Tunes on a Penny Whistle: A Derbyshire Childhood by Doris E Coates

Author:Doris E Coates
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Harpsden Press
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Eyam Variety Entertainers bookings

Eyam Variety Entertainers in uniform

This group of about twenty men looked to my father not only as their secretary but also as their leader. At Christmas they formed themselves into a carol party, starting up on the stroke of midnight of Christmas Eve outside our house, and continuing through the night to serenade the whole village to its farthest extremities, even to the outlying farms, where they were often regaled with wine or beer and mince pies in the early hours of the morning. This entailed my father being the victim of much good-hearted teasing about his teetotal principles.

The concert party sang traditional carols and some of purely local origin. Sometimes they included more ambitious anthems, like the florid ‘Hail, Smiling Morn That Tops the Hills With Gold’. On one occasion when they had been celebrating rather freely they tackled this and only with difficulty managed the final flourish, ‘Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail! H-a-i-l, Hail!’ losing most of the aspirates in the process. At this point a loud and somewhat tipsy voice added, “There’s plenty of ‘ale’ about tonight, Harry!”

I have many memories of musical activities in those days. My father’s pride and joy was his large Canadian organ, with a high Victorian superstructure of mirrors, shelves and carving, almost touching the ceiling. It had sixteen stops and two knee-swells, and could produce great beauty and variety of tone. As a young man Harry had managed to save up for this splendid instrument from his meagre wages. He was an extremely thrifty man, who neither smoked nor drank, and he used to recall that his mother would proudly display the organ to her friends and refer to it as ‘Harry’s baccy money’. I remember him sitting for hours, lost in the music as he played hymn tunes, parts of oratorios, melancholy folk songs or plantation tunes. His first tune was always ‘Bonnie Mary of Argyll’, which for some reason always moved him to tears.

He also had a violin and a flute, which I rarely heard, though he claimed that he could ‘knock a tune out of anything’. He played plaintive tunes on his penny whistle, sometimes at home, but more frequently in the open air, sitting in the woods or on the rocks.

My mother had no musical talent, but she loved tunes and always sang while she worked. Her repertoire was quite different, and from her I learnt all the popular Edwardian ballads and music-hall songs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.