The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #143672   Message #3319281
Posted By: GUEST,Brian Peters
08-Mar-12 - 06:19 AM
Thread Name: Folklore: 19C English Country Dance Bands
Subject: RE: Folklore: 19C English Country Dance Bands
Hi Les,
I suspect the photograph that Tootler mentioned might be that of the Winders of Wyresdale, Lancs. Lots of information about them here. If I remember rightly, the upper photo is of the Winder band in the early 20th century. I'm not sure about the lower band photo - on a brief perusal I can't find anything that identifies it, so maybe it's just a generic village band? Your session at the Beech would benefit greatly from the Winder collection - and it's fairly local, too!

The (as yet unpublished) Thomas Watts MS from the Peak District includes dance music, church music and one or two classical pieces. A few are captioned 'for the German flute' (which might suggest that the remainder were written out for a different instrument?), another few are in two- or three-part harmony, and one is the cello part for Handel's 'Judas Maccabeus'! A separate book of bass parts that corresponds to some of the Watts repertoire has also turned up. Like others on this thread, I believe that village dance / church bands were made up of whatever instruments people had to hand, and very likely included militia / ex-military musicians.