Sorry to butt in folks, especially since I'm not sure what the exact
context is! As the subject matter is the First 30 tunes the relevance
of Victorian / Medieval masonry escapes me. I do get the impression,
Richard, that you might be regarding these tunes as treasures from an
earlier age. Let me reassure you that many of these pieces were still
being played by a strong cohort of traditional musicians in north
Northumberland in a style which pleased them and fitted their needs
extremely well. It is the lack of appreciation of this and the fact
that they played their "reels" with a phrasing that was neither march,
polka or reel. This pulse fitted the dance step of choice, the Rant, so
perfectly that they referred to the tunes themselves as rants.
This was far more than a social pastime for the likes of Will Atkinson
whose payment from "The Tanner Hops" made his, Bella's and their 10
bairns lives, much more bearable. It is the glossing over of this
unique heritage that drives me to bring it to a wider audience. If you
haven't already done so buy Will Atkinson's wonderful CD and you'll see
what I mean.
Regards
Anthony
--- On Wed, 11/3/09, Richard York <rich...@lizards.force9.co.uk> wrote:
From: Richard York <rich...@lizards.force9.co.uk>
Subject: [NSP] Re: First 30 tunes
To: "NSP group" <nsp@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Date: Wednesday, 11 March, 2009, 8:48 PM
In a way, that's the least important part of the story :)
It struck me at the time what a parallel it was with our treatment of
music which comes to us from before our time, or at least before deadly
accurate sound recording, whether it's medieval or anything else.
But to answer your question, Tim, if I remember aright, he treated
them each variously according to how much was evident from the original
form, how much damage the dear Victorians had done, and in what
condition and how stable each was. Perhaps that's relevant too.
Best wishes,
Richard.
tim rolls BT wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>> Hi Richard,
>>
>> Don't leave us hanging........ what did he choose to do?
>>
>>
>> Tim
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Richard York"
<[1]rich...@lizards.force9.co.uk>
>> To: "NSP group" <[2]...@cs.dartmouth.edu>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 6:10 PM
>> Subject: [NSP] Re: First 30 tunes
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Some years ago I met a man who was responsible for some work on the
>>> musicians carvings in Beverley Minster, most famous of course
being the
>>> pipers.
>>> His quandary was whether to simply clean them up as they were, or
to
>>> restore them to what the Victorians had imposed on them, mistakes
and
>>> all, or to try to restore them to what he thought the medieval
carvers
>>> had intended, though that last was now very impossible to do with
any
>>> certainty, given changes in their condition over time, so he'd be
>>> imposing on them. And whatever he did would be right for some
people,
>>> wrong for others, and whatever he did they'd never be as they once
used
>>> to be.
>>> Or he could simply leave them to fall to bits by themselves.
>>>
>>> Richard.
>>>
>>> Anthony Robb wrote:
>>>>
>>>> <...>
>>>> There is much room for personal interpretation on top of this
basic
>>>> style difference. Letting people hear these differences is
important.
>>>> As for so-called "bad habits" these must surely be/have been
pleasing
>>>> to the players themselves at some point and are therefore valid
in
>>>> their own right even if others may find them displeasing.
Copying these
>>>> personal idiosyncracies is one thing, and each player can
decide this
>>>> for themselves, ignoring the regional accent completely is
another
>>>> thing altogether!
>>>> I would say go for it Colin, a person with your background can
not help
>>>> but make a valuable contribution to the body of piping
knowledge.
>>>> As aye
>>>> Anthony
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> To get on or off this list see list information at
>>> [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>>
>>
>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
>>
>>
>>
>> No virus found in this incoming message.
>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>> Version: 8.0.237 / Virus Database: 270.11.10/1995 - Release Date:
03/11/09 08:28:00
>>
>
>
>
--
References
1. http://uk.mc11.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=rich...@lizards.force9.co.uk
2. http://uk.mc11.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=...@cs.dartmouth.edu
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
