|
Date: |
|
Description: | This tune is obviously unsatisfactory, but it is difficult to know what corrections should be made. The editors of the Northumbrian Minstrelsy copied it note for note from Vickers (without acknowledgment), transposing it to G and adding the song lyric and title Durham Old Women from Bell's Rhymes of Northern Bards; the song contains the line 'For the joyful days are coming' so the link may be sound, but no attempt is made to match the words and music note for note. This still does not solve the problem of the tune, but strain 2 suggests it may be a version of How She'll Never Be Guided (William Dixon and elsewhere), known in a simpler form as The Farr Awa Wedding.The tune forms part of the The William Vickers' manuscript, dated 1770. The Index to the manuscript shows that part of the book is now missing, but the very substantial surviving part contains 580 tunes, or 'Country Dances' as the author calls them. It is not easy to pinpoint Vickers's location as his name is not uncommon, but he may be the William Vickers who shows up in genealogical records as an 'Officer of Exise' [sic] in Newcastle. It is fairly safe to assume that the collection was made in North East England because although it contains a lot of Scottish and English tunes it has local material which is not found in other sources. ; 18th century tune book compiled by William Vickers | Rights holder: | rights holder : Society of Antiquaries | Temporal: | start=1761;end=1800; | Source: | Folk Archive Resource North East | Identifier: | farne:R0311504 | Go to resource |
|
|