Leeneia There are at least five or six variations and possibly more on the Morris tune "Country Gardens" Each village that sustained a Morris dancing side had its own version of the tune or even a different tune for the Dance of that name, which varied according to the dancing style of the side, and the memory of the musicians(s) who played for them,.....village sides often had to "borrow" musicians from each other, and were quite used to dancing to slightly different versions of their tunes. The version arranged by Percy Grainger was from the village of Headington Quarry as Collected by Cecil Sharp from the playing of William Kimber the sides musician at the time. It is not exactly as Kimber played it and his playing varied Subtly over later years including speeding up enormously almost to the point of being undanceable !! At the time of collection no words were associated with the Morris tune and all subsequent "Pop" versions seem to have originated with Jimmie Rogers in the "Sixties" .
|