Peterborough Morris
Peterborough Morris Music
(Comments by Mark swingler)
This page gives details of the tunes we use. Links go to videos or sound files by Peterborough Morris (PM) unless stated otherwise.
Most traditional morris tunes are on the Morris Ring website in ABC, sheet music, and mp3 formats so are not repeated here. Others are given below if we have it.
Tunes are listed under the name of the dance, which may not be the common name of the tune. Alternative tune titles are also provided if known.
But there is more to playing for dancing than simply knowing the tune. Please download and review this excellent article:- Playing Music for Morris Dancing by Jeff Bigler
Our repertoire is listed below according to the styles of the villages where the dances were collected:-
Adderbury
Beaux of London City / Shooting, G YouTube
The Bell, G. We perform this with eight dancers arranged like ninepins around the musician. This tune is more usually known as The Minstrel Boy.
Black Joke, G YouTube
Bluebells of Scotland, G YouTube
The Buffoon, G YouTube
Lads-a-Buncham (aka "Oh Dear Mother") in G video,
Badby
Beaux of London City, G YouTube
Broad Cupid, G YouTube. The tune is also known as "From Night Til Morn"
Bampton (traditional)
Banbury Bill, D. Same dance as the Rose Tree.
Glorishears, G or D mp3 audio
Highland Mary, G YouTube
Maid of the Mill, G
The Rose Tree, D
The Quaker, G and D YouTube
Princess Royal, Bampton jig, Bm. YouTube from 20 seconds in. (Musician's comment: "A very well-know tune, but the Bampton version is in a minor key. The usual key for a D/G melodeon would be Em, but the wide range of this version doesn't fit on the keyboard. So it ended up in Bm. Played mostly on the "D" row".)
Bampton (modern)
Lollipop Man, G. PM imagined how the Ducklington dance would be if it had been adopted in Bampton. The tune is shared with the Burns song Lea Rig.
Over the Hills and Far Away, D. YouTube PM put Bampton figures to the well-known tune.
Riggs of Doom, G. Devised by Utrecht Morris in Bampton style using a tune composed by Frans Tromp. For notation, search for Frans here (about half-way down the page) where you can find this . Not very straightforward on the melodeon if you want to get the chords right! There's a nice YouTube of John Golightly on melodeon and friend.
Trunkles, G. A recently-composed dance in Bampton style using the Bledington tune but with sequence A/B/C. See also Trunkles Bledington below.
Bidford-on-Avon
Abraham Brown the Sailor, D mp3 with dance instructions!
Old Woman Tossed up in a Blanket, G YouTube
Princess Royal, as played by Phillip Taylor of Shakespeare Morris mp3
Morris Off, as played by Phillip Taylor of Shakespeare Morris mp3
Bledington
Skirmish YouTube video of Nick Barber playing for White Rose Morris using Nick's own tune. Music notation can be found on Nick's website.
Black Joker PDF mid file. We practiced this 35 years ago with just the one odd half-bar at the beginning of the "B" music, but our current version has a second half-bar!
Brackley
Jockey to the Fair, G YouTube
Maid of the Mill, G
Fieldtown
Nutting Girl jig mp3
Hinton-in-the Hedges
Getting Upstairs, G or D
Lads-a-Buncham, G YouTube
Illmington (Jig)
Bold Nelson's Praise, G
This tune is missing from the Morris Ring website so we give it here in
PDF and
mid formats.
The tune is a version of the well-known Princess Royal.
Small but significant differences occur in the C-music at the start and end of "slows". The first time the C-music lead-in notes occur, they are quick, but not quick when they re-appear a moment later. And there is another quick note as the speed returns to normal.
Many morris tunes are from popular songs, although in this case the tune appears to precede the lyrics.
Info here and
here.
Lichfield
Vandals of Hammerwich, G
Ravensthorpe
Shepherd's Hey. (No music notation could be found on
line, but there are Youtube videos of both East Suffolk Morris Men and Moulton Morris MM.
They differ slightly and perhaps vary from verse to verse. Here is
the ESMM version on YouTube
with notation as heard by the webmaster as
mid
and
PDF files.)
Stick dance - YouTube
video of John Weaver playing for Brackley Morris Stick Dance, G. YouTube.
Maud Karpeles noted this down under the name
Twin Sisters as a traditional tune while in Vermont in 1929. In an
article in the EFDS journal in 1933 she suggested this as a tune
suitable for the Upton Stick Dance. - And it stuck! Trunkles, A or G ("A Handbook of Morris Dances" by Lionel Bacon
gives the key signature as two sharps, but I reckon it's in "A") Morris Off
Soldier's Joy PDF and
Stephen Baldwin on fiddle 1954 Greensleeves PDF
and
Stephen Baldwin on fiddle 1954 Trunkles, G YouTube William and Nancy, G YouTube Young Collins, G YouTube Bonnets so Blue, G, jig YouTube I'll Go and List for a Sailor, Em YouTube
(Note that the dance tune is a different tune to that of the song. Confusion reigns since the "Morris On" LP
where the song is interspersed with the dance tune.) Steeple Claydon
Upton-on-Severn
Wheatley
Some additions for 2020:-
Bidford
Princess Royal
Ruardean
Off-repertoire dances:-
Bledington
Bucknell
Sherborne