The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #73168 Message #1447765
Posted By: Mick Tems
31-Mar-05 - 07:49 AM
Thread Name: Miskin at Easter 2005
Subject: RE: Miskin at Easter 2005
In reponse to Splott Man's message about the number of musicians at the ceilidh and Buttered Peas – I was playing a familiar Welsh tune of striking similarity called Pwt Ar Y Bys (A Vamp On The Fingers) which the Romany harpers would use for a warm-up exercise. Perhaps the story revolves around the age-old sessions, somewhere on the border between England and Wales, where English musicians would hear Welsh harpers playing this tune – and they would spread the tune across Cheshire, Lancashire or all other localities, each carrying a delightful mishearing of the name of the tune. (Mishearings and mistakes are all too common in tradition - (The New Scorpion Band researched a group of musicians in the Napoleonic Wars. The members had as their party piece a tune called The Downfall Of Pears, despite composer M. Becourt's naming of this piece The Downfall Of Paris.) I'm not claiming which came first, because both Welsh and English musicians had a habit of totally ignoring political boundaries. Just compare Pwt Ar Y Bys to Buttered Peas, and draw your own conclusions.