[scots-l] The Well Buked Ballap

[Jack Campin]

There's a tune in James Thomson's 1702 manuscript of Scots music for
the treble recorder called "The Well Buked Ballap".  (Most of these
tunes were reprinted by David Johnson long ago and I think are still
available).  It had never occurred to me to look the meaning up; I
assumed it had something to do with food, some obscure kind of cake.

By accident I just came across "ballop" in Warrick's dictionary.  The
title really means "the well-filled codpiece".

Okay, are there any words for this???

===  ===


Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

[scots-l] Continuing adventures in the search for World Cup Reel Music

[Elheran Francis]

Well I have found some information and hope to get
some help finding at least sheet music if not a copy
of the album.

Here are the particulars:

The name of the tunes are "Ormand's Favorite/The 
World Cup Reel" by J.S.D. Band on an album titled
"Scotland Scotland" in honor of the 1978 Scottish
World Cup Team on Polydor 2382 282 SUPER produced by
Phil Coulter and Bill Martin for Martin Coulter
Enterprises Ltd. out of England.  

>From what I have been able to find out, the J.S.D.
Band was a popular Scottish Folk/Rock Band through the
70's and broke up in the early 80's. I have heard of a
rumor that they have gotten back together and have
released a couple new albums.

Any information on the tunes "Ormand's Favorite and
The World Cup Reel" would be greatly appreciated
and/or help locating a copy of the album.

Thanks,
Elheran

__
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

Re: [scots-l] Northumbrian tunes (was Whinham's Reel)

[Jack Campin]

> Apparently there's a genre of songs made up of song (or tune) titles.
> Here's the first verse: (Query:  What's a "hopping"? [...]
> The Souters o Selkirk  and Stannerton Hopping 

There is an early-19th-century song about hopping in Kent, i.e. the
hop harvest: same kind of deal as the berryfields of Blair, you got
and still get people from all over going to it.  The tune is "The
Blythsome Bridal", I think, and the text is put together in the same
way - colourful description of farmworkers partying.  So if they grow
hops at Stannerton, wherever that is (could it mean Stannington near
Morpeth?), that might be what it's about.

===  ===


Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

Re: [scots-l] tunes that aren't in 8 bars

[David Kilpatrick]

Jack Campin wrote:
> 
> David Kilpatrick wrote:
> > Jack Campin wrote:
>  - the ballad air "Lord Gregory", which is in 7-bar phrases.
> >>> Eight bar phrases, surely?
> >> This is the tune I know for it: [late-18th-century Scottish version]
> > I'm singing it in common rather than triple time and there are
> > several added beats. From Ewan MacColl's 1960s book and other
> > sources, and quite altered in modal quality too.
> 
> According to his notes, MacColl's was from a version collected in
> Wiltshire.  I wonder why he picked that one?  Reminds me of something
> else entirely but I can't place it.

One reason I picked up on this tune was that it sings a bit like Tim
Rose's excellent 'Come Away Melinda' (which adds successive steps up in
key). MacColl only indicates a melody line, and I use a chord set which
starts on Gm but resolves to Dm which gives it a sort of 17th-c lute
song feel. Having said all that I can't honestly remember ever singing
this song more than a couple of times to anyone apart from myself :-) as
it's one of those long yins which quickly loses a pub audience...

David
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

[scots-l] Northumbrian tunes (was Whinham's Reel)

[jhopr]

From: "David Francis" 

>> ...Whinham's Reel -- anybody got the ABCs for that?
>Great tune!  It is Northumbrian, and composed by a fiddler called >Whinham. Piper 
>Graham Dixon unearthed and published a whole >collection of his material about 6 
>years ago...

From: Jack Campin 

>>> ...Whinham's Reel -- anybody got the ABCs for that?
>> Do you know any more about it, Janice? Is it Northumbrian?
> Nope, the name's all I know about it.  It was paired with (I think)
> Miss Thompson's Hornpipe[1], which I think is Northumbrian.

>X:1
>T:Whinham's Reel
>B:Northumbrian Pipers' Tune Book volume 1
>
>Sounds like it would be good for an American contra dance.
>
>If anybody else here hasn't got the NPTB (especially volume 1),
>they ought to.

Thanks, y'all for the information and the tune!  That's the very one.

I found this poem while looking for something else.  Apparently there's a genre of 
songs made up of song (or tune) titles.  Here's the first verse: (Query:  What's a 
"hopping"? [1]

The Northumbrian Minstrel’s Budget

By Henry Robson (1770-1848)

A minstrel who wandered ‘tween Tyndedale and Tweedale
Who well could perform on the bagpipes and fiddle
Who tended at hoppings, at bridals, and fairs,
And charmed young and old with his lilts and his airs,
The following tunes played correctly and clearly: -
 
Go to bed, Cicely – Laddie lie near me –
The Souters o’ Selkirk – and Stannerton Hopping –
(Where blithesome young maids used to cock up their topping)
The famed Lairds o’ Ryton – To Wylam away –
The bonny Pit Lad – and the Black and the Grey –
My laddie sits ower late up – Drops of Brandy –
The Lasses love Wine and Sugar Candy –
Coquetside – and the Peacock followed the Hen –
The three true good fellows ayont yon glen –
Famed Felton Lonning – My Eppie is true –
And the Dyer who dyed my apron blue –
   Blow the wind southerly home to my dear –
   Till the Tide comes in I’ll sit on the pier –
   And the famed Ant-gallican privateer—
 
The rest may be viewed at:
http://www.stanford.edu/~boneill/allsongs/north.html

[1] I've already thought of all the jokes, thanks.

Janice (Hopper) in Duluth, GA
:-)

Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

Re: [scots-l] tunes that aren't in 8 bars

[Jack Campin]

David Kilpatrick wrote:
> Jack Campin wrote:
 - the ballad air "Lord Gregory", which is in 7-bar phrases.
>>> Eight bar phrases, surely?
>> This is the tune I know for it: [late-18th-century Scottish version]
> I'm singing it in common rather than triple time and there are
> several added beats. From Ewan MacColl's 1960s book and other
> sources, and quite altered in modal quality too.

According to his notes, MacColl's was from a version collected in
Wiltshire.  I wonder why he picked that one?  Reminds me of something
else entirely but I can't place it.


> Would you also use the above tune if the song was called The
> Lass of Lochroyan, or Annie of Roch/Rough Royal? (all basically
> the same song as far as I'm concerned).

Yes - and I've heard other people use the 3/4 7-bar melodic-minor tune
recently too (or rather, somewhat less twiddly settings thereof, Burns's
has a touch of the Anne Lorne Gillies about it).  The rhythm seems more
expressive and appropriate to me, a kind of dark lullaby.

===  ===


Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

Re: [scots-l] tunes that aren't in 8 bars

[David Kilpatrick]

Jack Campin wrote:
> 
> >> - the ballad air "Lord Gregory", which is in 7-bar phrases.
> > Eight bar phrases, surely?
> 
> This is the tune I know for it (from several sources):
> 
> X:1
> T:Lord Gregory
> B:Burns, Poems and Songs, OED collected edition
> M:3/4
> L:1/8
> K:A Minor
>A2  |e4  A>B  |({A}^G4) E2 |A4  B2 |c4 ||\
> (3(ceg)| {f}e4  d>c  | B4  c>A|B4||
>B2  |e4  A2   | {A}^G4  E2 |A4  B2 |c4 ||\
> (3(ceg)|({f}e4) d>c  | c4 TB2 |A4||
>A2  |e4  e>e  | f4  e2 |({e}d4) d2 |({d}e4)||\
>e>d |c4  cd/e/|  {e}d4  c2 | {c}B4||
>B2  |e4  A2   |^G4  F>E|   (A4  B2)|c4 ||\
> (3(ceg)| {f}e4  d>c  | c4 TB2 |A4|]
> 
> I've put double bars at the line breaks, as in old hymnbooks.
> The air is rather like an old psalm tune, come to think of it,
> and they often have irregular structures.
> 
> Is there an 8-bar one in Bronson or somewhere?
> 
> Maybe you're prolonging the last note of the three-bar lines?
> 

No, I'm singing it in common rather than triple time and there are
several added beats. From Ewan MacColl's 1960s book and other sources,
and quite altered in modal quality too. Would you also use the above
tune if the song was called The Lass of Lochroyan, or Annie of
Roch/Rough Royal? (all basically the same song as far as I'm concerned).

David
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

Re: [scots-l] Whinham's Reel

[Derek Hoy]

Dave said:
> Willie Taylor and Joe Hutton?).  Bella Derek Hoy might be able to supply
> abc's.  Being a humble guitar basher I know nothing of these arcane arts.

Jack's beaten me to it.  Though we don't play it quite as it's written. The 
written setting sounds very Northumbrian-pipey, whereas our version's been 
mangled by fiddle scratchers, aided by said guitar basher.

I thought Contra dances were South American.
What dance do we use it for, Dave?  I don't look up much at these things. 

Derek
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

Re: [scots-l] tunes that aren't in 8 bars

[Derek Hoy]

Playing in 8 bars is a bit excessive- 3 or 4 in a night is about as much as I 
can manage.

> There is a sociologically-oriented book by an English writer on the
> contemporary British session scene where he defines a folk session
> as a regular meeting of mostly amateur musicians who get together
> to play tunes with 8-bar structures.  I thought, youch, that last
> bit sure hit the spot.

On first reading I thought, 'how devastatingly accurate', and was about to put 
the fiddle up in the loft and forget about it.

Then I thought, 'that's like describing reading as being about deciphering 
squiggles arranged in lines on sheets of paper'.  

It's pretty weak as observation goes, but presumably the author went a bit 
further?  He could have said '... 8-bar structures with 3 chord 
accompaniment'.

For irregular (non-8bar tunes), some of the Shetland 'listening' tunes are 
examples: eg Da Day Dawn, Auld Swarra.  Or 'Marnie Swanson of the Grey Coast' 
which is pretty popular round these parts.

There's also the old trick of writing 8 bar tunes that don't sound like they 
are, where the phrasing of the tune starts or stops before or after where 
you'd expect it.  It's more common in recent compositions especially with 
syncopation breaking up the bar lines even more.

Derek
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html

[scots-l] Re: Whinham's Reel

[Eric Falconer]

> ...Whinham's Reel -- anybody got the ABCs for that?

Do you know any more about it, Janice? Is it Northumbrian?

- --
Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Scotland



I don't have abc software but I do have a copy of "Remember Me" - a
collection of the music of Robert Whinham by Graham Dixon published in 1995.
Whinham's Reel is in there on page 17.  This is a really nice collection of
tunes by an itinerant Northumbrian fiddle and dancing master who lived
between 1814 and 1893.  His last days were spent in Morpeth workhouse where
the only known photograph of him was taken, and where he was registered as a
"teacher of music in Morpeth" [in Northumbria].  The tune is also listed as
being in the "Northumbrian Pipers' Tune Book" published in 1970.

Cheers

Eric



Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To 
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html