probable that Ann and her friends were taught by an itinerant singing master called Peter Quiller.

Transcription

1 Dance tunes from Cornwall Mike O Connor introduces some of the traditional tune collections to be found in Cornwall. Recent years have witnessed many new insights into social music in Cornwall. We can identify minstrelsy, morris, carols, and some social music and dance in medieval times. But also, several recently discovered music notebooks tell of the social music of recent centuries. This article focuses on these books. Notwithstanding its distinctive cultural and linguistic identity, little has been written about Cornwall s social and early music. Also, until the very recent publication of Scoot Dances, Troyls, Furrys and Tea Treats: The Cornish Dance Tradition by the Daveys, recent collection has been largely unknown. Even with Lady Mary Trefusis as first president of the English Folk Dance Society, there was not enough known about music in Cornwall to give a coherent chronological or geographical picture, and that situation prompted my research. Six sets of manuscripts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries illustrate the range of music from Cornwall. probable that Ann and her friends were taught by an itinerant singing master called Peter Quiller. Frances Prideaux The music book of Frances Prideaux is in the private library of Prideaux Place, Padstow. Frances played piano and probably violin, and her book, compiled about 1788 to 1796, has ninety tunes, some with dance instructions. Like the Morval dance book, it has material well known in social centres such as Bath, but also has a few tunes local in flavour or origin. John Old The 1807/8 music book of John Old, a dancing master from Par, was remaindered at a jumble sale in about 1970 and, for sixpence, it was saved from the bonfire. John probably lived at Par to be near the homes of the wealthy Carlyon, Rashleigh and Treffry families. According to accounts books of the Carlyon family, now held in the Cornwall Record Office, money was paid to Jn Louis in 1766 for teaching a young family member music and dance, and in 1797, Thomas Carlyon paid E. and M. Trethewy for dancing. The material in John Old s music book suggests that he played the harp and violin. Of the 96 tunes in the book, some are Scottish, by the Gows and William Marshall. Others are Scottish in style, but may not be so in origin, as they are named after figures in London society. But as many are dance tunes from south of the Tweed. Obviously, the latest music from across the country was accessible to Old. William Allen The Courtney Library of the Royal Institution of Cornwall contains a book that was probably compiled by William Allen (1791-c1859) of St Ives, a clerk who eventually became a land and mine surveyor. His book has 45 songs and 42 dance tunes from about 1815 to None seems of local origin, apart from the lyric of the Hal an Tow and the tune of the Helston Furry Dance. The repertoire tells of an enthusiasm for popular songs and dance tunes, especially waltzes, in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Gregory Tom The slender 1825 manuscript of Gregory Tom of St. Ervan, near Padstow, is also now in the Courtney Library. Entitled Psalms and hymns for use by church bands , it contains Zennor, a modal psalm tune of conspicuous beauty. Sabine Baring Gould wrote that the culture surrounding non-conformism suppressed much vernacular music. Bodmin Riding and the John Giddy In the Cornwall Record Office is a tiny, 64-page, music notebook, which belonged to John Giddy (c ), a farmer from Kea, near Truro. His letters tell that he played the violin for recreation and dancing, and his notebook was probably compiled between about 1730 and It contains some songs from ballad operas and the odd piece attributed to Handel, but much of the material is unattributed and unknown dance music, such as minuets, rigadoons and hornpipes. Most use conventional major and minor scales, but there are some lovely modal tunes. The Morval Manuscripts and Ann Little The private archive of the Carew Pole family holds four manuscript music books, and a companion volume is in the Cornwall Record Office. They were originally owned by the Buller family of Morval House near Looe. One book has 42 dance directions, tunes and songs from about 1740 to Many of the tunes are little-known and some are local, and the collection may have been associated with the wedding of John Buller to Anne Lemon in The other books have instructional material, polyphonic psalms and anthems, most unknown. The most complete bears the name of Ann Little: dated 1767, it gives an insight into parish harmony singing. It is Untitled, known as Come to Good. [page 5] summer 2009 page 12

2 Untitled, known as Echoes of Old Kea [page 7] Hal an Tow ceased in the nineteenth century, though their music survived. But Padstow s May Day celebration and Helston s Flora Day were largely unaffected. Church tea-treats on founders days or patronal festivals often involved processions or processional dances, inevitably led by a band. Consequently many polkas and marches have been preserved. Community processional dances such as furry and serpent dances were very popular: one such is the recently collected Rescorla Snail Creep. Church and west gallery bands also fostered local musicians. The newly discovered manuscripts confirm that the picture of nineteenth-century vernacular music is not completely bleak. Music in Cornwall has no features analogous to the snaps and rolls of Scotland and Ireland. The Cornish repertoire is so diverse in form, origin and influence, as to make unlikely the existence of any single identifying characteristic. But it can be argued that the Cornish repertoire together comprises a unique cultural profile. There are Cornish fingerprints in many areas of the Duchy s social music. The pervasive rhythm of the furry dances, the easy grace of the dance tunes (when played at traditional tempi) and beautiful modal song and psalm tunes, often with asymmetrical phrase lengths, may all be considered Cornish. Some Cornish tunes have a major/minor ambivalence, sounding Breton or perhaps Welsh. A New Christmas Carol, described by William Sandys in his 1833 Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern as from the west of Cornwall and still in use, shares its tune with the Breton chanson de danse Me An vez Ur Goulmig, sung for the dance An Dro. According to P. Montjarret in his book Toniou Breiz-Izel (Rennes, 1984), the tune has a modal nature suggestive of the sixteenth century. Bretons then comprised a sizeable minority of the Cornish population, and the language was very similar. The manuscripts show evolution in the use of grace notes, trills and mordents. In turn this tells us about the tempi - play the music too fast and you can t fit them in! Played more slowly the music has a characteristic grace and poise. Mike O Connor OBE is a folk musician and storyteller, who has been researching the music of Cornwall for over a decade. He has been central to the production of three folk operas - The Cry of Tin, Unsung Heroes and Cornish Lads. Mike was made a bard of the Cornish Gorsedd in 2002 and in 2009 was awarded the Henwood Medal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. Mike is grateful to all the custodians of the music books referred to in this feature, especially the Cornwall Record Office for permission to reproduce images from the John Giddy tune book. tunes Reproduced by permission of Cornwall Record Office, DG/95. Mr Ravencorft s Hornpipe [page 51]. This probably refers to John Ravenscroft of Tower Hamlets, Further Information The tunes transcripts are all from Mike O Connor, Echoes of Old Kea (Lyngham House, 2001), and originally from the John Giddy tune book, from Kea near Truro. Mike O Connor has published an excellent resource book for Cornish music. Ilow Kernow: Cornish Instrumental Tradition: The Resource in now in its fourth edition (Lyngham House, 2007). Covath (Lyng 222) is a CD of Cornish music, produced in 2003, and featuring Mike O Connor. Pride of Place (Lyng 231) is a new CD of music from the 1788 music book of Frances Prideaux-Brune of Padstow, featuring Mike O Connor and harpist Barbara Griggs. Contact for all publications: summer 2009 page 13

3 Photo: Derek Schofield Scoots, Troyls and Tea Treats Cornishman Merv Davey introduces the Duchy s folk dances. Merv and Alison Davey Folk dance is more than just a collection of steps, movement and music; it is a form of human expression and its essence lies within its community role and social context rather than purely commercial or artistic interests. Sharp was riding the crest of European romantic nationalism when he collected, and mediated, folk dances as an expression of Englishness in the first quarter of the twentieth century. At much the same time there was a parallel, but Celtic, revivalist movement in Cornwall. As well as identifying with the revival of the Cornish language and links with the other Celtic communities, this movement was proactive in recording and promoting folk customs, including dance. The story of folk dance in Cornwall, from medieval roots, through narratives of the nineteenth-century folklorists, the activity of the Celtic revivalists and on to the present day, is a fascinating one that reflects the distinct cultural profile of Cornwall. Medieval Dance A tantalising glimpse of medieval dance in Cornwall is provided by a twelfth century Cornish- Latin vocabulary which was written to aid the learning of Latin. It is a short vocabulary of common words people were expected to be familiar with and includes the translation of the Cornish lappior as saltator and lappiores as saltatrix - male and female dancer respectively. Lapyeor continued to be used as a dialect term for dancer in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and, by the early twentieth century, was associated with step dancing. The small boys employed as surface workers in the tin industry were called lapyeors because one of their first tasks was to aid separation of the ore as it was washed, by dancing on it, ankle deep in the cold water. Dancing held pride of place in the Gwary Mur, the cycle of mystery plays performed in Cornish during the late medieval period. They were used as the finale for various sections of the play and introduced by the master of ceremonies issuing the instructions: Minstrels growgh theny peba May hallan warbarthe downssya Del ew an vaner han geys Minstrels, do ye pipe to us That we may together dance As is the manner and the jest In the Cornish of the time, geys (pronounced geeze) had the meaning of a jest or mock and geysor had the meaning of jester, so the above could be interpreted as a call for all to join in with the dancing or for a specific troupe of geys dancers to perform. There is certainly thought to be a firm link between the mystery plays and the travelling players and dancers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries which show up in parish, town and country house accounts. The geys nature of the play or dance is hinted at by descriptions such as those of the household accounts at Lanherne (1466/7): paper for disgysynge ; whit bonnets for mynstrells ; and dosyn bellis for the Morrushe of Betty. Although morrushe is clearly morris, caution must be exercised with drawing conclusions about the activities concerned, as the term was used as a description that would have been closer to the French morris of Arbeau s Ros Keltek caption???? Orchesographie than to the Oxfordshire dances of the early twentieth century. Indeed it is Arbeau s mattachins (sword dancers) which link us to the ultimate icons of early music and dance in Cornwall, the sixteenth century bench end carvings at Altarnon Church on Bodmin Moor. These carvings depict a bagpiper, a crowder (the crowd is an early form of fiddle) and three dancers including the geysor. Guize Dances Nineteenth-century Cornwall provided rich pickings for the folklorist and antiquary, and they were in no doubt about the links between the medieval geys dancer and the guize dancing customs they observed which, they were quick to point out, was pronounced as geeze dancing. The guize dancers disguised themselves by blacking up, cross dressing, wearing veils or masks and generally outlandish costume. The guizers processed around their local area stopping off every so often at a suitable venue, such as the inn or farmhouse kitchen, where they performed their piece. The dances were sometimes integrated into a folk play, sometimes a solo step dance performance and sometimes a country dance for all. The Padstow guizers, for example, incorporated a step dance into their play to the song of Tom Bowling and the Madron guizers rounded off their performance with a dance for all to join in called Turkey Rhubarb. Turkey Rhubarb is a mazurka and Photo: Derek Schofield summer 2009 page 14

4 similar, almost to the point of being interchangeable, to a dance variously called Patsy Heeny or Father Murphy s Topcoat found across the Celtic Sea in southern Ireland. The mazurka is, of course, a widely travelled European dance. Turkey Rhubarb is a reminder that Cornwall might have been remote from London before the coming of the railway, but its geographic position provided sea communications that helped to maintain close cultural links with mainland Europe, Ireland and Wales. Furry Dances If one were to identify two distinctive forms of Cornish dance it would be the Furry and the Scoot dances. The Furry is a simple processional dance for mixed couples performed on fair days (the Cornish for fair is fer, thus Furry dance), of which Helston is the best known and earliest recorded (Gentleman s Magazine, 1790). They were nevertheless quite wide spread, certainly in West Cornwall, at the beginning of the nineteenth century and currently enjoy popularity throughout the Duchy. With a basic formula of a movement forward, followed by a simple figure, it is an easy dance to improvise upon. Cecil Sharp collected different versions from Helston and Grampound and the practice today is to write a new variation whenever the opportunity arises. Katie Moss s 1911 incorporation of the Helston Furry Dance tune to her composition, The Floral Dance, and the later arrangement for brass band by Brighouse and Rastrick in 1977, has encouraged the substitution of Floral for Furry. An inevitable part of the folk process this may be, but unfortunately it obscures the origins of the dance. Scoot Dancing Scoot dancing is named after the metal plate used on the toe and heel of working shoes to prolong their life. These shoes make a very satisfying musical clack when struck against slate floor slabs, well illustrated by William Bottrell s description of a wedding (1873): Presently the fiddler struck up with a jig. Les have the double shuffle, Uncle Will, said the young people. Up he jumped as lively as a kid, though he was near eighty, and footed it out to the delight of all. Young Jan of Santust (St Just) followed, making the fire fly from the heels of his boots, like flashes of lightning; and all the company were quickly whirling, in reels, without much order. This dance form also endured well into living memory, and a number of different steps have been collected. These represent the core material of Cornish dancing tradition and have been used as the basis for new composition, not only for scoot dances but to some extent for social dances as well. Tea Treats Our own Brenda Wootton, folk singer extraordinaire, once commented that when Wesley came to Cornwall he saved our souls and cost us our culture, and it is certainly the received wisdom that religious attitudes discouraged traditional music and dance. Things are seldom what they seem, however, and the tea treats associated with Cornish chapel culture were as important a vehicle for promoting traditional dance as the less temperate guizing customs. Tea treats were in their heyday during the turn of the nineteenth to twentieth century and were popular well into living memory. They comprised of a procession around the town or village, sometimes in the form of a furry dance, culminating in social events such as the serpent dance together with step and broom dances. Troyls Another Cornish dance tradition from this dance Newlyn Reel/ Plethen Lulynn The Newlyn Reel is one of the most popular Cornish dances and was introduced to the Cornish dance community by Mrs Esme Francis, the Honorary Harpist for the Cornish Gorsedh: A neighbour of mine, farmer John Williams, who lived at Boscreggan Farm, Nanquido, described the Newlyn Reel Dance to me in He remembered travelling to Newlyn on a horse and cart when he was a child and seeing it danced by the fishermen there. This would have been the early 1900s. He would bring forth the tune in his gruff voice, and demonstrate the steps as he remembered them. Formation Couples in a circle, lady on the gentleman s right. Arms outstretched and resting on the nearest shoulder of the dancer on either side. Step The step is lively. The right foot moves to the right and is joined by the left foot; repeat three times; move the right foot to the right again, kick left foot across it. Bars 1-16 All Step to right and left twice Ladies advance, clap and retire Gentlemen advance raise right hand fist and shout hoy and retire all turn to face partner All set right and left, turn 180 degrees to face a new partner All step right and left and turn to face original partner All step right and left, turn to face new partner All step right and left (as the ladies step left they move on slightly forward to pass their new partner, so that they will be on their partner s right hand side when the circle reforms). The circle has now reformed, the ladies having moved on one place. The dance is repeated as often as desired with the music gradually getting faster. Reproduced from Scoot Dances, Troyls, Furrys and Tea Treats: the Cornish Dance Tradition, with permission from the authors and publisher. summer 2009 page 15

5 period is the troyl, a word meaning a reel, a spiral or a turn in the Cornish language which was used in dialect to describe an evening of social and step dances accompanied by good food and, unlike the tea treats, strong drink. These were smaller affairs than the tea treats, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the space in empty barns or fish cellars at certain times in the season. The atmosphere of the troyl is captured by an entry in the North Hill Old Cornwall Society s records of 1933: There be dancing of all zorts gain on. Heard told how one girl who was dancing, had the misfortune to dance on a rotten part of the barn floor and it gived way. One leg went through and she found herself standing on the back of a cow that was standing beneath. kekezza caption???? Merv Davey is a post-graduate researcher in folk tradition at the Institute of Cornish Studies. He performs with his family group, the North Cornwall Troyl Band, does duty as the Bodmin town piper and is also honorary piper for the Cornish Gorsedd. pengueezers caption???? Celtic Revival The Old Cornwall Societies were born out of the activities of the Celtic revivalists in Cornwall in the early 1900s. Not only did the revivalists seek to promote the Cornish language and have Cornwall recognised as one of the Celtic nations, they also wished to record and revive Celtic traditions such as the guize dancing. The Old Cornwall Societies were set up as locally based groups who would record their own experiences and recollections of local traditions, together with that of their contemporaries. They were instrumental in reviving such customs as the Hal An Tow at Helston, the St Ives Guize dancers, the Midsummer Golowan bonfires and the Crying the Neck ceremony at harvest time. As a roots organisation, which retained ownership of their own traditions, they were quite different from other British folk revival movements of the time. Their activities sowed the seeds for the inter-celtic festivals held in 1950s together with dance classes and associated events, which included on one occasion an evening of Breton and Cornish dancing which followed the performance of a Cornish Mystery Play. Against this background there was a renewed interest in Cornish dance in the mid-1970s, inspired by the growth of Celtic Festivals such as the Pan Celtic, then held in Killarney and the Festival Interceltique in L Orient, Brittany, to which Cornwall was invited to send representatives. Two dance display teams formed as a result of this interest: Cam Kernewek and Ros Keltek (translated as Cornish Step and Celtic Circle respectively), who were able to build up a repertoire of dances collected from both living tradition and reconstructed from archival sources. Thirty years later, there are eight groups that can field dance teams, including two for young people, together with a number of bands using Cornish material for social dance. In the twenty-first century, Cornish dance nevertheless continues to be found in its traditional settings of the guize dance, the processional furry and even the occasional tea treat. Further Information Scoot Dances, Troyls, Furrys and Tea Treats: The Cornish Dance Tradition by Merv, Alison and Jowdy Davey. A history of dance in Cornwall, from the earliest references in Cornish literature to the dances of the folk revival today, collected by members of the Davey family. Notations for 45 dances social, broom, snail creeps, guise and furry dances with tunes. Published in August 2009 by Francis Boutle Publishers summer 2009 page 16