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| Sonnet (Sweeps) | Ham House or The Cherry Gardens | The Morgan Rattler | Alexandra Park | Parsons Farewell | Theme Vannitaise | The Dusty Miller | |
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This tune is simply called "Sonnet" in Yarker's 1797 handwritten manuscript.
There is a big overlap around this time between formal classical music and those less formal
dance or folk tunes. This tune while long is not variations, but a nice flowy folkie tune, the
composer is not listed, to it has a more than passing resemblance to an English tune "Sweeps".
As it's a double issue this month I thought I was entitled to a double length tune.
The original manuscript can be found here:
Page 1 and continuing
across the next two pages Page 2
and here at Page 3
Happy Playing, David Jacobs
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Click here to play or download midi file
Click download abc file
if you need software
to display, edit or play abc format then there are a number of free programs available online.
After Visiting Ham House yesterday, felt it appropriate to share
it's tune this month. I've included a JPEG of the original. It was first published as an
addition to the 7th edition and unlike the tunes in the main body does not have any dance steps. Interestingly on the page before is a tune Richmond Green, a mere 3km along the road
from Ham House.
Ham House or The Cherry Gardens from Playford’s 7th Edition 1687.
Built in 1610 the house and gardens now owned by The National Trust is accepted as
one the most original surviving 17th Century houses in Europe. It is situated along the River
Thames towpath between Richmond and Kingston, West of London. It remains very much as it
did in 1695 when Elizabeth Mitchell, Duchess of Lauderdale died in 1695 aged 72.
I’ve had the fortune to play Ham House in Ham House, and interestingly The
Cherry Garden has recently been restored. It was the Duchess’ personal garden from around
the time the tune was published.
Still in 6/4 it is without doubt an English tune, works well at any speed.
Happy Playing, David Jacobs
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Click
here to play or download midi file
Click download abc file
if you need software
to display, edit or play abc format then there are a number of free programs available online.
The Morgan Rattler, was a smuggling ship operating around the North of England
in the late 1700’s Century. This version is taken from the Robert Harrison manuscript of 1847.
See here
There is no doubt from various original sources that this is a Northern English tune, but it has
a definite Irish lilt to it. The end seems to be somewhat abrupt, so perhaps it should finish on
the A?
There is another version in an anonymous tune book also from the late 1700’s but titled "Morning
Ratter or Morgan Rattle". Misheard maybe, by a Southerner not too up on a Northern accent?
Happy Playing, David Jacobs
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Click
here to play or download midi file
Click download abc file
if you need software
to display, edit or play abc format then there are a number of free programs available online.
This month a bonnie Scots tune from among other sources Kerr's Merry Melodies. They were
published between 1872 and 1879, each of the four volumes containing almost 500 tunes. "For the violin,
consisting of Scotch and Irish Reels and Jigs, Highland Schottishes, Country Dances, Hornpipes, Clog Dances,
Waltzes, Polkas &c. Specially arranged for the Ballroom."
The tune blends well into the homogenous genre suiting a Victorian parlour or ball. Glasgow and Edinburgh
were from the early 19th Century being allowed again to pursue their culture away from the often brutal land
clearance policy still in force that was the aftermath of the Jacobite Rebellion more than 100 years before.
Happy Playing, David Jacobs
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Click
here to play or download midi file
Click download abc file
if you need software
to display, edit or play abc format then there are a number of free programs available online.
Going through as many manuscripts and tune books as I have from as far back as the early 1500's there are a lot that reference various activities for parsons or Anglican village priests. This version is from Playford's first edition 1651. The tune is very similar to a to La Bouree from Michael Praetorius' Terpsichore (1612). I've heard and played versions of this tune from England, Sweden and Germany. There will be more Parson's tunes to follow.
Happy Playing, David Jacobs
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Click
here to play or download midi file
Click download abc file
if you need software
to display, edit or play abc format then there are a number of free programs available online.
It's May so thought I'd share a Trad French Morris Tune. I started playing this
tune after hearing it on a Shave the Monkey Album, The Unseelie Court (1992). Took it
to a load of sessions in the UK; it became popular, in the last ten or so years it has become
the tune for the Border Morris Dance "Twiglets".
We'll be dancing up the sun at Mt Cootha on May Day, it's a Sunday this year so see youse there.
Happy Playing, David Jacobs
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Click
here to play or download midi file
Click download abc file
if you need software
to display, edit or play abc format then there are a number of free programs available online.
3/2 , 6/4 and 9/4 tunes were very common in England until
the late 18th Century when they seem to have gone out of favour.
Several of these old tunes were still played but in 3/4 or 9/8. In the 1980's the
tunes were rediscovered by John Offord among the archives of the Vaughan Williams
Memorial Library at the English Folk Dance and Song Society in London. He published
a book and made his transcriptions freely available. John is well known among the Folkies of
England, and it wasn't long before many of these tunes the tunes found their way onto set lists
and performances of among other Nancy Kerr.
In 2008 a second updated edition of John of The Green Chesire Way was self published by
John Offord.
This version of The Dusty Miller complete with dance steps is taken from Daniel Wright's
"Wright's Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances" 1740 p.24
The original manuscript will can be found at along with a playable file.
www.vwml.org/record/Wrights/3753/p24 and dance references here:-
library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/dancebooks.cgi
The version presented is slightly different from the original, and there are no trills.
Happy Playing, David Jacobs
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