Tag Archives | England

Now We All Know Who

The Who turned British rock — loudly! — on its ear.
This week so far we’ve focused on British folk music, noting its transformation toward rock. Embodied by the band The Who as early as the mid-‘1960s, there could be no question that ROCK in England was real, and all timid folk best get out of the way. Watch this instrument-smashing video of the band performing “My Generation” live in 1967. Somehow in this clip Keith Moon is the last man standing.

Ten years, later, when they didn’t destroy their instruments, as we see in this video, they were still pretty darned great:

Ooh-ooh Child

If you know British folk music, you certainly know the Child Ballads.

Until the end of the 19th century “folk music” was less a celebrated musical form in England than it was a means of actual communication between British people. Like “folk” around the world, British “folk” sang while working, while celebrating, while sad. In the late 1800s American ethnomusicologist Francis Child begin to document the ballads of the British Isles; his “Child Ballads” are an essential document of English and Scottish folk. For centuries musicians have performed variations of the Child Ballads, leaping forth from the originals to build new songs based upon their melodies and lyrical themes. For example, Child Ballad 81, “Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard” — a “Child ballad” that’s a tale of intrigue and injury not appropriate for children — inspired myriad variants over the years. One of the most popular is “Matty Groves.” Watch British folk legends Fairport Convention — the 2012 version of the band — perform their version, using the melody of the American folk song “Shady Grove.” (Listen to them singing it with a much earlier lineup, in 1969.)

April is in my Mistress’ face

Let British madrigals answer the essential question — which month is your mistress’ face?
In the earliest days of England, musicians learned from and taught bards and troubadours from other nations. In the 16th century though, the Protestant Reformation separated English Protestants from continental Catholic Church, leading to less musical interchange between the British Islands and the rest of Europe. In this era, which coincided with the Renaissance (roughly from the 14th to the 17th centuries), British composers were developed their own music…like MADRIGALS! Do you like madrigals? Of course you do. And if you do, you’ll love “April is My Mistress’ Face.”

Making Very Merry in England

We start our Western European exploration in earnest with a musical journey to England. There are very few countries in the world, if any, that have served as the point of origin of more world-changing music than England. We can take a step back and ask ourselves why English-language music and culture dominates the global culture as it has, why songs written with English lyrics and “Western” rhythms have a disproportionate sway over, let’s say, music from China or even the Middle East where billions of people have lived and made music for thousands of years, but those questions are probably beyond our current scope. Instead, let’s stay oblivious, putting that kind of broad questioning aside to marvel at the sheer volume of musical genres that have originated in, and/or developed in, England…wow.

Molly Morris is MAGNIFICENT

Molly Morris reminds that, while could literally sit around listening to amazing British music for years on end, we shouldn’t do that! Instead, let’s dance.

Morris dancing is a folk dance from England traditionally done in groups of six or eight hardy men and women–hardy men and women, mind you, who are wearing pretty kerchiefs and jingle bells. During a Morris dance the dancers, who often wield wooden sticks or swords, step rhythmically and execute choreographed moves, weaving among each other and hitting each other’s sticks when appropriate. Some who practice Morris dance claim it originated in the late 15th century, but while there is mention of dancing in Church records of the time, the first appearance of the name “Morris dance”–possibly derived from Moorish dance, or dance of the Moors, though there are many other theories of the term’s origins–doesn’t appear until the 17th century. Our favorite form of Morris dancing is Molly Morris, which has us prancing and stomping along with dancers from the Midlands. Watch the colorful Gog Magog Molly Dancers dance the Polychromatic Parrot.

Who Knows…?

Only Sandy Denny knows where the time goes….
Please, just close your eyes and listen to this gorgeous, gorgeous song by singer-songwriter Sandy Denny, recorded when she was lead singer of British folk-rock innovators, Fairport Convention. “Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving…but how can they know it’s time for them to go? Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming…I have no thought of time. For who knows where the time goes? Who knows where the time goes…?” Denny passed away suddenly in 1978 at the age of 31.

Time Will Show the Wiser

Fairport Convention changed it all….

Fairport Convention was the first band to electrify British folk music–both literally and figuratively. Starting in the late 1960s Fairport energetically and innovatively embraced traditional British music and used it as a foundation for its own energetic and innovative originals. The band was among the first, and, arguably, the best in England, to fuse folk music and rock. (Bob Dylan did a simlar service in the United States.) For over forty years Fairport and its expansive lineup of talented musicians have been at the heart of the British folk-rock scene. A clear highlight has always been guitar wizard and extraordinary songwriter Richard Thompson, whose guitar innovations propelled Fairport from British folk fest band to genius superstars. We’ll all bow in reverence to the spirit of early Fairport singer and songwriter Sandy Denny, who we’ll also learn about this week.

The video in this post is an early psychedelic Fairport song, circa 1968.