the recent ITV series Stonehouse?

Edited January 6, 2023 by BAs

[Alan Day]

I cannot get any sound from this posting.

Al

[BAs]

Yes Sorry Alan. Don't know why but it does work if you download it. 

[BAs]

Here it is again as an mp3

[David Barnert]

Bonny Green Garters (Bampton).

 

The first measure is missing in the recording, as are the middle notes of many of the triplet figures and the shape of the last couple of notes is different, but it’s clearly the same tune.

 

Here’s a pdf of the tune from The Morris Ring web site representing Bacon’s “A Handbook of Morris Dances.”

[BAs]

Cheers David. Thanks for your your help (from across the Atlantic!). I had the Headington version, which was confusing! 

[Peter Laban]

The Top of Cork Road or Father O'Flynn in Ireland:

 

T: Father O'Flynn
R: jig

M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|:A|dAF DFA|ded cBA|dcd efg|fdf ecA|
dAF DFA|ded cBA|dcd efg fdd d2:|
|:g|fdf fga|ecA ABc|dcd Bed|cAA A2 c|
BGB Bcd|AFD DFA|dcd efg|fdd d2:|

 

 

[Notemaker]

Father O'Flynn.

Jig.

X: 2
T: On The Top Of Cork Road
R: jig

M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
"D"dAF DFA|"G"Bed "A"cBA|"D"d2d "A"efg|"D"fdf "A"ecA|
"D"dAF DFA|"G"Bed "A"cBA|"D"d2d "A"efg|1 "D"fdd d3:|2 fdd d2||
|:g|"D"fdf fga|"A"ecA ABc|"Bm"d2d fed|"A"cAA A2c|
"G"BGB Bcd|"D"AFD DFA|"G"dcd "A"efg|1 "D"fdd d2:|2 "D"fdd d3||

[David Barnert]

3 hours ago, BAs said:

Cheers David. Thanks for your your help (from across the Atlantic!). I had the Headington version, which was confusing! 

 

Interesting. When I first listened to your sound file, I thought “it’s only the A section,” but when I accessed the pdf, I saw that it also only had an A section. When I read your response, I thought I had no familiarity with the Headington version, so looked at the pdf and recognized it immediately. In this country, it is pretty much universal among morris dancers that when we do “Bonny Green,” we play the Bampton tune as the dancers do the Bampton figures (no chorus figure) and switch to the Headington tune (changing keys from D to G as we do) after “rounds” as the dancers process off the performance space single file. I had always assumed that the two tunes together were the complete tune of Bampton Bonny Green Garters.

 

2 hours ago, Peter Laban said:

The Top of Cork Road or Father O'Flynn in Ireland

 

I know the tune well. I wouldn’t have thought it was the same tune as what’s in the sound file. Some superficial similarities (bouncing around a D major triad in the first bar), but not the same tune.

Edited January 6, 2023 by David Barnert
added parenthetical comment in last sentence

[BAs]

Thanks for the suggestions. The Top of Cork Road is a good tune, which wasn't on my radar. However, I now thinking that the clip might well be of Laudnum Bunches. Another one new to me. 

[Peter Laban]

Father O'Flynn/Top of Cork Road goes back to an English tune, Yorkshire Lasses that became the wellknown Irish jig.

 

I have little doubt the OP's clip and the jig are versions of the same basic melody, that developed in different directions, suited to the use, time and place.  David and I will have to agree to disagree on that one.

[David Barnert]

2 hours ago, BAs said:

However, I now thinking that the clip might well be of Laudnum Bunches.

 

There are several morris tunes called “Laudnum Bunches” (or “Lads a-Bunchum” or “Lads a-Bunchun” or “Boys of the Bunch”). None that I could find on the Morris Ring web site resemble the clip at all.

 

https://themorrisring.org/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/headingtonLaudnumBunches1.pdf
https://themorrisring.org/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/headingtonLaudnumBunches2.pdf
https://themorrisring.org/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/adderburyLadsaBunchum.pdf
https://themorrisring.org/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/ascottBoysoftheBunch.pdf
https://themorrisring.org/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/hintonLadsABunchum1.pdf
https://themorrisring.org/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/hintonLadsABunchum2.pdf
https://themorrisring.org/sites/default/files/sheetmusic/sherborneLadsA-Bunchun.pdf

 

I’m sticking with “Bonny Green Garters,” a tune I have been playing for morris dancers for 36 years.

 

1 hour ago, Peter Laban said:

David and I will have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

I agree.

[BAs]

Seem to have opened a can of worms here. I was looking at the video clip: https://youtu.be/eC5K-cTxOwQ and to my untrained ear it looked and sounded very much like the clip from the TV show. Similar dance tradition etc. However, there are so many variations out there, as you say, and many points of overlap. So happy to leave it open to interpretation. 

 

[David Barnert]

7 hours ago, Peter Laban said:

Father O'Flynn/Top of Cork Road goes back to an English tune, Yorkshire Lasses that became the wellknown Irish jig.

 

I have little doubt the OP's clip and the jig are versions of the same basic melody, that developed in different directions, suited to the use, time and place.  David and I will have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

I stand corrected. I spent some time playing both tunes today (Bonny Green Garters and Top O’ Cork Road) and I can see how they might have had a common ancestor. It’s not just the first measure, as I mentioned above, but the G chord (with the B in the melody) in the 2nd measure and the shape of the cadence. We don’t have to disagree.

But I still think the recording is of BGG, much more than TOCR.

 

I’ve been playing both tunes for decades, one for morris and one for contra dancing and never noticed the relationship.

 

2 hours ago, BAs said:

Seem to have opened a can of worms here. I was looking at the video clip: https://youtu.be/eC5K-cTxOwQ and to my untrained ear it looked and sounded very much like the clip from the TV show. Similar dance tradition etc. However, there are so many variations out there, as you say, and many points of overlap. So happy to leave it open to interpretation. 

 

Yeah, that’s the Headington Laudanum Bunches. It has been said that there are only two morris dances, the one with hankies and the one with sticks. By the same token, all the tunes sound pretty much alike.

 

Here’s Bonny Green: https://youtu.be/SFnxaV_OZ58

 

They sing the Headington tune and then play Bampton, switching to Headington after rounds, as I described above. I hope you’ll agree that when they start playing Bampton BGG it’s the tune you opened this thread with.

 

[Jody Kruskal]

Sounds like BGG to me.

 

[Peter Laban]

13 hours ago, David Barnert said:

 

 

But I still think the recording is of BGG, much more than TOCR.

 

 

 

No doubt about that but hearing the recording in the first post my immediate thought was that was a variant of Father O' Flynn/ToCr and that was all my post wanted to say. The same tune, landed in Ireland and adapted there for local use/circumstances.

 

It is sometimes hard to see the relation between variants of the same melody. For example, I have been playing the jig Kit O'Mahony's for decades. KOM was Francis O Neill 's mother and he named the tune for her in his collection. I learned the jig initially  from a recording by Tommy People's but it was one of Paddy Murphy's signature tunes. Some years ago I lifted Kit O Mahony's hornpipe off the recording by Paddy Murphy, Peter O Loughlin and Paddy Canny. Never gave it much further thought until I heard Tommy Keane play the hornpipe last week. I hadn't played it for a while but it kept playing in my head for days after hearing it again. Then  finally a couple of days ago I had a light bulb moment and  realised the jig and the hornpipe are actually the same tune, played as different forms. And I am left wondering why I didn't spot the obvious any sooner.

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by Peter Laban