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A manuscript in the Farne
online collection, estimated to date from about 1840-60
East Boldon is a village located between Sunderland and Gateshead.
It used to be in County Durham but is now in South Tyneside.
Transcribed into ABC Notation for The Village Music Project by
Steve Mansfield, Ruairidh Greig and Mike Hicken
Go to ABC file
Go to PDF
of transcription
We have worked from the incomplete MS on the Farne website so the tune numbering is provisional and shown in square brackets to indicate this.
The manuscript contains tunes from various hands, and is not in
its original order. Much of the material requires highly competent
musicianship.
It contains a mixture of ballroom items, like quadrille sets,
arrangements of popular songs like 'Life's a Bumper' by Richard
Wainright, long variation sets, and many fine hornpipes, some
credited in the MS to James Hill, some known as Hill tunes from
other MSS. Not all pages made it onto the Farne website, we have
transcribed what did.
Notes by Matt Seattle, from the Farne
website:-
One of several books in the
Lockey Collection at Beamish Museum, this tune book contains the
signature 'William Hall Lister, East Bolden' [sic.], as well as
that of Robert Lister. It is likely that both contributed to the
book, like many manuscripts it is the work of more than one
hand.
The manuscript is of
mid-19th century origin to judge from the contents, and is
predominantly a fiddler's collection. It contains many tunes
ascribed to James Hill, the most celebrated Tyneside fiddler and
composer, as well as other high quality tunes which are
anonymous but from the same stylistic school. In addition to the
hornpipes, jigs and reels there are some 'ballroom' tunes of the
era, which show that Lister was also aware of national as well
as local musical fashions.
Notes : Page one of the
tune book has suffered severe damage rendering the manuscript on
this page illegible. The tight binding of the manuscript has
resulted in some loss of text, and faded or badly written
manuscript renders the transcription of some tune titles problematic.
Collection description :
19th century fiddlers tune book compiled by William and Robert
Lister
Period : 1841-1860
Height : 29 cm
Width : 21 cm
Held by : Beamish Museum
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