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04 Dec 14 - 09:46 PM (#3682646) Subject: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: GUEST,leeneia Mudcatter Valmai Goodyear has started a thread about certain Sussex carol concerts in her area. She has posted a video of a related piece, a cotillion, with a serpent featured. I don't know what it was called before, but I am naming it the Serpent Cotillion. A serpent in this case is a bass musical instrument. I remember hearing of the serpent in a story by Thomas Hardy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St-RZ2ItG2o&feature=youtu.be When I heard the cotillion, I decided my friends would love playing it. So I made two MIDI's and am sending them in to be posted here. One is simply the melody, the other is a fancier version. I tried to transcribe the original bass part, but it got too hard, so I made one up. Watch this spot. |
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05 Dec 14 - 02:02 AM (#3682667) Subject: RE: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: Joe Offer Here are the MIDI files from leeneia: |
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05 Dec 14 - 03:43 AM (#3682680) Subject: RE: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: Ged Fox I believe it's usually known as the "Sussex Cotillion" |
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05 Dec 14 - 06:49 AM (#3682720) Subject: RE: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: Jack Campin Score and video on Lester's Tune a Day: http://lesters-tune-a-day.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/tune-6-sussex-cottilion-from-manuscript.html |
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05 Dec 14 - 09:32 AM (#3682765) Subject: RE: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: TheSnail To add to what Lester says, the manuscript is from the Bosham Band. Bosham (prounounced Boz-um) is a beautiful village on (and frequently under) Chichester Harbour at the exreme west end of Sussex. As far as I know, it appears there simply as Cotillion. It isn't in 'The Sussex Tunebook' but was published (probably for the first time in 200 years in 'Lewes Favourites' which is also sadly now out of print but the tunes from it are available in various forms here Lewes Favourites. The Cotillion is first in the book. It is graatifying to see how it has spread. The four part arrangement on the video is by Stuart Walker our musical director who, as Valmai has said, had to stand down this year. The serpent's bass line is very much his own as he didn't have the range for the written one. Valmai has also written a three part arrangement. She is setting to the serpent player's left playing concertina. |
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05 Dec 14 - 09:42 AM (#3682770) Subject: RE: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: GUEST,leeneia I'm grateful that it isn't a fairly well-known piece by Jeremiah Clarke. What a waste of effort that would have been. Now, who's going to play it, and what will you play it on? My band has harp, guitar, recorder flute and percussion. |
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05 Dec 14 - 11:55 AM (#3682819) Subject: Tune Add: Chain Cotillion From: GUEST,Valmai Goodyear I did a three-part arrangement of an extended version of The Cotillion, which Bryan (TheSnail) Creer and I took to Whitby Folk Week this year to use in our concertina workshops. If I can get a link to work, here it is on SoundCloud as we all played it in the workshop: Chain Cotillion for concertinas The balance is a bit strange as the recorder was rather close to the bass concertina. The extended version has two extra sections and comes from a website of French dance tunes. Valmai (Lewes) |
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05 Dec 14 - 12:31 PM (#3682836) Subject: RE: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: GUEST,Valmai Goodyear The Cotillion appears (under the name 'Chain Cotillion) in the EFDSS publication 'Hardcore English' by Barry Callaghan and is in print. 'Hardcore English' was inspired by the Lewes Favourites collection. 'The Lewes Favourites' is a collection of favourite tunes played at English tunes sessions in the Lewes area; Barry Callaghan had the bright idea of assembling a collection of tunes popular throughout the country at English tunes sessions. The second volume of The Lewes Favourites is still in print. The serpent player with Shepherds Arise caused a certain amount of distress at our last band practice by playing a few wrong notes and shouting 'Oh, s**t!' which naturally led people to assume he'd followed through. Finally, I should point out that in the video Bryan TheSnail Creer is sitting between the clarinet and the flute. Valmai (Lewes) |
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05 Dec 14 - 01:37 PM (#3682857) Subject: RE: Tune Add: 'the Serpent Cotillion' from Valmai From: Ged Fox A quick Google takes it back to 1750 with names including "La Novelle Hollandaise" and "La Louisa." (Wild speculation on my part that the latter name might indicate a connection of the tune with Charles II's mistress, the Duchess of Portsmouth, and, by chance, I generally pair the Chain Cotillion with "Portsmouth") |
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05 Dec 14 - 06:42 PM (#3682927) Subject: RE: Tune Add: Serpent / Chain Cotillion from Valmai From: Joe Offer I posted Valmai's MIDI and notation for the "Chain Cotillion." |
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05 Dec 14 - 06:45 PM (#3682929) Subject: RE: Tune Add: Serpent / Chain Cotillion from Valmai From: GUEST,Valmai Goodyear Thanks, Joe! Valmai (Lewes) |
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06 Dec 14 - 05:10 PM (#3683140) Subject: RE: Tune Add: Serpent / Chain Cotillion from Valmai From: Marje Valmai, you'll be pleased to hear that, having learned that tune with you in Lewes, I have introduced it at my local session in Devon. A tune that has a similar feel to it, and the same numbers of bars (8+ 12) is a Welsh tune called Meillionen, which I have learned recently and may one day play back-to-back with the Cotillion. Marje |
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09 Dec 14 - 11:19 AM (#3683891) Subject: RE: Tune Add: Serpent / Chain Cotillion from Valmai From: GUEST,leeneia Hello, Valmai. Your 'Chain Cotillion' in three parts is wonderful. It's also longer than the 'Serpent Cotillion' which I took off the YouTube video. Thanks for doing that. (I see that both your MIDI and mine have problems with the half notes. I'm sure I didn't enter them that way. However, the problem is easy to fix, though it takes time.) |