Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes

Subject: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 05:03 AM

Lewes Saturday Folk Club Workshop No 159
ANNE NEILSON & GORDEANNA McCULLOCH BALLAD WORKSHOP
Places £25
Saturday 30th. June 2012 10.45 a.m.- 4.45 p.m.
Elephant & Castle White Hill Lewes BN7 2DJ   

        Gordeanna McCulloch & Anne Neilson were introduced to ballads by Norman Buchan's Ballads Club in the 1960s & have performed & researched them ever since. Both are tutors on the Traditional Music course at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire. Gordeanna sang with the ground-breaking Scottish band The Clutha & currently sings with the Eurydice Choir in Glasgow. Anne is a member of Stramash. Together they run regular superb ballad workshops in Glasgow with source singers from Scotland & beyond. (see http://www.lauriesacousticmusicbar.co.uk/ballad_workshop.htm).
        
        Anne & Gordeanna will introduce us to a less familiar ballad in the morning: The Bonny Hind, Child no 50. A background note is available in advance on booking. You are also invited to bring along at least one traditional ballad of your choice to sing & talk about in the afternoon.

IN THE EVENING ANNE NEILSON & GORDEANNA McCULLOCH SING AT THE ELEPHANT & CASTLE
(£7: tickets from club, website or address at end of form)

ANNE NEILSON & GORDEANNA McCULLOCH
BALLAD WORKSHOP
Saturday 30th. June 2012

Provisional Timetable

10.45         Registration & coffee; order lunch
        (Refreshments are not included.)
11.00        Anne & Gordeanna introduce a less familiar ballad for us all to work on:
The Bonny Hind (Child 50).
12.30         Lunch
13.30-16.45         Participants will each be invited to sing a traditional ballad & the group will discuss interesting aspects of it. To avoid clashes, please choose your ballad in advance; if it's already been chosen, we'll let you know & ask you to choose another. If in doubt about whether your song is a true ballad, do ask in advance.
There will be a tea/coffee break at 15.00.

N.B. Booking is recommended as numbers are limited. Maps & accommodation lists
will be sent on request.

ANNE NEILSON & GORDEANNA McCULLOCH
BALLAD WORKSHOP
Saturday 30th. June 2012
BOOKING FORM
I enclose a cheque for £25.00 for workshop fees (refreshments not included).

Name:

Address:





BALLAD CHOSEN:

Telephone:

E-mail address:

No. of tickets for evening performance:
(£7 each, include SAE for these)

Tick for map:       Tick for accommodation list:

Please make cheques payable to Lewes Arms Folk Club (that's right) and send with this booking form to:

Valmai Goodyear, 20, St. John's Terrace, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 2DL
Tel. [phone]
[e-mail]
www.lewessaturdayfolkclub.org/

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 05:45 AM

Have to tell you, Valmai, that the link to Laurie's Bar will no longer work as the bar - now re-named Avant Garde - is under new ownership and there is no new website as yet.

But the workshops continue!

Looking forward to our visit and meeting all your ballad singers.
Anne Neilson.

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: GUEST,Gutcher
Date: 13 Apr 12 - 09:17 AM

Anent the Bonny Hind and songs of that ilk, could the reason for many of the young men returning to sisters who do not know them be that in Celtic societies the sons [eldest?] were put out to foster parents at a very young age and brought up as members of that family with no privileges whatever thus better fitting them for their future leadership role in society.

Could this principle not be applied to our budding polititians?   A five year spell in a deep coal mine, living as their hosts do, would surely sort out the wheat from the chaff.

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 14 Apr 12 - 09:26 AM

Thanks, Anne, I've removed the Laurie's Bar link from the parallel post on fRoots.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 20 May 12 - 10:58 AM

Ballads are being chosen now, apart from Bonny Hind. They are:

Two Magicians
Cruel Mother (Sussex version)
Death of Robin Hood

We still have places; don't leave it too late to reserve a ballad.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Gutcher
Date: 20 May 12 - 11:32 AM

In my post of 13th April I should have made it clear that I was referring to the sons of Chiefs and Chieftens,then again it is perhaps not needfull to point this out as most of these ballads refer to people of that class.
                                                                  When did you last see a ballad of this sort involving your local ditcher or dyker?.

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 20 May 12 - 04:20 PM

The Bonny Hind certainly deals with the chieftain class, but by no means all ballads do. For me their appeal is close to that of the great theatrical tragedies, which deal with the greatest and deepest of human emotions, and those are universal.

Of the other ballads chosen so far for this day, The Two Magicians does not specify the class of the woman but lays heavily empahsis on the fact that the main man is a skilled labourer: a blacksmith. In the many and varied versions of the Cruel Mother, the girl may be aristocratic, middle class or of unspecified class: her chief characteristic is that she's an unmarried mother and her fate is the same whatever her class. The Robin Hood of the ballads is a yeoman who fights with a quarterstaff and a bow, not a sword, and his followers are working-class outlaws (millers, tanners, pedlars, pindars, etc).

There are also a fair few of the great ballads which deal with an aristocrat acknowledging a working-class person as an equal, sometimes of their own free will and sometimes perforce.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Gutcher
Date: 21 May 12 - 05:11 AM

I was referring specificately to ballads where a previously unknown brother turns up and seduces his sister.
I do not see this in any of the examples mentioned in the previous post.
The practice of fostering the sons of chiefs and chieftains was widespread in the highland clans and I am sure someone can furnish us with details of the most recent mention of this practice.   17thC. perhaps?.

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 27 May 12 - 08:14 AM

Ballads now chosen apart from Bonny Hind:

Two Magicians
Cruel Mother (Sussex version)
Death of Robin Hood
Sir Patrick Spens

We still have places; don't leave it too late to reserve a ballad.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: maeve
Date: 27 May 12 - 08:19 AM

Would that I could join you for this workshop! Best wishes from Maine.

Maeve

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 27 May 12 - 10:23 AM

Ballads now chosen apart from Bonny Hind:

Two Magicians
Cruel Mother (Sussex version)
Death of Robin Hood
Sir Patrick Spens
Sheath & Knife

We still have places; don't leave it too late to reserve a ballad.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 12 Jun 12 - 06:02 AM

Ballads now chosen apart from Bonny Hind itself:

Two Magicians
Cruel Mother (Sussex version)
Death of Robin Hood
Sir Patrick Spens
Sheath & Knife
Wigginstown (Roud 1902)
Something Croatian yet to be specified

We still have places; don't leave it too late to reserve a ballad.

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Jun 12 - 03:47 PM

Fran
Coming to workshop - how do I find a tune for the Bonnie Hind?
Relatively new to the technological approach

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 17 Jun 12 - 04:17 PM

GUEST Fran asked "how do I find a tune for the Bonnie Hind?"

I am looking forward to hearing Anne's and/or Gordeanna's version. I have only ever heard one sung version up till now (first from June Tabor in about 1967, if I remember). Much much more recently I realised that the tune is that of The Garten Mother's Lullaby. I presume that someone fitted that tune to the words. Maybe we'll learn on 30th who that was.

Richard

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 17 Jun 12 - 05:32 PM

Guest Fran -- you don't need to find a tune for The Bonny Hind as Gordeanna and I are bringing one, hoping that we can all work together to make a singable version out of it.

We're hoping that it's the PROCESS that will prove valuable, but that will be for the participants to decide!

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 18 Jun 12 - 03:05 AM

I'm looking forward to this enormously. We still have places, so don't leave it too late to sign up with a ballad of your own choice to sing in the afternoon session.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 02:36 AM

Anne asks people to bring recording devices to help them remember the tune of Bonny Hind that will be taught. There is still time to sign up with a ballad of your own.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 25 Jun 12 - 04:28 AM

Ballads now chosen apart from Bonny Hind itself:

Two Magicians
Cruel Mother (Sussex version)
Death of Robin Hood
Sir Patrick Spens
Sheath & Knife
Wigginstown (Roud 1902)
Something Croatian
You Roving Boys of Pleasure

We still have places; don't leave it too late to reserve a ballad.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 27 Jun 12 - 03:30 AM

Six hours of sex and death on licensed premises with an hour for lunch - you can't beat it.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Neilson/McCulloch ballad workshop Lewes
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 28 Jun 12 - 08:36 AM

Ballads now chosen apart from Bonny Hind itself:

Two Magicians
Cruel Mother (Sussex version)
Death of Robin Hood
Sir Patrick Spens
Sheath & Knife
Wigginstown (Roud 1902)
Something Croatian
You Roving Boys of Pleasure
There Were Roses

We still have places; don't leave it too late to reserve a ballad. It's a great priviledge to welcome Anne and Gordeanna to Sussex; Anne tells me that she hasn't driven south of Notingham before, so the rarity value of this workshop is almost as high as the musical excellence.

Valmai (Lewes)