Week # 561 ~ The Abbotts Bromley Horn Dance

  1. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Again, sorry about the delay in posting this poll winner! It’s The Abbotts Bromley Horn Dance (English Country Dance).

    I’m posting from my phone, and not familiar with this tune, so I will let others who are familiar, post some links to notation and videos!
  2. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    We have this one in our group's repertoire folders, using Evelyn's arrangement which she posted on the Cafe back in 2017 in one of her free Halloween tune collections:

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...=1#post1603839

    I don't think I have recorded it yet, but will do so soon.

    As background to this tune, Abbots Bromley is a village in Staffordshire, where they have performed this dance every year since the Middle Ages:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbots_Bromley_Horn_Dance

    A BBC video documentary is here, presented by the Unthanks:

    https://youtu.be/qe47M27JXSI

    Here are some Youtube recordings of the tune:

    Stick In The Wheel:

    https://youtu.be/sH_TYrW1O8E

    Leveret (starting at 3:47, after the Playford tune "Upon A Summer's Day", which would also make a nice SAW):

    https://youtu.be/sIzVSwpgqDg

    Ashley Hutchings:

    https://youtu.be/LX1Rlmbli0U

    Martin
  3. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Thanks, Martin, for all the links! Looking forward to hearing this tune!
  4. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    ……
  5. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    As promised, here is my recording of this famous tune. Quite a novelty, recording the current SAW tune in the actual week of Barbara's announcement!

    My arrangement for mandolin quartet (two mandolins, tenor guitar and mandocello) is based on a setting by Evelyn Tiffany-Castiglioni, which we play with our practice group. For my recording, I tried to have a gradual build-up with the instruments coming in one by one, before dropping out again in the final section.

    1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin (x2)
    Suzuki MC-815 mandocello
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar


    https://youtu.be/o9cb9fZA7VI

    Martin
  6. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Bravo Martin! Fine and sensitive playing.
  7. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Fine arrangement and playing, Martin.
  8. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    I really like the crescendo-decrescendo effect, Martin.
  9. John W.
    John W.
    Excellent job, Martin…arranging and playing
  10. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Fine playing, Martin. Your arrangement works great.
  11. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, all -- it's a fun tune, with a distinguished and unusual history attached. Although according to the Wikipedia entry there seems to be some uncertainty as to whether the dance was always danced to that tune, with Cecil Sharp who published this tune in 1912 having written a year earlier that he saw the dance being performed to the tune of "Yankee Doodle" (which sound distinctly less glamorous).

    Martin
  12. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Well done, Martin! I was watching your left hand closely because that B part is tricky.

    I've loved this tune ever since I saw this recording by Song-a-Week group member David Hansen:
    https://youtu.be/enJVauLVq4s

    It obviously became song of the week while I wasn't around, so perhaps this will help me get over that problem with the B part.
  13. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Dennis. Eagerly awaiting your version -- mine is feeling lonely in this thread! The B part reminds me somewhat of Gounod's "Funeral March Of A Marionette" (the Hitchcock TV theme tune), and that may be why Evelyn put this tune in her Halloween collection.

    Martin
  14. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Well, we certainly wouldn't want to have a thread with just one video in it. First, because it's a great tune; second, because this may be the last song-a-week determined by poll, for now. My own version is definitely coming because I love this tune. But I still need to arrange and record it.

    This was actually posted as an "other" tune 11 years ago. The thread (https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/g...cussionid=2285) only has one video in it, from group member polymerchm. I hope it's OK for me to re-embed it here:



    I mentioned group member David Hansen's version above, which is the recording that brought this tune to my awareness. To my mind, it's also the definitive arrangement of the tune with those bass lines. I'm not sure whether David ever posted it to the group - the concertina is the lead instrument, but there's also some cittern throughout and something that sounds like mandolin (or a cittern played up the neck?) at the end. I hope I'm allowed to embed it here:



    So now Martin's starter posting won't feel so lonely, and the rest of us can get started!
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