Tag Archives: Boldwood

April 2, 2018 · 18:15

The Shepherd and the Shepherdess / Maiden Lane

 

A long, hard winter is still trying to cling on here in London – but I’m banishing the blues (and ending a dismally long Fiddletails break) with this absolute frolic of a set guaranteed to put the Spring back in your step.

The Shepherd and the Shepherdess is from an unpublished manuscript found by Boldwood members in the Vaughan Williams Library, Cecil Sharp House, London (home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society). Maiden Lane is an early Playford tune, from the 1651 first edition.

Two tunes across three videos, then. First, Christine Cooper and Jamie Huddlestone play both tunes as a fiddle/melodeon set (Key: G). Second, the Boldwood string/accordion quartet play Maiden Lane with a different flavour (G). And we finish with fiddler Laurel Swift’s slow teaching video of Maiden Lane (A).

Aaaand…. dance!

 

Christine Cooper (fiddle), Jamie Huddlestone (melodeon)

(‘The Shepherd and the Shepherdess / Maiden Lane’, YouTube video 3.58. Published by Christine Cooper on Jul 20 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H8W7eAQJM)

 

Boldwood

Becky Price (accordion), Daniel Wolverson (viola), Matthew Coatsworth (fiddle), Kate Moran (fiddle)

Filmed during a recording session at Christ Church, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England in November 2016.

(‘Boldwood – Maiden Lane’, YouTube video 2.45. Published by Boldwood on Dec 1 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCUTMHVp0S0)

 

Laurel Swift (fiddle)

Teaching video made for Laurel’s West London Folk Bank class at the West London Trades Union Centre in Acton, London.

(‘Maiden Lane’, YouTube video 1.34. Published by Mary Doody on Sep 19 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HXSjaeP2gQ)

 

Christine Cooper Bandcamp Tumblr Folk and Honey

CD available at: http://christinecooper.tumblr.com/music

 

Jamie Huddlestone Soundcloud Youtube

 

Boldwood website Facebook

New album Glory of the West and previous CDs available from the website, plus two brilliant dance tune books: The Boldwood Dancing Master, a book of over 70 English country dance tunes from 1679 to 1838; and The Second Boldwood Dancing Master, over 60 tunes from 18th century manuscripts with suggested chords

 

Laurel Swift website Facebook

Details of Laurel’s collaborative folk music project Travelling With Thomas

Laurel’s West London Folk Band tunes: YouTube and ealingsessions

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April 16, 2016 · 20:12

Black and Grey

 

A tune from Playford’s The Dancing Master, 1686 (also known as A Trip to Kilburn – originally the name of the dance that belongs to the tune).

The Round  has a good piece on the Playford tunes and dances – ‘melodies that set a-tapping the toes of Charles II, Henry Purcell and Samuel Pepys,’ says Mary Anne Ballard of the Baltimore Consort.

So, here’s Black and Grey played by quartet Boldwood, followed by a slower version on mandolin that’s perfect for catching the tune by ear.

 

Boldwood

Becky Price (accordion), Daniel Wolverson (viola), Matthew Coatsworth (fiddle), Kate Moran (fiddle)

A video made during rehearsal in January 2016.

 

(‘Boldwood – Black and Grey’ YouTube video, 4.31. Posted by Boldwood, 2 Feb 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k90Hj9RHIQ)

 

Folk and Classical Mandolin

Sadly no name or contact details for this accomplished mandolinist, whose YouTube video notes quote interesting dates and information for the tune from The Fiddler’s Companion.

 

(‘Black and Grey or A Trip To Kilburn (Playford, 1686), on mandolin’ YouTube video, 0.58. Posted by Folk and Classical Mandolin, 27 Nov 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1dHP5cJQvc)

 

Boldwood: for CDs, gigs and other news, see their  website   Facebook

Also available from their website is the brilliant The Boldwood Dancing Master, a book of over 70 English country dance tunes from 1679 to 1838.

Folk and Classical Mandolin:  YouTube channel

 

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October 31, 2015 · 18:42

Quinn Darrow Hornpipe

 

Breezy hornpipe that may have travelled to American and back* before arriving in the playlist of Boldwood’s unissued 2012 album Mudlarking.  (*see Matthew Coatsworth’s Folkmusicnotes)

 

Boldwood

Becky Price (accordion), Miranda Rutter  (fiddle, viola), Matthew Coatsworth (fiddle, viola)

 

 

 

boldwood cdBoldwood’s wonderful CDs are available on their website – along with marvellous tunes book The Boldwood Dancing Master,  ‘a collection of English country dance tunes from 1679 to 1838’.

Current details of recordings, concerts etc are also on their  Facebook page.

 

Use the Search box above to find other great Boldwood tunes.

 

 

 

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September 26, 2015 · 15:24

Purlongs

 

Purlongs is an intriguingly crooked tune from Playford’s Dancing Master (1651), and the roots of its inscrutable title are much debated. (Andy Cutting’s definition: ‘Any distance travelled by a cat.’)

However, the word appears to be a Middle English variation of ‘purloin’ – to steal, in a stealthy manner:

Purlong: Middle English purloinen, to remove, from Anglo-Norman purloigner. Noun: purloiner. (Via thefreedictionary.com)

And there you have it. Purlongs. Thieves/robbers. Case closed?

(Perhaps not. Googling purlongs also gave me furlongs/corruption of, and instructions for installing purlins when putting up a roof.)

 

Cut to the chase! Here are two wonderful bands – Leveret and Boldwood – playing the lovely Purlongs.

 

Leveret*

Andy Cutting (melodeon), Rob Harbron (concertina), Sam Sweeney (fiddle)

Purlongs played second in a set with Whitefriars Hornpipe, which was the tune for 28 May (Purlongs: 2:50). Mr Cutting half visible but entirely audible.

 

(‘Leveret – Whitefriars & Purlongs Live in Dursley Town Hall’ YouTube video, 5:41. Posted by Sam Sweeney, 12 Jul 2014. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwCdsI6Qrx4)

The set is on Leveret’s 2015 CD New Anything, available from their website.

*GIG ALERT!

Leveret tourLeveret kick off their UK tour at Cecil Sharp House, London. THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boldwood

Becky Price (piano accordion), Matthew Coatsworth, Kate Moran, Daniel Wolverson (fiddles)

Played second in a set with Fete de Village (Purlongs: 2:10) in a live performance at The Queen’s College Chapel, Oxford, 1st June 2013, featured on the unpublished CD Mudlarking**.

 

 

For news of gigs and recordings, see Boldwood’s website and their lively Facebook page.

**For previously-featured tunes from Mudlarking, see also Jackson’s Shaving Brush (June 2015) and The Miller of Perth (Aug 2015).

 

 

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August 7, 2015 · 15:53

The Miller of Perth

Boldwood play mainly forgotten tunes from 18th century England, painstakingly researched and liberated from lost manuscripts and the extraordinary (to us) phenomenon of dance fans. This 3/2 hornpipe was discovered by Becky Price in an unpublished handwritten manuscript in the British Library.

 

Boldwood

Becky Price (accordion), Miranda Rutter (fiddle, viola), Matthew Coatsworth (fiddle, viola)

 

(From Boldwood’s 2012 unreleased second album Mudlarking, available on Soundcloud here.)

 

Boldwood-Dancing-Master-front-cover-300x210The dots for The Miller of Perth are published in The Boldwood Dancing Master, available from the Boldwood website – along with a brilliant new CD – and also on  Matthew Coatsworth’s fascinating website ‘English and French Music: an online manuscript’.

For more information and another great Boldwood tune, see Fiddletails post Jackson’s Shaving Brush (June 2015).

 

 

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