Annotation:Grandfather's Tune (1)

Back to 

 GRANDFATHER'S TUNE. AKA - "Grandfather's Polka." AKA and see "Sheepshearing." English, Morris Dance Tune (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB'. The tune has been employed in the North-West England morris dance tradition for a polka step. Phillip Heath Coleman has identified the tune as "a simplified ('disarpeggiated') and rather zippy version of the "Cliff Hornpipe".  One member of the [Dorset Trio] described it as his "grandfather's tune", whence the popular title of the version now in circulation." The Dorset Trio consisted of musicians playing fiddle, concertina and cello.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources: Wade (Mally's North West Morris Book), 1988; p. 28.  Recorded sources: Flowers and Frolics - "Bees on Horseback" (2008). Topic Records TSCD659, Dorset Trio - "Rig-a-Jig-Jig: Dance Music of the South of England."

Back to