looking for dorset music

Subject: looking for dorset music
From: GUEST,Erin
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:04 PM

Greetings folks,
                I was born and live in Australia but my family is from Dorset. I am looking for Dorset folk music, songs, and dances. You seem to have a large Dorset contingency, so I thought I might ask here. I have already looked through your archives, so no one has to re-post anything.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Blowzabella
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 06:11 PM

Look for Tim Laycock, The New Scorpion Band and The Mellstock Band - you'll not go far wrong there.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 07:05 PM

Dorset Four Hand Reel for a tune, and the Yetties Dorset be Beautiful for a song just for starters.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: greg stephens
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 07:25 PM

Dialect poems set by classical composers is not a genre I would expect to enjoy. But "Linden Lea" is an absolutely stunning song, and is dearly loved by a lot of people who have never had anything to do with folk. It's so simple and sweet it sits happily alongside raditional music. And it is as Dorset as can be, William Barnes wrote the words, the Dorset dialect poet. His statue stands in Dorchester. A great song, music by the great collector Vaughan Williams.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Emma B
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 08:03 PM

There's a lovely little book published by EFDSS in 1948 which has had at least one reprint called A Dorset Book of Folk Songs which contains 26 songs collected from local singers. I don't know if it's still in print but you could try Cecil Sharp House.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Blowzabella
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:37 PM

For William Barnes material - again look out for 'The Year clock' - Tim Laycock and co

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:49 PM

Out of print long ago, but you can still get secondhand copies from time to time. There's one available at the moment at a decent price: http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=148932008.

Frank Purslow's selections from the Hammond and Gardiner collections (also EFDSS and out of print, but we're still hoping for an eventual re-issue) have a good bit of Dorset material. You can also find them occasionally; most often the first, Marrow Bones. There are two listed just now:

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=227077376

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=219277778

These links will only work for a short while.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Dec 03 - 09:52 PM

My post, of course, was intended to follow Emma's.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 03 Dec 03 - 02:17 PM

There are collections of tunes from Thomas Hardy's MSS available. His family played music for at least 3 generation before him, often as part of the church "quire", and noted their tunes down. The Yetties have recorded some of them.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Blowzabella
Date: 03 Dec 03 - 06:53 PM

And the New Scorpion Band still play tunes from the repertoire of the original Scorpion Band, who were military musicians, discharged into civilian life at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. They set themselves up as 'rivals' to the Puddletown Band - (Puddletown was Weatherbury in Thomas Hardy's Wessex novels)

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Anglo
Date: 03 Dec 03 - 06:59 PM

Birchwood Books (UK) lists a copy of the Yetties Song Book for 10.95 UK
here

Listed under Sartin.

Andy's Front Hall (US) has a copy listed for $15 here

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Leadfingers
Date: 03 Dec 03 - 07:01 PM

And of course I was forgetting the late Trevor Crozier, who wrote a lot of lovely songs about Dorset.

Subject: RE: looking for dorset music
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Dec 03 - 07:41 PM

Whereabouts from Dorset were your family? I've done a lot of geneology in the county (it being my birthplace) and it would be interesting to see if we're connected.

LTS