Jigs for Rapper Sword
(Durham and Northumberland)
Played here by Dr. Kenworthy Schofield on the Pipe and Tabor from the EFDSS RPL 1115 [P.R.304] (n.d. 1958?) Jigs for Rapper Sword is made up of five tunes (see below):
Duration: 2 min. 30.52 sec.
My Darling Asleep: This is an Irish double jig; in O’Neill Music of Ireland (1903/1979), 172 (#925); ed. Krassen (1976), 43. O’Neill 1001 Gems (1986), 41, no. 159. Irish title Mo Muirnin ’Sa Codlad. Although it’s an excellently jolly jig, the title led me to play it slowly, and it turns out to be a very sweet air.
Oh Dear What Can the Matter Be?: Called an “Irish air”, 6/8, in Manson (1846), II.62. Cox MS., 27. Variations on the tune were printed in Köhler’s Violin Repository, 265 (G, 6/8). O’Neill Music of Ireland (1903), 109 (#620). The Irish title is Oc on cad e do tarlad. Kerr Merry Melodies, Vol. 2, 28. (no. 254), etc. etc. It is described as “the favorite duet” in The British Lyre, or Muses’ Repository (1793). For further detail see BCF 20, pp.17-18.
Connachtman’s Rambles: Irish double jig (often spelt “Connaught”). Irish title, Triallta an Connactaig. In Brody, Fiddler’s Fakebook (1983), 73; Kerr, Merry Melodies I, 36; O’Neill, Music of Ireland (1903/1979), 187 (#1003); idem, Dance Music of Ireland (1907/1986), 50 (no. 218).
Bonnie Dundee [new set]: Scottish jig; Kerr’s Merry Melodies II.34 no. 307 (G); 6/8 Pipe March (K Co., Guards Depot) SGSS 18 # 22; and many other printings. This is a 19th-c. tune, probably deriving from the nursery song “Queen Mary, Queen Mary, my age is sixteen”; arranged for piano as The Band at a Distance, it became popular in mid-century (sung into fame by Miss Dolby), and replaced the old 17th-c. air to Sir Walter Scott’s words.
Cock ‘o the North: The original version is evidently English, mid-seventeenth century, called Joan’s Placket is Torn (referred to by Pepys, 1667), which appears in Playford’s Dancing Master, 1686. In Manson (1853), I.10, as a “Gaelic Strathspey”. For further details see BCF 20, pp.18-20.
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English Sword Dances:
There are two main types of English Sword dance:
1. The Long-sword Dance, which belongs to Yorkshire, in which long rigid swords are used…;
2. The Short-sword or Rapper Dance, which belongs to Durham and Northumberland, and in which two-handed flexible swords are used…;
A distinctive feature of the Sword dances, which recurs a number of times during any performance, is the Lock or Nut, in which the swords are plaited together. One such “lock” has been adopted as its badge by the English Folk Dance and Song Society…
“The English Sword dances must be clearly distinguished from the Scottish Sword dance, in which the swords are not held in the hands but two swords are laid crosswise on the ground, and the dancer performs his steps over and between the swords. The corresponding English dance is the Bacca Pipes Jig, danced over two churchwarden pipes laid crosswise…”
(Peck 1959, p. 7)
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Dr. Robert Kenworthy Schofield (1901-1960) first became involved in English folk music and folk dance during the Peace Day celebrations of 1918, at the end of the First World War (1914-1918). At Cambridge University he joined the local branch of the English Folk Dance Society (EFDS) and became a founder member of “The Travelling Morrice”. It was on Morris tours in the Cotswold that he met some of the surviving traditional dancers and musicians. His notes about these encounters can be found in the EFDS Journals for 1928, 1930 and 1934. Later he was one of those responsible for the formation of “The Morris Ring”. Outside his music Dr. Schofield was a physicist who, after leaving Cambridge, worked at the Rothamsted Research Station in St. Albans. He was the author of a number of scientific papers.