This old chestnut again.

Wonderful photos of the Minster Suibhne! And they got to keep their bagpipes! In [I think] Sherborne Abbey, round my way, someone removed the bagpipes as they were the devil's instrument (quite possibly due to those devilishly good Scottish pipers, but that is conjecture)

'disregard for tonality'

Certainly this seems apparent from recordings.

However (all just my opinion) it doesn't seem to fit with the village band model where fiddlers would also be playing in the church. (i'm thinking Hardy in particular) 2 out of tune fiddles and a (presumably equally off-key) cello would sound just awful when accompanying comparatively tuneful voices.

There is the argument that without the frame of reference for the twelve-tone equal temperament music that we are all bombarded with today, that they wouldn't judge all other music on this scale. Hmmm.

They certainly were not just slumming it, they played all the time and took great pride in it and played in all manners of keys. There are loads of tunes in Winters MS (Somerset same period as the older Hardy MS)in Bb, F, Gmin.

The tunes in these keys actually are great on the fiddle, but they're not an easy option, if you have poor intonation due to skill-level, you would naturally stick to G, D, A major (& relative minors) as your open strings keep you rooted better (and there are plenty of tunes in these keys too), to venture off into F, would sound worse to the player if they lacked this skill.

The fact that they did, i think, suggests their intonation was exactly what they wished it to be (or at least the same as nowadays , where we all strive for that little extra)

On the wider issue. Over the last 3 years I have enjoyed playing with lots of great players from all over England. I have my own style and the tunes I am particulaly enjoying playing at the momement are my local ones .... from 200 years ago. Lucky enough to have 3 great MS, Hardy (well actually that's a BOGOF), Winter and very soon Rose from just a few miles from my house. Tim Laycock and Colin Thompson are due to release a Facsimile of Rose's book over the next month or so!   Yay In fact I'm going to see them playing some of the tunes down at the West Country Christmas Carols Weekend this weekend! Wahoo.

Anyone else going?

Cheers, A