Author: debfiddle

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. She is a member of Stepling, a band performing English music, step-dance, song and percussion. She also plays for a number of function bands, performing at barn dances and ceilidhs across the UK. Deborah has played with a number of folk artists, dance and theatre projects. She played for a number of years with Folk Dance Remixed, a dance company combining traditional dance with hip hop and street dance styles, and performing as such events as Car Fest, the Southbank's Festival of Love and Glasgow's Commonwealth Games Festival. She 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. Deborah 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. She is currently studying on The Teaching Musician MA degree course at Trinity Laban.

Tralee Gaol

This is Tralee Gaol, an Irish polka that I know from playing for ceilidhs. It goes by many names and seems to be pretty widespread in Ireland and also across various parts of the world!

Here’s the video:

And the dots are here, with a PDF also available:

Tralee Gaol.png

Mount Hills

This is Mount Hills, from the Playford collection.

Here’s the video of the tune played slowly:

And then the tune played at speed, in the higher and lower registers:

Here are the dots, with the chords from memory so apologies if they aren’t what we had on the day, I will change them if necessary! The PDF is available here.

Mount Hills

The Mallard no 2

Here is the tune ‘The Mallard no 2’. It’s in Dave Townsend’s English Dance Tunes book but I can’t find it anywhere else – there are other tunes and songs that share the title but none with the same melody.

The Mallard no 2

The PDF can be found here. Fiddle players might want to try double stopping with the open G string in the first two bars, then the D string in the next bar before going back to the G string for bars five and six. In the second section, you can double stop with the open G string for the first three bars.

Battered Hake

This is a fantastic tune by banjo player Colin Cotter.

Here are the dots for the tune:

Battered Hake.png

Click for the tune in PDF form, and here is a version with the A part harmony and B part variation.

Lastly, here’s a video with a suggested chord rhythm.

Jack a Lent

Here’s a fab tune from the Playford collection. Mary D has done some research and says: “Jack o’ Lent was a tradition in England in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries involving the abuse and burning of a straw effigy during the season of Lent, ending with its burning on Palm Sunday. The effigy, made of straw or stuffed clothes, was abused and stoned on Ash Wednesday while being dragged about the parish.”

Jack a Lent.png

Here are the dots in PDF form.

Here are the chord sequences, with an added bonus 4th version, by way of an apology for the late post!

Arrangements for May 27th concert

Here are the arrangements for the May 27th concert at Gunnersbury Park. We’re playing 2:00 – 4:00 (with an interval), and I’m hoping we can get in before that to have a rehearse and to settle into the space. We will do a concert spot of our arrangements and a ceilidh spot playing for some dances that I’ll call (I’ll put list up later in the week, though it’ll all be things we did at the Ealing Folk Dance Club). We may also be joined by a local Morris team, though I need to finalise the details with my contact as Gunnersbury and with the team themselves.

There are full details on the Gunnersbury House page here, including the address and transport links, and details on how to reserve tickets: http://www.visitgunnersbury.org/west-london-folk-band-summer-concert-2/. Spread the word – tickets are free but you can book, just in case we get inundated!

The Lollipop Man/Shepherd’s Hey

Here are the videos for Monday’s Morris Medley, The Lollipop Man first:

… and Shepherd’s Hey here:

And the dots for each are below, with a PDF file here. We did a basic harmony for the beginning of Shepherd’s Hey, but other than that concentrated on emphasising the rhythm in particular bars (Bars 2, 4, 6 and 8 in Lollipop Man and bars 5 and 6 in Shepherd’s Hey).

The Lollipop Man and Shepherd's Hey.png

As promised/threatened, here is a link to the recording of Lollipop Man from The Mother of All Morris album (not from the Morris On series as I misremembered), it’s NSFW: