The Amazing Story of THE FLORAL DANCE
In a fully illustrated new book Cornish musician Ian Marshall
unfolds the story of the world's first best-selling ballad -
The Floral Dance
In the book:-
Historic photographs of the beautiful and talented Katie Moss, composer of
THE FLORAL DANCE,
and her family, and of the real Cornish people and events that inspired the song.
How Katie composed THE FLORAL DANCE, her musical choices and techniques, with musical examples.
Details and pictures of many of the hundreds of performers who have
sung and played THE FLORAL DANCE over the past ninety years!
Price: £9.95
Buy The Amazing Story of THE FLORAL DANCE online (see below) or order direct from:
Ian Marshall
SONGS OF CORNWALL
27 Treheath Road, Dobwalls,
Cornwall PL14 4LE UK
Tel: (44) 01579 321433
E-mail:ian@floraldance.com
- For a taster, read the following note on a curious cultural accident related to THE FLORAL DANCE
Visit Helston on Flora Day, and you will hear the Town Band play the traditional Furry Dance tune many, many times over. The shape of the tune has remained unchanged for years, and the instrumental arrangement has never (officially) been written down.
Go to any Furry Dance in a village or town outside Helston, however, and you will NOT hear the Helston version. No other Brass Bands play the tune in the same way.
Is this an example of sturdy independence? Not so: if it were, each local band would have its own version of the music, different from its neighbours`, and this is not the case either! In fact, ALL bands outside Helston play the tune in the same way as each other – and none of them even seem aware that it`s not the Helston version.
How has this come about ? Should we care? After all, tradition nowadays is regarded as a living thing, capable of change. But should change be merely the product of ignorance?
Apart from Helston, all Cornish Brass Bands you will see performing for local furry dances will be playing from written music – identical music. No serious harm here, we may agree: brass band music is complex, and difficult to learn from memory. But this written music was only published in 1948. Moreover, it was written by Roger Barsotti, an Anglo-Italian bandmaster in London, who had never been to the Helston Flora, and who had never heard the tune in its traditional form – and it`s the wrong tune!
By a curious accident, this otherwise blameless gentleman had learned the tune from another source – an English source, and a flawed source. In 1911, Katie Moss had written her famous song THE FLORAL DANCE, describing her own experience of the Helston Flora the same year. Katie had placed in the piano accompaniment a musical `quotation` from the traditional Furry dance tune; however, in doing so, she had found it expedient to change the shape of the ancient tune – by 25% !
Like almost everyone in the world by this time, Barsotti knew and loved Katie`s song. Unfortunately, he also took Katie`s version of the furry tune to be authentic, and it is this version which he arranged for brass bands in 1948, and this version which bands all over Cornwall still slavishly play.
Barsotti also used the wrong title for the tune: he called it THE FLORAL DANCE. Millions of people, including the Cornish, thus refer to the ancient tradition by the English name, and Cornish folks don`t seem to care about that either. The habit was re-inforced by the popularity of the famous Brighouse & Rastrick Band`s revival of Katie`s song in 1977.
So: Cornwall has been, for fifty-five years, happy to play a corrupt English version of our most ancient tune, and continues, in total ignorance or apathy, to call it by a corrupt English name.
Self-rule, anyone?
Details and how to order online HERE
