Merv Davey Folk Song and Music Recorder  

Posted Jan 25th 2011

The following links are to papers that Merv has presented to conferences and Symposiums.

Papers and Publications

Devosow Dons Kernow: Ritual Dances in Cornwall March 2009 (pdf file)

Folk tradition, families, and cross generational perspectives: CAVA conference - Narratives of the family Aug 2008 (pdf file)

It Just Belongs to be: Rosyer Lecture, London Cornish, July 2008 (pdf file)

Post Modern Bagpipes: Cornish Music Symposium, Tremough Campus Exeter University Feb 2008 (pdf File)
 
Cross Border Raids: Conflicting interpretations of folk music collected in the borderlands of the Tamar Valley and Dartmoor. - Paper presented at CAVA Conference 22nd March 2007 ( pdf file)

Scoot Dances - The Cornish Dance Tradition: book published by Francis Boutle & co Aug 2009  {pdf file)

Posted Jan 4th 2011

Above are Newfoundland Mummers the custom probably went out to Nova Scotia with the Scottish migrants and their "Gizzards" which is the equivilent to our Guizers but the clip is exactly how the Guizers / mummers are described by A K Hamilton Jenkin and also Tom Miners in the Old Cornwall Society magazine: the veils, the step dances and the couple dancing could be our own Turkey Rhubarb dance -so it does make you wonder if this was taken out by Cornish folk who went out with John Rashleigh of Fowey's  Newfoundland Fishing expeditions 1608 - 1620. (see RIC Journal Vol 8 pages 61 - 71.

A campaign we need to take up with the OCS website is to pursuade our cousin Jacks and Jinny's to look for traditions that may have been taken out by their immediate ancestors. Apart from Phillip Paytons Cornish Australian Carols we have always drawn a blank in the past but I found below on the Wisconsin Archives Web site so some traditions clearly did travel - there are several audio files on this site:


Audio File Called "Cornish Carols"

“We would disguise ourselves by turning our caps inside about and our coats inside out and occasionally a cork face (i.e. blacking up) and go around one or two places. When we arrived at the door we would all sing
Oh we have come to your door to neither beg nor borrow,
But we have come to your door to wash away your sorrows.
For it's in the Christmas times
We travel far and near.

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.

On being taken inside we be given some saffron cake cookies, some cider and perhaps some nuts or candy and we would take our leave and sing

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year,
With your pockets full of money and your cellars full of beer.
As long as you live, Happy may you be,
With a heart's content and you fortunes free.” [i]

[i] Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946, University Of Wisconsin Digital Collections,

Accessed 5th December 2010


Talking of Tom Miners - attached are some Cornish Carols and versions of Wassail songs He collected and published in the Folk Song Journal in 1929.

Tom Miners Carols

For more Cornish Wassial songs go to the Wassail page on our Christmas site.

Best Wishes
Merv

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Posted May 1st 2010

FOCS Folk Song Recorder Report

As we move into Summer with the Obby Oss celebrations at Padstow and the Flora at Helston I thought you may like to hear some more Furry dance tunes and below is a musical score and by clicking on it you can hear the tunes. It may take a couple of minutes to down load it the first time but after that it should be fine.

Although the most celebrated Furry Dance is that performed at Helston on 8th May other furry dances are recorded throughout Cornwall. For example Cecil Sharp col­lected information about the Grampound Furry during his visit to Cornwall in May 1913. His informants were a Mr Phillip Luke (82) his son, and a lady called Mary Goodman (86). They described the dance much as it was done in Helston except that couples held hands across when they danced forward. They also explained that the procession would stop every so often and the dancers would reform in a ring , going first clockwise then anticlockwise around the circle. Furry Dances were and are popular at feast days in the Clay Country and a new dance was composed as recently as the 1980s by Oscar Yelland to celebrate St Austell's White Gold Festival.

The term "Flora" or "Floral" is sometimes used for the dance and dates from nine­teenth century antiquarians attempts to explain the origins of the custom in terms of the Roman Floralia whereas the term "Furry" can be simply explained as deriving from the Cornish word for Fair "Fer". The popularisation of the term "Flora" "or "Floral" by the singer Katie Moss in 1911 made it inevitable that this term would be incorporated into the tradition but Helston has developed a compromise by calling the day "Flora Day" but retaining "Furry" as the name for the dance and this seems a good precedent to follow.

Furry dance moves and steps are quite basic and lend themselves well to dance composition and the schools taking part in the Rescorla Festival have been encouraged to write a dance representing their own area. The dance given below is the traditional furry dance from North Cornwall and provides quite a good starting point for improvisation.

North Cornwall Furry: Dance Instructions

Processional dance for two couples in a line and as many sets as will. The step is a one ,two, three, hop.

Bars

1-8                         Couples take eight steps forward all moving in same direction.

9-12             All right hand star

13 16              All left hand star

Repeat as often as wished

You can find more musical scores and information on Cornish music in Alison, Jowdy and my book "Scoot Dances, Troyls, Furrys and Tea Treats",  which is on sale in the Federation book shop.

Posted 6th March 2010

FOCS Folk Song Recorder Report

Donations to the Archive

Text and Music from Hawkers “Modrep  Maria” arranged by MJ Richardson sent by Audrey Aylmer of Bude and Stratton OCS .( see local recorders report)

Trelawney: Celtic Cornwall in Song. 16 Cornish songs collected and arranged by Ylyades, Esme Francis.  Published by Cape Books. Donated by Author

The Trelawney Singers of St Ives have sent the words and music to “Granny’s Tea Treat”.

Contact with the Societies

Padstow OCS have provided a photo including Banjo Player and Broom dancer following a talk we gave in December 2009

Bodmin OCS member Mrs Iris Podmore sent me two children’s song / games she remembered from the 1930s following our talk in February 2010.

St Columb OCS, Phil Ellery emailed some photos of Tea Treats and musicians at Talskiddy from 1908 to the 1950s  ……………. And we are not due to talk to them until November! ( see local recorders report)

Carpenter Project

I have been in touch with the Library Of Congress in America who hold the archive of James Madison Carpenter, a Folklorist from Harvard University who collected folk songs and plays in Britain and Ireland between 1929 and 1934.  It seems that four wax cylinders survive of recordings he made in Cornwall, about 15 minutes each, an hour altogether. These contain recordings of recitations and songs by four founder members of the Old Cornwall Society, and regular contributors to “Old Cornwall”: W D Watson, Jim Thomas, Tom Miners and Bessie Wallace.  Included with these are Watson’s St Day Carol in Cornish and the earliest known recording of the Cadgewith Anthem.

The Library of Congress are currently digitalising all their wax cylinder recordings and will see if they can make a CD copy of the four cylinders from Cornwall available to us.  In exchange they would like more information about these four contributors and ideally photographs.  With the help of Vanessa Beaman, ex Grand Bard, I now have some information and photographs of Watson and am currrently pursuing Jim Thomas, Tom Miners and Bessie Wallace.  Like everyone else I am pressed for time and cannot devote as much time as I would like on this project but the federation is a very good place to network……………If  anyone has any information on these people perhaps they could contact me.

Phil Ellery of St Columb sent the following link which enables you to read more about Carpenter and the project  . Click here

Merv Davey

Telynor and Weryn

FOCS Folk Song Recorder

Email merv@an-daras.com

Tel 01208 831 642

Meneghyjy, Withiel, Bodmin, Cornwall PL30 5NN

Web Site http://www.an-daras.com/

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Posted  23rd February 2010

There are Cornish dialect songs on my web site at: http://www.an-daras.com/music/m_dialect.htm

We are still searching for more and if you know of any then please contact me.

Merv

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Posted 31st January 2010

The guise dancing was a big success as can be seen on this video . 

Posted 7th December 2009

I am building up a database of songs collected from oral tradition and two Cornish folk song collectors I am very Interested in are Tom Miners and James Thomas. Their names appear against articles in the early OCS magazines they came from the Camborne and Redruth areas, I think that Tom Miners died in about 1924 but James Thomas was one of Ralph Dunstans sources in 1929 and 1932s. As well as providing material to Dunstan, they contributed to the collections of Cecil Sharp in 1905, and also several articles in the Folk Song Journal. I attach an article on Carols published 1929 to which they had contributed some items from Cornwall. 

Miners Cornish Carols

Does anyone have any suggestions where I might find out more about Tom Miners and James Thomas? 

I met with some of St Ives OCS a couple of weeks ago - they are very supportive of Dee Brothertons efforts to revive the Guize dancing at Christmas which is starting up again this year - I am off to join them on 18th December so why not come and join me.

Merv. 

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A summery of Merv's report to the AGM October 2009

Merv has been going through the Federation folk song archives held at the Courtney Library which forms a valuable collection. As well as a large number of traditional and contemporary folk songs there are some fascinating snippets of information - for example Brenda Wooton’s childhood memories of Tom Bawcock’s Eve and notes on the custom of Allen Apples. There are also some cassette tapes of live recordings which need to be checked and copied in a format for posterity, i.e. digital or CD.  It would be an interesting project to see if this kind of material could be made available to a wider audience using the web site.

There are some recordings of Old Cornwall Society members made in 1931 by the American Folklorist James Madison Carpenter which are held by the Library of Congress. These include a recording of W D Watson singing the St Day Carol in Cornish. The recordings were originally made on wax cylinders but are currently being transferred to a digital format.  It would be interesting to see if copies of these could be obtained and made available in Cornwall.

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Having just been appointed [11th July 2009] to the position of Folk Song and Music Recorder by the Federation's Executive Committee I look forward to working with local Society recorders and members in gathering together even more of the fragments of Cornwall's cultural history to pass on to future generations.

I have spent many years collecting items relating to Cornwall's distinctive Culture I decided to record it on a website at http://www.an-daras.com/ . Please visit the site and I hope you enjoy its contents.

It will take some time to settle into the position and to learn exactly what it entails. In the meantime I can be contacted on e-mail: merv@an-dras.com 

Looking forward to meeting many of you at the Winter Festival at Wadebridge on Saturday the 14th of November 2.00pm.

Merv Davey ( Telynor An Weryn Folk Harper)

“Safeguarding the past for the future”

Registered Charity  No. 247283