May 31, 2023 by Andy Turner - 1 Comment

Constant Billy / Young Parker

As mentioned in my previous post, one of the very first morris dances I learned was Adderbury ‘Constant Billy’. ‘Constant Billy’ turns up in a lot of morris traditions, with only minor variations in the melody; but the Adderbury tune definitely seems to be the most commonly played version, not least, I suspect, because of the rather pleasing ascending run half way through the B music. Mind you I wouldn’t have played that Scotch snap in the first bar had I not consulted Lionel Bacon’s Black Book just before doing this recording.

Constant Billy (Adderbury)

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

Like a lot of Adderbury dances, there’s a snatch of song associated with ‘Constant Billy’. As, it appears, there once was at Bampton-in-the-Bush:

Oh my Billy, my constant Billy,
When shall I see my Billy again?
When the fishes fly over the mountains,
Then you’ll see your Billy again.

These words were noted by Mr Charles Taphouse (of Oxford music shop fame) from Bampton man Charles Tanner, and were included in an article by Percy Manning, Some Oxfordshire Seasonal Festivals: With Notes on Morris-Dancing in Oxfordshire, in Folklore Vol. 8, No. 4 (Dec 1897), pp. 307-324.

Dave Townsend came across the Bampton “morris songs” included in Manning’s article – several with somewhat unusual tunes – and these became the excellent ‘Bampton Morris’ set on the Jumpleads LP, The Stag Must Die.

Constant Billy (Charles Tanner)

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

I liked this tune so much that, around 1985 when I was Foreman of Oyster Morris, I devised a stick dance to go with it (in the style of Badby, as all Oyster Men’s dances were at that time). Actually, on paying closer attention to the tune as noted from Mr Tanner, I think I may have got it wrong back then. Admittedly only by a semi-tone, and only on one quaver in the last bar, but it makes quite a difference (especially on a diatonic instrument like the melodeon or anglo-concertina).

This is the tune as given by Percy Manning, but transposed up one tone:

And this – I think, although it’s over 35 years ago, and I mostly used to dance rather than play – is how the tune ended up when played for Oyster Morris:

Paste those into your favourite ABC editor to see the difference.

Anyway, whether or not that is how the Oyster musicians used to play the tune, that’s how I’d remembered it; so here’s my rendition of the second (incorrect) version.

Constant Billy (Oyster Morris, after Charles Tanner)

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

It has been suggested that the morris tune ‘Constant Billy’ might be a variant of a Scottish melody, ‘Cia Mar Is Urra Sinn Fuirreach O’n Dram’ or ‘How Can We Abstain from Whisky?’. That was written by John MacMurdo of Kintail in the first half of the 18th century, exactly when I’m not sure. Meanwhile, a tune called ‘Constant Billey’ was included in the 3rd edition of Playford’s Dancing Master (1726). Which came first? And are the similarities any more than coincidence? Whatever its origins, ‘Constant Billy’ must have become a widely known tune. As well as its use for dancing, the tune became a vehicle for at least one ballad, ‘The Death of Parker’, which is sung from the perspective of the widow of Richard Parker – the only man to be hung following the Mutiny at the Nore in 1797. The song has been collected a few times from oral tradition, and the collected tunes all seem to be more or less distantly related to ‘Constant Billy’. There’s a tune in one of John Clare’s manuscripts with the title ‘Young Parker’, and this presumably was the tune of the song, rather than a jig (although it would also work as a dance tune, if there’s any morris sides out there looking for less familiar tunes to use with their dances).

Young Parker

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

The version I find myself playing most frequently these days is the Headington Quarry version recorded by William Kimber. Kimber played the tune in G on his C/G anglo – it’s a bit squeaky up there but it works, and if it’s good enough for Bill Kimber it’s definitely good enough for me.

Constant Billy (Headington Quarry)

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

Last year Quarry resumed morris practices for the first time after Covid. At the time their long-standing musician, John Graham – who had joined the side as a teenager, and then taken over as musician from William Kimber – was ill in hospital; and even when he came out, arthritis had got the better of his hands and he could no longer play the piano accordion. Dave Townsend asked me if I’d stand in as musician. Now I certainly hadn’t been looking to join a morris side, but I wasn’t going to forego the opportunity of playing those wonderful Headington tunes, so familiar from the Kimber recordings. I have to say, although dance-outs are still rather few and far between, it’s a pleasure, and an honour to be involved with the team.

On my first outing with HQMD a year ago, I was a little worried when I saw John Graham watching at the Mason’s Arms. I wasn’t sure how he’d react to the interloper who had taken over the role he’d performed for the best part of 70 years. I needn’t have worried. Then, and subsequently when he’d come along to practice night on a Monday, he could not have been more friendly, supportive or helpful. Sadly, John passed away a week ago. When Headington Quarry danced in the village on Monday night, the dancing was, quite rightly, dedicated to his memory.

Here’s the citation read when John was presented with his EFDSS Gold Badge in 2019.

Photo from John Graham’s EFDSS Gold Badge presentation, 2019.

May 31, 2023 by Andy Turner - 1 Comment

Bluebells of Scotland

Oh where, tell me where, has my highland laddie gone?

When I joined Oyster Morris in September 1978 the first dances I learned were Bampton ‘Rose Tree’ and the Adderbury stick dances ‘Constant Billy’ and ‘Bluebells of Scotland’.

‘Bluebells’ is, as I recall, a really simple dance, and it’s certainly a simple tune – boring, some might say. But for a morris musician to call a tune boring is really an admission of defeat. When it comes down to it, the musician’s only job is to provide an accompaniment that allows the dancers to do the dance well. The music needs to be the right length, rhythm and speed and, above all, be danceable. And if the playing is really danceable then, by definition, it can’t be boring…

Bluebells of Scotland

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

May 26, 2023 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

The Beaver / Paddy Wack

Two late 18th century jig tunes. ‘The Beaver’ is from a manuscript compiled by William Clark of Lincoln, and dated circa 1770. From the Traditional Tune Archive I learn that the tune had been printed in Thompson’s Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, Vol. 2 in 1765, so (directly or indirectly) that was probably Clark’s source.

Clark’s MS also contains ‘Paddy Wack’, which seems to have tuned up in a lot of English, Scottish and Irish collections – again see the Traditional Tune Archive for details. The version I play was noted down by William Mittell of New Romney circa 1799. I learned it from the ABC file on the Village Music Project website.

The Beaver / Paddy Wack

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

May 1, 2023 by Andy Turner - 0 comments

Magpie Lane / Murphy Delaney

I heard a Man whistle this Tune in Magpey Lane Oxon Dbr. 22 1789. came home and noted it down directly

Thus wrote John Baptist Malchair, watercolourist, collector, composer, and leader of the band in the Holywell Music Room in Oxford – the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Europe. The German born Malchair (or Malscher) had a strong interest in folk melodies, and his notebooks contain several examples of tunes he heard being played, sung or – in this case – whistled – on the streets of Oxford. ‘Astley’s Ride’ is another example of this.

Facsimile of a page from John Baptist Malchair’s Third Collection of Tunes, showing the tune we know as ‘Magpie Lane’, and ‘Cupid’s Recruiting Sergeant’. From the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.

Fast forward 200-odd years and I was one of an as yet unnamed group of musicians preparing an album of songs and tunes connected with Oxfordshire. My good friend Dave Parry had come across this untitled tune in a book on music in eighteenth century England, and christened it ‘Magpie Lane’. He wrote it out for me; I took it along to rehearsal and everyone liked it; so I wrote out parts for recorders and cello, and this became the first track on our debut CD The Oxford Ramble. And when we realised that we really ought to have a band name, we plumped for Magpie Lane.

(Incidentally, Magpie Lane, which runs from the High Street down to Merton Street, seems such a picturesque name. But in past centuries it had an altogether less savoury appellation – see the article Magpie Lane or Grope Lane? Oxford’s rudest road on the Dark Oxfordshire website).

It’s now 30 years since the release of the first Magpie Lane album, and our first public performance – in the Holywell Music Room, appropriately enough. On Saturday we were back in the Holywell for a sell-out concert to celebrate this anniversary, where the band were joined by former members of the group Jo Acty and Marguerite Hutchinson, and musical friends including Jackie Oates, Colin Fletcher and Jane Griffiths from the Owl Light Trio, Phil Thurman, Louis Thurman, Toby Goss, and the The Patakas 2 – Will and Joe Sartin. Needless to say, this tune featured in the concert setlist.

Magpie Lane 30th anniversary concert. Photo by Tim McElwaine.

I’ve never encountered the tune ‘Magpie Lane’ in any other 18th or 19th century source – at least not in this 9/8 form. But some years ago now I came across a tune called ‘Murphy Delaney’ and it was clear that this was related to our theme tune. You can find versions of ‘Murphy Delaney’ in manuscript collections including the HSJ Jackson manuscript from Wyresdale in Lancashire, and that of John Moore of Ironbridge (look for page 90). And it was included in various printed collections: Thompson’s Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1805, Niel Gow’s Repository (1806), and volume 1 of the Irish piper O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion (c. 1805) – which is the version I play here.

‘Murphy Delany’ from O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, vol. 1 (c.1805)

You’ll find all of these and more on the Traditional Tune Archive at https://tunearch.org/wiki/Murphy_Delaney. From where I learn that ‘Murphy Delaney’ started life as a song – possibly by Dibdin – and that the song tune was adapted from an earlier dance tune called ‘Parson in Boots’ (although that’s a different tune to the one we play in Magpie Lane as ‘The Priest in his boots’).

‘Murphy Delaney’ – print by Thomas Rowlandson, after George Murgatroyd Woodward, June 15, 1807. From the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Edit 22nd May 2023

It occurs to me that as the earliest records of ‘Murphy Delaney’ seem to date from around 1805, the tune that Malchair heard being whistled back in 1789 must actually have been a version of ‘Parson in Boots’.

Magpie Lane

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

Murphy Delaney

Played on C/G anglo-concertina

Magpie Lane by Augustus Pugin, reproduced in A History of the University of Oxford, by Rudolph Ackermann and printed in London in 1814. From the Merton College website.