I think being accurate about Dunk is unkind enough to be going on with.

The original MS of Whinshields on the Wall looks like a free-form improv,
in 19thC style, on vaguely Northumbrian musical ideas. 
But it's so free-form that it sounds like he was drunk when he wrote it.
The Dunks were an artistic family, and the connection is maintained, 
as Dunk's builder's yard has become Folkestone's arts centre, but his sister 
had all the musical brains.

If the NPS offered a trophy of a silver cup full of beer for anyone playing W 
on the W verbatim from memory, 
nobody would ever want to win it. It doesn't work, whether in classical, modern 
or traditional terms.

John



-----Original Message-----
From: lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu [mailto:lute-...@cs.dartmouth.edu] On Behalf Of 
barr...@nspipes.co.uk
Sent: 15 July 2011 11:56
To: NSPlist
Subject: [NSP] Mr Dunk - Inspector of Public Nuisances

Quoting Francis Wood <oatenp...@googlemail.com>:

> Another 'traditional' tune, J.L Dunk's Whin Shields on the Wall was  
> unplayable nonsense when given to the NPS in a literate-looking but  
> impossible manuscript. Someone, probably the editor Gilbert Askew  
> has bashed it into the excellent Whinshield's Hornpipe.
>

I think that Francis is being unkind to Mr James Delanoy Dunk. Mr Dunk  
was heavily involved in the highbrow music scene of London in the  
early part of the last century. His sister, Susan Spain-Dunk achieved  
some recognition as a Classical composer.

http://landofllostcontent.blogspot.com/2009/09/susan-spain-dunk-note-in-music-student.html

James' writings on music theory are widely regarded as  
incomprehensible but they reveal someone who has thought deeply about  
the nature of music. Perhaps he has thought too deeply, for that way  
madness lies!

I suspect that Whin Shields on the Wall as submitted was an attempt to  
make a work which would bring the NSP into the Classical repertoire of  
the time. I can make no sense of it but then I have no feeling for the  
works of Schonberg, Stockhausen, Bertwhistle or Cage.  I leave such  
matters to others in the same way as I leave aside recent attempts to  
take NSP into the world of contemporary classical music. These  
ventures simply hold no interest for me.

The Lass of Falstone is a pretty good tune though.

Barry



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