Major key tunes – New Ealing Sessions

Old Meddon of Fawsley

An English Morris tune for May Day, Old Meddon of Fawsley from the Longborough (Gloucestershire) tradition. I’ve not found any videos of this being danced, not sure why because it’s a fantastic tune! I think it’s related to Idbury Hill, given the similarities in the B part, but it definitely stands alone as a great tune. I found it in Chris Bartram’s English Fiddle book, which I would highly recommend.

old-meddon Download

Jigolo

Here are the videos and dots for Jigolo, a Welsh tune by Iolo Jones – we’ll be sticking with this one for a few weeks as well as returning to The Mallard and trying various things there too.

Try adding joining notes between A section repeats and B sections too, notes above or below the main notes work well, or a D of some description can also sound good.

jigolo-1 Download

Broad Hoops

Here’s Broad Hoops, as tune from Lancashire that appears in the John Winder collection of 1835-41. Anyone interested in this, or indeed any other folk tune collections from England should check out the village-music-project.org.uk

broad-hoops Download

Enfield Wash

Enfield Wash from guest tutor Tom Newell, dots to follow (hopefully)!

enfield-wash Download

The Lark in the Clear Air

An instrumental version of the Irish song, the Lark in the Clear Air, with low harmony.

the-lark-in-the-clear-air Download

Here’s the video of just the tune:

And finally, the tune with the chords:

Tunes with swung rhythms

We took our recent tunes, The Great North Run and Ger the Rigger, and tried swinging the rhythm to give them more of a hornpipe feel. I’ve come across both tunes played this way, so it really is a case of two for the price of one!

The Great North Run

The Great North Run by Robert Whitehead, a fabulous tune to potentially go with Ger the Rigger.

the-great-north-run Download

Ger the Rigger

A cheerful tune to start our term, Irish polka Ger the Rigger. This tune appears in the 1976 book Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. 2. Here are the basic dots, with an additional ornamented/varied version:

ger-the-rigger-2 Download

Here is the tune and harmony:

ger-the-rigger-harmony-only Download

Here’s a slow and a faster version, with the riff at the end:

Here is the riff we tried (this will be developed next week!):

Finally here’s a fantastic version of the tune, it has more of a swing to it and a really lovely groove.

The Hop Picker’s Feast

Here are the video and dots for the Hop Picker’s Feast, an English country dance tune from the book Twenty-Four Country Dances for the Year 1786 by Samuel, Ann and Peter Thompson.