Friday 3 February 2023
Traditional English tune, arranged for two flutes
The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance is a folk dance dating back to the Middle Ages, taking place each year in Abbots Bromley, a village in Staffordshire, England. The modern version of this picturesque dance involves reindeer antlers, a hobby horse, Maid Marian (portrayed by a man in a dress), and a Fool (or Jester).
There is no special or traditional tune for the dance, but one of the melodies most commonly associated with it is the one we present today, known as “The Wheelwright Robinson's Tune”. Andrew Bullen (Country Dance and Song, May 1987) notes:
It was sent to [British folksong collector Cecil] Sharp in 1910 by a Mr. Buckley, an Abbots Bromley resident who noted the tune in 1857 or 1858. He learned it from William (or Henry) Robinson, the town's wheelwright and a very good fiddle player. While he never played for the dance, he was the only one in the village who remembered the tune, which he said was still used when he was a young man. We know that Robinson was born in the 1790's, because he sold his shop in 1878 while he was in his eighties. Robinson indicated that the tune was ancient in his day.
Thursday 2 February 2023
from Flute Sonata in F major
This is the second movement of Johann Joachim Quantz's Sonata in F major for flute and continuo, QV 1:82. It is one of many works for flute that Quantz composed for his student and patron Frederick II, King of Prussia.
Wednesday 1 February 2023
Reel by Roddy Campbell
Today's tune was kindly contributed to our collection by its composer, piper Roddy Campbell from the isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. He writes:
Catherine Lillian does much work for local good causes in our community. Recently she has taken an interest in my electronic pipe to the extent that she is not only learning to play but has persuaded husband Malcolm to buy her one!
Tuesday 31 January 2023
from “48 Famous Studies for Oboe or Saxophone”
Today's study is the eleventh piece from 48 Études pour hautbois ou saxophone, composed around 1835 by German oboist and clarinetist Franz Wilhelm Ferling.
Monday 30 January 2023
from “24 Easy Duets”
This minuet-like piece for two flutes is the twenty-third duet from François Devienne's XXIV Duos faciles pour deux flutes à l'usage des commençans (24 Easy Duets for two flutes for use by beginners). It was first published in Leipzig around 1800.
Sunday 29 January 2023
with bass accompaniment
Today we propose the fourth air from Italian flutist Tebaldo Monzani's Twelve Airs as Solos for a German Flute with a Violoncello or Bass Accompaniment, published in London around the year 1800.
Saturday 28 January 2023
Traditional Irish jig
In its present form, this jig first appeared in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. It is probably named after Ballyhooly, a small village in north County Cork, Ireland. The first strain of the melody was however borrowed from a Scottish song, “The Drucken Wife o' Gallowa'”, which first appeared in a collection published in Edinburgh in 1751. The tune is apparently older still, with scholars tracing it back to the air of “To horse, brave boys of Newmarket, to horse”, a song that was printed by Thomas D'Urfey in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719).