The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122117   Message #2674422
Posted By: SteveMansfield
08-Jul-09 - 02:57 AM
Thread Name: Morris Tunes??
Subject: RE: Morris Tunes??
"Twin Sisters" was and still is a Canadian tune (Newfoundland actually), collected there by Maud Karpeles. She "introduced" the tune to the Upton Stick Dance. Now almost everybody thinks the tune is called Upton Stick.

Minor pedantic historical point - it's true that Lionel Bacon, in his 'Handbook of Morris Dances', described the version of Twin Sisters that is now associated with the Upton Stick Dance as from Newfoundland: but the original article by Maud Karpeles in the Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society in 1934 clearly states that the tune was collected by her in Vermont.

Either way, yes it was Maud Karpeles who suggested the tune for the dance, and yes Brighton Camp / Lord Of The Dance / Flowers of Edinburgh all work very well.