Miss Austen Reels

Subject: Miss Austen Reels
From: GUEST,Phil at work
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:03 AM

Did anyone recognise the reel that was played during the dance sequence in "Miss Austen Regrets" on BBC1 last night? I thought I recognised it, (possibly from a Woods-era Steeleye Span album?) but couldn't put a name to it. It was very badly edited - they didn't play the whole tune, just snipped out 10 or 12 bars and looped them, so the repeat seemed to fall very oddly; I imagine in reality it would have been rather hard to dance to!

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: GUEST,tony geen
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 01:05 PM

Drowsy Maggie?

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 01:14 PM

Yes, I believe it was, Tony. And I thought it rather odd that in the houses of the well-to-do in Hampshire the nobs would dance to an Irish reel! It just felt weird.

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: Saro
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 01:24 PM

Now then George, don't stereotype what we get up to in Hampshire... our houses shake to stamp of dancing feet at all hours of the day and night... I'm surprised that you haven't noticed on your visits to Wild Goose! And of course there was absolutley no English dance music of the period that could have been played was there.

Still, I thought the programme was fun and a bit different. I'm off to Chawton with a visiting Jane Austen expert on Thursday so I'll see what they think over there.

Saro

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: Michael
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 01:28 PM

I didn't say on the credits (or BBC website) who was playing. Anybody know?

Mike

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 02:23 PM

They did seem to cut a few corners when it came to the music. The same way they have in a few recent period productions (eg Sense and Sensibility and Cranford). I think there's someone up in the BBC Drama hierarchy who has decided that this kind of thing doesn't matter anymore.

That aside it was pretty good.

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 02:33 PM

Miss Austen Regrets: the soundtrack

Composer : Jennie Muskett

Jane's Jig', for solo violin (performed by Dermot Crehan) and harpsichord.

Charlotte R

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: greg stephens
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 02:37 PM

I am always irritated when all traditional music in movies or TV, whether in England, Irealnd, Wales or Scotland, has to be vaguely "contemporary Celtic". But, having said that, it can be pointed out that Drowsie Maggie appears in plenty of English tunebooks roughly contemporary with Jane Austen.

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: Marje
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 02:51 PM

But what about that waltz?

Couples were shown waltzing around in a "ballroom hold" in a way that apparently wasn't introduced in England until shortly after the death of Jane Austen, and wasn't socially accepted until some years after that.

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: Michael
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:08 PM

Thanks Charlotte.

Mike

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:22 PM

Mike , when I saw the thread, I vaguely remembered seeing a soundtrack somewhere

Purchase It Here
Charlotte R

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:24 PM

That was never a 'solo violin' (unless the room was *very* echoey) - or a jig, come to that.

I'd come to the conclusion it was probably the Morning Dew, so I was close (apparently TMD derives from Drowsy Maggie).

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's unplugged Apprentice
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:31 PM

well I can only go by the review and presumably the soundtrack in regards to the violin and harpsicord on 'Jane's Jig'

Charlotte R

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: Marje
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 05:34 AM

It does make you wonder why they didn't commission the soundtrack from someone who had an elementary understanding of the music of the time. I know the incidental music doesn't need to be of the time, but the featured dance music should. We've already identified the following weaknessed:

A well-known Irish reel with a few bars omitted is attributed to a modern composer.

It is weirdly described in the CD blurb as "a wild highland fling".

It's named as "Jane's Jig" although it's not a jig, it's a reel.

The dancers are later shown doing the waltz with full ballroom hold, which simply didn't happen at that time.

If their "experts" who advise on costume, interior decor, language and social customs are as inaccurate as that, the drama probably bore no relation at all to the life of Jane Austen.

Marje

Subject: RE: Miss Austen Reels
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 01:14 PM

OK, have just watched the tape. As has already been pointed out, the reel in the ballroom scene is indeed Drowsy Maggie - anyone catch sight of the lid being lifted on a modern piano keyboard? And a harpsichord sound coming out of it?

In fact, Irish reels would have been familiar to dancers in those regions. I have a (photocopy of) a handwritten manuscript of tunes noted by a fiddler and dancing-master who travelled in Kent and Sussex, bearing the date 1799. There are a huge number of Irish tunes in it - jigs, reels, hornpipes - some with different names, but many are unchanged from those we play in sessions today. Drowsy Maggie wasn't in my manuscript or in the Gow Collection, but Michael Raven has included it under "Country Dances in 2/4, 2/2 and 4/4 Time" in his superb book One Thousand English Country Dance Tunes. In view of his extensive knowledge, I would guess that this is probably authentic usage. (Wooops, re-reading the thread just before posting this, I see that Greg Stephens beat me to it, the killjoy. Anyway, having dug out my books and looked it up, I'm leaving it in. So there.)

I think this must be the "solo violin (performed by Dermot Crehan) and harpsichord" mentioned in the blurb, described as a highland fling and titled as a jig. I played with Dermot on a film soundtrack once - he's a truly amazing musician, nephew of Junior Crehan. He was also the fiddler in The Irish R.M. title and closing-credit sequences. At least one of his violins was already over a century old at the time Jane Austen lived, but I don't know if he was playing it here or not.

Anybody besides me get irritated with that soppy silly little Fanny? She just reminded me of one of JA's caricatures, though I doubt this was intentional. I can only hope the real Fanny Knight was made of stronger stuff. And, apart from a brief mention of his name, where was Tom Lefroy? (And was it customary for brides to dress in white in those days?)

Apart from the uncredited-onscreen Dermot, I dunno who played the music, but the gaffer was Otto Stenov.

Nice link here:

http://austenprose.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/fanny-knight-jane-austens-niece-with