The Marches music

Revision as of 18:15, 16 August 2012

The Music of The Marches

Style summary

A capella harmony singing, no-nonsense, boisterous and earthy, simple folk and morality tales, minimal instrumentation, heavy ryhthms on guitars, bouzoukis or concertinas. Themes of working the land, agriculture and fishing, harvest, enjoyment of food and drink, recognition of obligation to the land and its people. The music of the Marches is drawn from the folk traditions of Devon and Cornwall: wassails, shanties, drinking songs, and work songs.

Commonly known songs

Pretty much everyone in the Marches will know one version of a Wassail

Musical traditions

After every harvest, Marcher farmers perform a traditional ceremony, a Wassail, to scare away evil spirits from the fields and ensure a good crop for the coming year. More on this tradition at Marches Hearth Magic#Wassail.

In the Marches, misdeeds are sometimes rewarded with a public shaming using noise, music, even satirical performance of some kind, called Rough Music: see Marches Culture and Customs. Some chants are known throughout the Marches such as those below (usually interspersed with verses detailing the misdeed), some songs/performances are written especially for the occasion!

"Ran tan tan, raise your hand, a sin to us is a sin to the land"
"Old Fred Thatcher (insert name of miscreant), we know your name, Old Fred Thatcher, you are to blame, Old Fred Thatcher, we know your shame, Old Fred Thatcher, we know your name!"

One for the kids

Whose Pigs Are These? a fun round

Further examples

Songs

Instrumentation and tunes

Songs are usually unaccompanied in the Marches, typically sung in raucous harmony rather than using instruments. However sometimes drums, guitars, fiddles, and whistles/recorders are used. For instrumental music, look to the very heavy rhythms of trad English music (the kind of tunes used to accompany morris dancing would be perfect).

Other performance traditions

Marches Tales

How to adapt your repertoire

The Marches is all about people singing together so choose songs that have a chorus, or even better, a call and response line. Nothing wrong with a bard leading a song but try to encourage participation from the people around you, even if just banging their tankards off the table. Can you turn your song into a drinking song?! Think of some harmonies ahead of time and if possible teach them to your group instead of using instrumental accompaniment. Any folk song will be fine but especially those in the themes listed above. If you are mostly a solo performer perhaps learn a few easy rounds and sing them with people between your solo numbers.

Our sources

Great list of harvest themed songs: http://piereligion.org/harvestsongs.html
Songs: Coope, Boyes and Simpson; Muldoon's Picnic; Fisherman's Friends; and number of Welsh a capella choirs; all great acapella harmony singers.
Tunes: Florida, Eliza Carthy,

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ====Musical traditions====
-After every harvest, Marcher farmers perform a traditional ceremony, a [[Wassail]], to scare away evil spirits from the fields and ensure a good crop for the coming year. More on this tradition at [[Marches Culture and Customs]].
+After every harvest, Marcher farmers perform a traditional ceremony, a [[Wassail]], to scare away evil spirits from the fields and ensure a good crop for the coming year. More on this tradition at [[Marches Hearth Magic#Wassail]].
 In the Marches, misdeeds are sometimes rewarded with a public shaming using noise, music, even satirical performance of some kind, called Rough Music: see [[Marches Culture and Customs]]. Some chants are known throughout the Marches such as those below (usually interspersed with verses detailing the misdeed), some songs/performances are written especially for the occasion!