Comparing Peacock's 'Cut and Dry Dolly' with Riddell's version, from near 
Moffat, (or the other versions from Dixon, or Bell),
their 2 versions of 'Jockey/Willie stays lang at the Fair',
Or 'I saw my Love', with the 'Drunken Wives of Carlisle',
makes clear the border was a very porous boundary.

Dixon's MS includes many tunes with Scottish versions/antecedents.
Vickers has loads of Scots tunes, and others from Ireland and the continent.
That is to be expected in/near a port near a border.

John

 


-----Original Message-----
From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of 
Julia Say
Sent: 07 March 2012 14:21
To: nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu
Subject: [NSP] Re: Book on J. Collingwood Bruce (early NSP supporter) free on 
GoogleBooks

On 7 Mar 2012, Gibbons, John wrote: 

> Bruce was one of the 2 editors of the Northumbrian Minstrelsy, though Stokoe 
> was the
> main editor for the tunes. Both were not ideal - but many of the earlier 
> Ancient
> Melodies Committee, particularly William Kell,

Last week I went through the Ancient Melodies Committee correspondence which 
predates the appearance of the book by some 20-odd years. 
 Bruce had some direct contact with the "sources" - mainly the Duke's pipers, 
but I 
think  Robert White, Kell and so forth did most of the actual collecting.

Bruce had the most appalling handwriting, anyway, particularly when compared 
with a 
surprisingly elegant hand from William Green, who was my primary interest on 
this 
occasion.

I think, as John says, that Stokoe was primarily an editor of already supplied 
material. The earlier group obviously made extensive enquiries (within certain 
social limitations), and also had access to a number of source publications 
such as 
Oswald,  Aird, and Bewick's MSS, all of which are mentioned. There was a lot of 
deliberation as to which tunes were Scottish and which rightly Northumbrian  - 
in a 
way that wouldn't be seen as so important today, I think.

Julia



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