Fete de Village is a country dance tune that’s been in the English tradition for well over 200 years, but it started life as music from a stage production of the same name by French composer Gossec. This production came to England in the 1780s, after which time this tune can be found in various English tune collections such as those of William Mittel and Thomas Hammersley as well as in the infamous 1785 ‘A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs’ by Aird (vol. II). Source: Trad Tune Archive
I’ve included a version of the tune by Bellowhead below, partially because it’s brilliant but also because it’s too late in the evening for me to record a video, I will remedy this tomorrow! *EDIT – there is now a video of the tune played at a medium speed below the Bellowhead video*
We played with the arpeggio patterns in the B section, building these up gradually and trying different inversions to create an automatic harmony. Brush up on your D and G major arpeggios, there will be more on this next week!
Deborah is a violinist and violist specialising in English folk music. She trained in viola and Baroque viola at Birmingham Conservatoire, before returning to her first love of traditional music, song and dance.
Deborah has developed a passion for playing for dancing since joining her first ceilidh band at age 13. She is a member of Stepling, a band performing English music, step-dance, song and percussion, and also plays with Folk Dance Remixed, a dance company combining traditional dance with hip hop and street dance styles, with whom she has performed as such events as Car Fest, the Southbank's Festival of Love and Glasgow's Commonwealth Games Festival.
Deborah records on a regular basis for a number of people, including The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra, and for Laurel Swift's 'Travelling with Thomas' musical.
She teaches music, song and dance regularly for The English Folk Dance and Song Society, as well as on a freelance basis for various workshop series, festivals and music services. Deborah recently completed The Teaching Musician MA degree course at Trinity Laban, graduating with Distinction.
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New Ealing Sessions 
2 thoughts on “Fete de Village”