Peterborough Morris
Peterborough Morris Music
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 and 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.
Tunes are arranged according to the villages where the dances were collected:-
Current repertoire:-
Adderbury
Beaux of London City / Shooting, G YouTube
The Bell, G. PM perform this with eight dancers arranged like ninepins around the musician. This tune is, of course, widely 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 at Bampton it is in a minor key. The usual minor key for a D/G melodeon is 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. Not very straightforward on the melodeon if you want to get the chords right! We found 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 audio with dance instructions!
Old Woman Tossed up in a Blanket, G YouTube
Brackley
Jockey to the Fair, G YouTube
Maid of the Mill, G
Fieldtown
Nutting Girl jig
Hinton-in-the Hedges
Getting Upstairs, G or D
Lads-a-Buncham, G YouTube
Lichfield
Vandals of Hammerwich, G
Upton-on-Severn
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!
Wheatley
Trunkles, A or G (Musician's comment: "A Handbook of Morris Dances" by Lionel Bacon gives the key signature as two sharps, but I reckon it's in "A")
Some additions for 2019:-
Steeple Claydon: Stick dance - YouTube video of John Weaver playing for Brackley Morris
Ravensthorpe: Shepherd's Hey. (Musician's comment:
Ravensthorpe Shepherd's Hey has a very simple tune, but no music notation for
the could be found on
line. 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 my basic notation as
mid
and
PDF files.)
Badby: Flowers of Edinburgh
PDF 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. Bledington: 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! 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 Miscellaneous, i.e. not in current repertoire
Bledington
Bucknell
Sherborne