Both are untitled, so the numbering is (I assume) Andy’s.
Waltz 1 (like ‘The Algerine Waltz’) is from the H.S.J. Jackson manuscript, while number 2 is from James Winder.
I used these at a West Country Concertina Players’ weekend where I was a tutor in 2015. We played them then in the original keys of C (Waltz 1) and D (Waltz 2). Here I’ve put Waltz 2 into C also, so I can get a fuller range of chords on the left hand.
Playing them numerous times over the weekend, it became clear that the two tunes have a very different feel – number 1 is more stately, while number 2 seems to want to be played quite a bit faster, and could sit quite happily in a French music session or bal.
Last weekend I was one of the tutors at the first Witney Supersqueeze, a successor event to the long-running Concertinas at Witney, Melodeons at Witney, and Accordions at Witney. On the Sunday I led sessions looking at tunes in three time – 3/4, 3/2 and 3/8. When looking for 3/8 tunes I had expected to find French Mazurkas and Bourrées, but actually the tunes I turned up were all late eighteenth / early nineteenth century English waltzes. Here’s a couple.
I found ‘Dover Cliffs’ in Bert Simons’ Kentish Hops collection. He gives the source as “Platts (1798)” which presumably is Martin Platts’ Book 25, for the year 1798, of Sthraspeys, Reels, Waltzs & Irish Jiggs: for the Harp, Piano Forte or Violin; with their proper figures, etc. published in London by Longman & Broderip (N.B. I’ve given the title as recorded in the British Library catalogue, so I assume the misspelling of Strathspeys was the fault of Martin Platts, or Messrs Longman & Broderip). It’s given in Bb in Kentish Hops; we played it in G last weekend, and I’ve recorded it now in C.
Dover Cliffs
C/G anglo-concertina
The Algerine Waltz
G/D anglo-concertina
This is a tune which, in the end, I didn’t use at Witney. It’s another 3-part waltz, and has a very similar feel to ‘Dover Cliffs’. I found it when searching abc files on my PC for tunes in 3/8, although it turns out I had it in print, in Andy Hornby’s Winders of Wyresdale collection, but had overlooked it when going through the 600-odd tunes in the book.
The source of this tune was H.S.J. Jackson’s 1823 manuscript, which has come down as part of the Winder Family collection (see ‘The Fly-Flappers’ for more on this excellent book, and the Winder family MS).
Incidentally, while looking for any background information on the tune, I discovered
“Algerine” is a synonym for, rather than a misspelling of, “Algerian”.
A tune with the same title was published in Philadelphia by George Willig, in 1842. But, insofar as I can make sense of piano music printed in Bb major, this seems to be a completely different piece.
Squeezed Out 