Projects
Vaughan Williams' Folk 2024
We volunteered to help out on the the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust's (EATMT) "Vaughan Williams' Folk" project (https://www.eatmt.org.uk/vaughan-williams-folk/) We looked at the songs and tunes collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams on his trip to Kersey, Hadleigh and Holton St Mary in Suffolk.
He collected 17 songs between 30th August and 4th September 1907. We transcribed the songs from scans of Vaughan Williams' original notebook, housed at the EFDSS Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (https://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/1) and created both PDF, MIDI and abc format files, which you can view in the table below.
During the transcription we found a great deal of changes in time signature within single songs. This we suspect is due to Vaughan Williams having to write down songs sung by unaccompanied singers and the fact that most of the singers were singing in pubs!
We recorded 14 of these songs on a CD; pictured above. We tried to transcribe and record the tunes on this CD as Vaughan Williams noted them down to keep as close as possible to how he would have heard them. This CD is really a reference and was not intended to be a finished performance, so we purposely kept it very simple with just melodeon accompaniment, playing the tune as noted down, and vocal, so the raw tune is evident. We did, however, change keys in order to sing them and play comfortably. Where lyrics were noted down, we used them; where partial lyrics were noted we used them to find the full song. Other than that we sought out suitable lyrics. If the song had a more widely known title we've added that in brackets.
For more information on the CD click here Green Lanes CD
- If you are on a mobile turn the screen landscape or the sort function will not work and the text will be tiny.
- You can search for a particular word by typing in the search box. Click on the X on the right of the search box to clear search.
- You can sort on multiple column by click on the title of the column. One click sorts asceending, another click will sort descending. To revert to original order sort on RecNo.
- You can view a PDF of the musical notation for a particular song by clicking on the word PDF on that row. To download it right click on PDF and chose "Save Link As".
- You can view a ABC Format File of the musical notation for a particular song by clicking on the word ABC on that row. To download it right click on PDF and chose "Save Link As". The exported file can then be opened in any ABC editor app. We use EasyABC.
- You can listen to the MIDI sound file produced by the abc file by clicking thr play button in the MIDI column.
- You can listen to the mp3 of us performing the songs. These are very basic reference recordings with just a squeezebox playing the tune as written down, well as close as we can, and a vocal (so no arrangements, harmonies or altering the tune etc).
- Search and sort javascript function courtsey of Rory Sullivan 2020
| RecNo | County | Village/Town | Info | Singer | Song | ABC | MIDI | MP3 | Video | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Suffolk | Kersey | Collected in The Bell public house 30th August 1907 | Played on a penny whistle | Green Mossy Banks (The Green Mossy Banks Of The Lea) | ABC | Video | |||
| 02 | Suffolk | Kersey | Collected in The Bell public house 31st August 1907 | Mr Ansell | Basket Of Eggs | ABC | No mp3 | Video | ||
| 03 | Suffolk | Kersey | Collected in The Bell public house 31st August 1907 | Mr Ansell | Barbry Ellen (Cruel Barbara Allen) | ABC | Video | |||
| 04 | Suffolk | Kersey | Collected in The Bell public house 31st August 1907 | Mr Ansell | I Courted A Dark Girl (the False Lover) | ABC | No mp3 | Video | ||
| 05 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected in The Shoulder Of Mutton public house 1st September 1907 | Mr Warner | Eggleston Hall | ABC | Video | |||
| 06 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | A chanty collected 2nd September 1907 | Mr Broome | Our Chief Mate's Name It Was Ike Green (The Ebernezer) | ABC | Video | |||
| 07 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Jake Willis (a Crimean War and Indian Mutiny Veteran) | Basket Of Eggs | ABC | Video | |||
| 08 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Jake Willis (a Crimean War and Indian Mutiny Veteran) | Green Lanes | ABC | Video | |||
| 09 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Jake Willis (a Crimean War and Indian Mutiny Veteran) | The Broadstriped Trowsers | ABC | Video | |||
| 10 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Jake Willis (a Crimean War and Indian Mutiny Veteran) | Vilikins And His Dinah | ABC | Video | |||
| 11 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Jake Willis (a Crimean War and Indian Mutiny Veteran) | The Baffled Knight (The Dew on the Grass) | ABC | Video | |||
| 12 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Jake Willis (a Crimean War and Indian Mutiny Veteran) | The Milkpail | ABC | Video | |||
| 13 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Jake Willis (a Crimean War and Indian Mutiny Veteran) | Green Mossy Banks (The Green Mossy Banks Of The Lea) | ABC | No mp3 | Video | ||
| 14 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd-4th September 1907 | Mr Rob Clarke and completed by Mr Jake Willis. | I Hunted My Merry Dogs | ABC | Video | |||
| 15 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd September 1907 | The Clarke Family. | Silvy | ABC | Video | |||
| 16 | Suffolk | Hadleigh | Collected 3rd September 1907 | A man from Stepney who was in Semer workhouse. | Come All You Roaring Boys | ABC | Video | |||
| 17 | Suffolk | Holton St Mary | Collected 3rd September 1907. | Mrs Tiffin Junior | I Once Loved A Dark Girl (the False Lover) | ABC | Video |
Songs of the Song and Supper Clubs of 1830's London 2021
The songs sung in the song and supper clubs of the early to mid nineteenth century formed the basis of the early music hall, and as such have always interested us. So we thought we should do a little project on them. Luckily rather than travel to the British Library to trawl through the original chapbooks we could get the songs from an excellent four volumes; Bawdy Songbooks Of The Romantic Era edited by Spedding, Watt, Cray, Gregory & Scott (2011) which collated all the chapbooks from the period. We concentrated on the songs printed between 1834 and 1838 by William West, whose shop was located at 57 Wych Street, near the Strand, in London. There was no musical notation in these books rather named tunes or airs. These were well known tunes of the time or parodies of popular songs (even some opera songs), some of these tune posed quite a challenge to uncover. In the process of researching and arranging the tunes ourselves we found some excellent tunes we had never heard before. This all culminated in producing a CD called "The Squire's Thingumbob And Kitty's What You May Call It".For more information click here The Squire's Thingumbob And Kitty's What You May Call It CD