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Marches, Dances, Song Tunes and Party Pieces, as played by a 19th century Village Church Band, transcribed and edited by Rollo G. Woods.
The 17 music manuscripts from Widecombe, Devon, form the largest collection of West Gallery mss. from a single parish found so far. Most are of church music, but four contain secular music. Two are fiddlers’ tune books, and contain melodies only, but two contain music in score, copied out for the same band – 2 fiddles, flute, and bass - and by the same hands as some of the church music. The manuscripts were probably copied between 1850 and 1870, and have been preserved in the families of the musicians who originally played them. Band scores of this kind are rare, and this is the largest collection found in England so far.
Never on Sunday makes all this music available for the first time: 70 tunes, some familiar, others rare or unknown, as they were played by a village band some 150 years ago, in an A4 book of nearly 100 pages of music, with introduction, quotations from contemporary sources, 2 facsimiles, and notes.
The book will be of interest to the musicians of WGMA groups, and to anyone interested in English Village Music. Review copies available.
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