North West Morris

[Graham Collicutt]

Okay, for those still following this, I looked through Mally's tunes and through the ones sent by Steve, and the paper sent by Mark...thanks, all. No matches. So I transcribed it....below. It is a strange one; it sounds a bit like a grab bag of ruffles and rhythms, scotched together...but they repeat it on dance after dance in 1978-1979, as the last tune in their schtick.

Sorry for the complex notation; I was trying to do a note-for-note, working on their playing technique. Not easy---the public performances are to the banging of a bunch of drums (and the shouts of orders from the lead dancer); the one solo recording of Marshall indoors has him not at his best....so this is the best I can do. Marshall and Coleman, old-timers both, are basically playing in octaves, the classic old way, with few chords and no oom-pahs. The piece is more inventive than it may seem, as they skillfully move from C to G row and back again....you'd have to hear the tape on that, but if you try to play this and have difficulty with parts, try switching rows. You don't need the third row for anything.

 

So...the question of the day, morrisers....does this bag of notes have a name?

 

Best, and thanks,

Dan

 

Hi Dan

 

Just curious, in bars 7 and 9 you have dotted quavers under dotted crotchets. Is that correct?

 

Graham

[Robin Madge]

This sounds rather familiar!

 

I play for Wrigley head who do "Royton" as one of their dances.

 

We start with "Oh Susanna", playe slowly through two A parts then up to speed on the B parts as the dance accelerates from a slow march to a polka. Next comes "The Manley tune" which has some similarities to "Brighton camp" at first hearing. After that we have "Auld Lang syne" followed by "Brighton Camp".

The end of the dance (variable length depending on how many figures are called) is done to the "Nancy" wich is slow and involves dancers jumping into the centre of the long set etc. and needs the person calling the figures to attract the musician's attention!

 

Robin Madge

[Dan Worrall]

Hi Dan

 

Just curious, in bars 7 and 9 you have dotted quavers under dotted crotchets. Is that correct?

 

Graham

 

Nope....I goofed. The timing of the left and right hands should be the same. I knew something looked funny there!

 

Edited to add:

On second thought, that is a goof by the software, not moi. For example, on the first note in bar 7, those two notes are both dotted eighth notes (sorry, we yanks don't do crotchets and quavers...I'm not sure which is which!). The two notes should have been joined to a common stave (at least, I think that is the term for the vertical line...don't have my music dictionary at hand). You'll note that the second note in that bar, a sixteenth note, does contain a joined pair, which is correct. Without that join, it would look just as squiffy as the first pair. The software goofed....when I played it back on the midi version, all was fine (I always check my notations by playing them back on the midi, which is why I didn't catch the goof). Now I have to figure out how to trick the software into correcting itself. Groan.

Edited September 9, 2009 by Dan Worrall

[Dan Worrall]

This sounds rather familiar!

 

I play for Wrigley head who do "Royton" as one of their dances.

 

We start with "Oh Susanna", playe slowly through two A parts then up to speed on the B parts as the dance accelerates from a slow march to a polka. Next comes "The Manley tune" which has some similarities to "Brighton camp" at first hearing. After that we have "Auld Lang syne" followed by "Brighton Camp".

The end of the dance (variable length depending on how many figures are called) is done to the "Nancy" wich is slow and involves dancers jumping into the centre of the long set etc. and needs the person calling the figures to attract the musician's attention!

 

Robin Madge

Robin,

 

Everything you mention matches the tapes of various performances that I am hearing...except the 'Nancy". Nancy Dawson in Mally's sounds like a nursery rhyme, not the tune I hear. Does the tune I transcribed sound like your version of Nancy?

 

Thanks,

Dan

[Robin Madge]

I'm not a dot reader but the Nancy if played in C wolud start : E G E C , E G E C . E G E C G A C' (not that I'm any good at tabulature either).

We play it in G, of course!

 

The Wrigley Head tunes have been printed out and are given out to prospective musicians for the side. I have a copy hidden away somewhere.....

 

Robin Madge

[Dan Worrall]

I'm not a dot reader but the Nancy if played in C wolud start : E G E C , E G E C . E G E C G A C' (not that I'm any good at tabulature either).

We play it in G, of course!

 

The Wrigley Head tunes have been printed out and are given out to prospective musicians for the side. I have a copy hidden away somewhere.....

 

Robin Madge

Thanks Robin; I don't think that that matches. Cross Morris seems to be the tune's name.

 

Cheers,

Dan

[David Barnert]

The two notes should have been joined to a common stave (at least, I think that is the term for the vertical line...don't have my music dictionary at hand).

Actually, no. In fact "stave" (much as the Brits seem to love to use it) isn't really a word at all. A staff is the set of five horizontal lines upon which music is notated. The plural of "staff" is "staves." But if you have staves and you eliminate all but one of them, what you're left with is a staff, not a stave. (Now I'm really going to get it! )

 

I believe the word you're looking for (the vertical line attached to a note head) is a stem.

[Dan Worrall]

The two notes should have been joined to a common stave (at least, I think that is the term for the vertical line...don't have my music dictionary at hand).

Actually, no. In fact "stave" (much as the Brits seem to love to use it) isn't really a word at all. A staff is the set of five horizontal lines upon which music is notated. The plural of "staff" is "staves." But if you have staves and you eliminate all but one of them, what you're left with is a staff, not a stave. (Now I'm really going to get it! )

 

I believe the word you're looking for (the vertical line attached to a note head) is a stem.

David,

 

As my children used to say, "Whatever!" I declined to put in the time to look up the term--it would be faster to just fix it (it is still on my to-do list, however, along with re-titling it). But I am glad to know what that little thingy is called. With advancing prevalence of senior moments, I should remember it for about five minutes!

 

Now where did I set my keys?

 

Best regards,

Dan