Folk Music Journal: Volume 11 Number 5

Volume 11 Number 5 (2020) contains the following pieces 

Articles

John Tunney ‘It was the air we fell for’: The Transmission of ‘The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow’ in the Tunney-Gallagher-Travers Family 

The ‘Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow’ occurs in a variety of versions across Ulster, where it is considered one of the ‘big’ songs. It is found in the living tradition in the Travers-Gallagher-Tunney family of the Donegal-Fermanagh borderland, within which it has been transmitted since before the Great Irish Famine (1845–52). An examination of how the song was passed down through the generations of this family allows light to be thrown on how the song transmission process operated within this local community in the pre-recording era. It also provides a basis for an interrogation of what previous literature has had to say about where and when the song was originally composed.

Amélie Addison William Shield: A Lifelong Relationship with ‘National Airs’ 

The English composer William Shield (1748–1829) owed much of his success to an affinity for folk music which led him to produce hundreds of arrangements of ‘national airs’, mostly within the scores of popular theatre productions. This article draws on Shield’s own published scores and treatises, contemporary reviews of his works, and rare manuscript sources to explain how his early encounters with traditional tunes shaped his compositional approach throughout his career. It also explores why and how the most popular of Shield’s composed melodies were so readily reabsorbed into the oral tradition that first inspired them.
 

Alice Little ‘For the Sake of Difference’: John Malchair’s Categorizations of Tunes, 1760–95 

The musician and artist John Malchair (1730–1812) lived in Oxford from 1760, where he collected tunes. In his fourth tunebook, ‘The Arrangement’, Malchair organized around five hundred tunes under the headings ‘Welsh Tunes’, ‘Irish Tunes’, and ‘Scotch Tunes’. In his introduction to the volume he explained: ‘Scarcely any duplicate has obtained a place in this numerous collection from inadvertence, but many are giv[e]n on purpose for the sake of difference among them, so, that by comparing them, the reader may amuse his judgement.’ This article investigates these duplicates and asks what they reveal about Malchair’s understanding of the music in his collection. I will argue that categorizing tunes into national ‘classes’ was the very reason that Malchair created ‘The Arrangement’, and I will provide evidence to demonstrate that he considered it possible for tunes to ‘belong’ to more than one nation at the same time. I will describe how Malchair’s work was viewed by musicians in subsequent generations, and show that their disdain for his categorization resulted from the fact that by the mid-nineteenth century geographical origin had become the dominant mode of categorization, to the exclusion of all other schemes.

Celia Pendlebury Tune Families and Tune Histories: Melodic Resemblances in British and Irish Folk Tunes 

The internet has revolutionized public access to historical documents. It now makes it feasible to track down multiple versions of folk tunes with relative ease, at the desktop, and within attractive time frames. This paper discusses some of the online resources available, explores the implications that can be derived from them, draws attention to the quantity and relevance of historically commercially published material, and questions whether some early twentieth-century assertions about folk music might be due for revision as a result.

Elaine Bradtke Reusing Popular Tunes for Morris Dancing 

Dance musicians borrow tunes from a variety of sources and adapt them to fit their needs. Morris dance musicians are no exception to this rule. This article examines four tune groups, illustrating some of the diverse origins, uses, and geographic distribution for each tune. A contemporary example of dance and tune transmission and adaptation is also discussed.

Notes

Gordon Ridgewell A Visit by Mattie Kay and Cecil Sharp to the Somerset Village of Enmore in 1907 

Correspondence

‘Who Were the Folk?’

Reviews – Books

Laura Smyth Ballads and Songs of Peterloo (Morgan) 

Dave Townsend An Introductory Bibliography of Traditional Social Folk Dance (Middleton-Metcalfe)

Frances Wilkins Understanding Scotland Musically: Folk, Tradition and Policy (ed. McKerrell and West)

Jameson Wooders Rushbearing & Rush Strewing in Churches across the Northern Counties (Stringfellow) 

Elaine Bradtke George P. Knauff’s Virginia Reels and the History of American Fiddling (Goertzen) 

Rebecca E. Dellow Bonny Cumberland: Music from the Manuscripts of Fiddlers in the Lake District c.1750–1880 (Offord) 

Simon Furey Chansons & musiques traditionelles des îles anglo-normandes/ Traditional Music & Songs of the Channel Islands (Davy, Guillorel, Lagrange, and Bouthillier) 

Peter Wood Billy Purvis: The First Professional Geordie (Harker)

Chloe Elizabeth Middleton-Metcalfe A Story to Every Dance: The Role of Lore in Enhancing the Scottish Solo Dance Tradition (Melin); Jigs to Jacobites: 4000 Years of Irish History Told through 40 Traditional Set Dances
(Ní Bhriain and McCabe) 

Lucy Wright The Brightest of Entertainers: Jig Dolls from England and Beyond (Pickles and Howson) 

Vic Gammon Banjo Roots and Branches (ed. Winans) 

Jeff Warner One Rough Life: Ted Ashlaw, Adirondack Lumber Camp and Barroom Singer (Bethke) 

Máire Ní Bhaoill The Lifework and Legacy of Iona and Peter Opie: Research into Children’s Play (ed. Bishop and Factor) 

David Francis Robert Burns in Song and Dance: 17th and 18th Century Dances the Tunes of which Match the Airs Robert Burns Used for his Songs (Knight) 

Steve Roud Language, the Singer and the Song: The Sociolinguistics of Folk Performance (Watts and Morrissey) 

Brian Peters Kind Friends Lend an Ear: Songs and Stories from County Monaghan (Woods) 

Derek Schofield Composing History: National Identities and the English Masque Revival, 1860–1920 (Heckert)

Matt Simons English Ethnicity and Culture in North America (Gleeson)

Theresa Buckland The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Competition (ed. Dodds)

Reviews – CDs 

Andy Turner Songs and Tales from Flamborough Head (Robert Leng and Jossy ‘Pop’ Mainprize with Jim Eldon) 

Conor Caldwell Go Home and Have your Dinner (Jimmy Power)

John Moulden’Tis Pretty to be in Ballinderry: Robert Cinnamond 1884–1968

Steve Roud A Distant Land to Roam: Anglo-American Songs and Tunes from Texas to Maine (ed. Yates)

Obituaries

Martin Graebe Robert William Patten

Cover illustration: Page from John Malchair’s notebook.

Editor: David Atkinson

Guest Editorial: Julia C. Bishop and Vic Gammon