Richmond tunes?

Subject: Richmond tunes?
From: GUEST,redmax
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 06:51 AM

I've found reference to a few tunes, including Richmond Ball, A Trip to Richmond and Richmond Hill, and wondered if there's any clue as to which town these were named after. I know there's some debate about whether the song The Lass of Richmond Hill referred to the Yorkshire town or its Thames namesake. There might not be a conclusive answer, but I was curious to know if these tunes are northern or southern (or American!) in origin

Subject: RE: Richmond tunes?
From: MissouriMud
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 02:51 PM

Many of the "Richmond" tunes in the US such as Richmond, Richmond Blues, and possibly Richmond Cotillion or Polka, came out of the area around the state of Virginia, US and therefore are likely related to Richmond, Virginia - capital of the state and capital of the southern Confederacy during the US Civil War. Richmond Hill appears to be an English tune.

Subject: RE: Richmond tunes?
From: Bobert
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 06:00 PM

I wrote a song entitled "Legend of the Churdhill Tunnel" back in '96 about a train that was buried in a tunnel collapse under Churchill which at the time of the collapse was pretty much the eastern most part of Richmond, Va...

BTW, the train, and people are still buried under Churchill...

Bobert

Subject: RE: Richmond tunes?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 06:00 PM

They will almost all be 18th century tunes relating to the suburb of London (or as it was then, rural retreat for the upper classes). Places like that had dance assemblies that often had tunes written for them.

There are a surprising number of tunes of the mid-18th century named after the now utterly nondescript area of south-east London where I spent the first five years of my life. Imagining these areas of suburbia as rustling with crinolines and echoing to the hoofbeats of carriages delivering ladies to society balls doesn't come easily, but 250 years ago they were like that.

Subject: RE: Richmond tunes?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 02 Aug 07 - 06:17 PM

Richmond Falls is American (Civil War).
There is a Richmond Excursion, having to do with the Richmond that is now part of London.
Richmond Hill is English.
(These in the Bodleian Library)

Subject: RE: Richmond tunes?
From: GUEST,redmax
Date: 03 Aug 07 - 03:43 AM

Thanks for the responses. I know that there used to be horseracing on the hill above Richmond in Yorkshire, and that balls used to be held afterwards, but as Jack points out the tunes are more likely to have been named after the London location