Tag Archives: folk viola

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The Shepherd and the Shepherdess is from an unpublished manuscript found by Boldwood members in the Vaughan Williams Library, Cecil Sharp House, London (home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society).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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Filed under English folk/traditional, Uncategorized

Da Shaalds O’Foula/Old Favourite

 

shetland3

 

A set of two beautifully-matched jigs from different Celtic traditions. Da Shaalds O’Foula is a traditional Shetland jig named for the hidden reef that lies off the remote island of Foula, where standing stones mark the midwinter sun and the local dialect speaks out of Old Norse roots. The second tune, Old Favourite, is a traditional Irish jig known by many other names, including the West Clare Jig.

 

methera-millMethera describe themseves as ‘a string quartet with roots firmly planted in English traditional music’ – a music that dissolves the walls we’ve built between traditional and classical. They take their name from the ancient northern English sheep-counting system that begins ‘Yan, Tan, Tethera, Methera…’. (If you feel like a linguistic adventure, you can learn the rest here.)

 

Methera

Lucy Deakin (cello), John Dipper (Fiddle), Emma Reid (Fiddle), Miranda Rutter (Viola)

The quartet playing for the live recording of their new album Vortex, at a house concert in a gorgeous Suffolk barn, April 2016.

(‘Methera – Da Shaalds a Foula / Old Favourite’, YouTube video, 4:17. Published by Methera 8 Sep 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38cx-FoTBaU)

 

087kopiahighresGIG ALERT!

Methera November Tour 2016

18th: Embleton, nr Alnwick, Northumberland

20th: Lancaster

21st: Riding Mill, Northumberland

22nd: Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire

23rd: Cecil Sharp House, London

24th: Corpus Christi College, Oxford

25th: Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire

Details and bookinghttp://www.methera.co.uk/gigs

 

Methera:  website   Facebook

methera-vortexALBUM ALERT!

New album Vortex (and previous albums) available as download or CD on bandcamp

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Filed under Irish traditional, Scottish traditional, Shetland traditional, Uncategorized

Lyvet

 

Sometimes you meet a tune you know is just never going to let go. Acclaimed hurdy-gurdy player Nigel Eaton plays his tune ‘Lyvet’.

A wonderful tune to play against a drone string to catch those gurdy tones.

 

Nigel Eaton (hurdy-gurdy)

In G minor

(https://soundcloud.com/nigeleaton/lyvet)

 

In F minor  – on a hurdy-gurdy made by his father, master hurdy-gurdy maker Chris Eaton

(‘Lyvet’ YouTube video, 1:15. Posted by Nigel Eaton, 27 Feb 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUXJEOVHcb4)

 

Nigel EatonSoundcloudYouTubewebsite

Chris Eaton,  hurdy-gurdy maker

 

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Filed under English folk/modern, Uncategorized