Praise the Legacy of Music Associated with Admiral Nelson by Gavin Atkin ‘Saturday Night at Sea’ by George Cruikshank
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EDS Autumn 2005 qx6 18/8/05 11:27 am Page 8 Nelson’s Praise The legacy of music associated with Admiral Nelson by Gavin Atkin ‘Saturday Night at Sea’ by George Cruikshank s the recent international Spithead other players and noted them down in popularity as a result. The same kind of review showed, Admiral Lord their personal tune-books. This was also process seems to have taken place at ANelson in 2005 still casts a the period when the modern 4/4 the level of popular music, for no fewer shadow as long as his London column hornpipe became popular and several of than seven tunes that have come down is tall. And the party isn’t over yet, for the tunes named after Nelson are of this to us today bear the great admiral’s the bicentenary of his death at the Battle type. name, and at least three bear several of Trafalgar doesn’t actually take place Some of the tunes came into wide other names as well! until the 21st of October. If you haven’t use and have come down to us through Perhaps the most striking example, organised your event yet, there’s still the tradition, while others are still being and probably the one best known to time, just about... rediscovered – many of today’s bands English-style musicians, is the tune Anniversaries on this scale make us well known for playing for country known by the name of ‘The Bridge of wonder what people – sailors and dancing, such as The Old Swan Band, Lodi’ and also as ‘Lord Nelson’s landsmen and women – played and The Bismarcks, The Committee Band Hornpipe’. The Bridge of Lodi was in danced to two hundred years ago, and and Florida play a great deal of material fact the site of a famous early victory for to wonder also how much of what they from these old tune collections. Napoleon in Italy, and I can’t help but knew then we still know today. Reading wonder how it came to be renamed – around the subject, two themes come Tunes named after Nelson perhaps some wise musician changed bubbling to the top: tunes and dances Imagine what a towering figure Nelson its name in a hurry one night to avoid with names associated with Nelson, and must have been when he and Wellington attracting the wrath of some whiskered the dances for which his sailors were were the heroes who together English patron. famous. succeeded in keeping the mighty Another example of a Nelsonian tune Without today’s mass media, the Napoleon out of these islands. It’s not with multiple names is ‘Admiral Nelson’, music and dance scene of the late 18th surprising, then, that musicians quickly also known as ‘Miss’ or ‘Mrs Baker’s and early 19th centuries was very started honouring his name – or was it Hornpipe’. The version I’ve given here is different to the one we know now. Tune- exploiting his popularity? from the William Mittel manuscript from books kept by old-time fiddle players Composed as Napoleon and his Kent, dated 1799. show that two hundred years ago tunes armies rampaged across Europe, In fact, the Scots play ‘Admiral regularly appeared in books published in Haydn’s ‘Missa in Angustiis’ (‘Mass in Nelson’ as a reel, and there’s even a the big cities and rapidly spread across Straitened Times’) was quickly renamed four-couple longways set dance named the British Isles. Some musicians must ‘The Nelson Mass’ after Nelson and his ‘Admiral Nelson’ to go with it in Book 19 have copied them from published ships smashed the French fleet at of The Scottish Country Dance Book. books, while some learned them from Aboukir – and no doubt gained some The Scots also have a slow air by The Fallen Hero Nelson’s Praise (from Ilmington) (from the collections published by Gow) efdss autumn 2005 page 8 EDS Autumn 2005 qx6 18/8/05 11:27 am Page 9 Nelson Hornpipe (from the Leadley ms) Sailor’s Hornpipe (standard version, also known as the College Hornpipe) Nelson (from the Jackson ms) Miss Baker’s Hornpipe (from the Mittel ms, also known as Admiral Nelson) Bridge of Lodi (standard version, also known as Lord Nelson’s Hornpipe) Nathaniel Gow, entitled ‘The Fallen Hero capstan round. Yet this must be one of men danced nightly to fiddle, fife and (Nelson)’. It’s notable that Gow’s the most frustrating areas for study, for drum, according to N.A.M. Rodger, a instruction for the tempo reads although there are a great many leading scholar of the Georgian Navy. ‘Pathetickally slow’. references to the importance of music in Boscawen is reported as writing to his Still another hornpipe, the ‘Nelson maintaining morale and to dancing as a wife that the sound of their music Hornpipe’, comes to us via the means of keeping the men fit, there’s reminded him of dancing with her when notebook of the Helperby, Yorkshire, very little that clearly explains what the they were younger. fiddler, Lawrence Leadley, who lived music was, or what the dances were. Again, the Maritime Museum has from 1827 to 1897. From the letters of a Private Wheeler preserved the barrel organ taken by The Jackson notebook of tunes travelling during the opening phase of Rear Admiral Parry in 1819 to entertain dated 1823 also has a tune called the Peninsular War, for example, we his sailors during his pioneering Polar ‘Nelson’, but whether this is truly learn that on board ship in 1811, ‘Two expeditions. Surviving barrels reveal a connected with the Admiral, or whether evenings a week is devoted to mixture of popular classics and dance it is named after the small Lancashire amusement... The crew instantly tunes some of which we recognise easily town of the same name is not clear. distribute themselves, some dancing to today, including ‘The Devil Among the England also has the Ilmington a fiddle, others to a fife...’ Tailors’, ‘Speed the Plough’ and ‘Paddy Morris tune ‘Nelson’s Praise’. David Proctor, author of The Carey’. Going further afield, the Irish have a Maritime Museum’s book Music of the From this scant information, and couple with Nelsonian titles. Various Sea reports that despite the Navy’s iron from the knowledge that sailors are collections going back to 1888 have discipline – silence was the rule when usually landsmen before they are sailors included yet another hornpipe, ‘Nelson’s the ship was being manoeuvred so that and that in port they would often dance Victory’, and ‘Nelson’s Pillar’, which orders could be heard – on board the with local women on board ship and appears in Ceol Rince na hÉireann IV Minerva in 1793, ‘On certain nights a elsewhere (there are engravings and collected by BreandÁn Breathnach. lantern was hung up on deck and a paintings showing this), it seems fiddler seated on the topsail sheet bitts, reasonable to suppose that the tunes But what did the sailors play? and there would be dancing for those sea-going musicians played had a lot in What about the music and dancing of that cared.’ Naval ships of the era had common with those found on land Nelson’s own heroes, the men of the fiddle players in place of the shantymen during the same period – no doubt fighting ships? Contemporary paintings found on merchant ships. many of today’s matelots enjoy Hip Hop include fiddle players, flautists and pipe A few years before Nelson’s heyday, and House. and tabor players, and fiddle players are on Admiral Boscawen’s flagship sailing If you want to find out about the also shown playing for men pushing the westward across the Atlantic in 1755 the dance music of the time, there are some autumn 2005 page 9 efdss EDS Autumn 2005 qx6 18/8/05 11:27 am Page 10 great sources available today, including very similar to that occasionally seen in Further reading and reprints of musicians’ tune-books, and the farming and fishing communities of websites such as the Village Music East Anglia, the West Country and information: Project, which makes 18th and 19th among Gypsies even in the present day: The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library: century musicians’ tune-books available men, and sometimes women, taking it in free to members, and if you tell them in the convenient abc format. Another turns to perform free-form steps of their you are coming, they may find what website is the Fiddler’s Companion own devising, and occasionally stepping you want before you ever arrive. which is a wonderful compendium of together. It’s not exactly a formal The Village Music Project’s web page tunes from all over the British Isles, with contest, but often involves a dash of http://www.village-music- additional information including their healthy male posturing. The tunes are project.org.uk/ includes music noted histories, alternative titles and the links hornpipes, but played quickly and by playing musicians during the late between different versions. usually with less dotting than is normal. 18th and 19th centuries. It’s striking that none of the surviving That the hale and hearty fishermen The Fiddler’s Companion’s web page barrels from Parry’s barrel organ appear and landsmen pressed into service in http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc/- has to have included hornpipes. While it’s Nelson’s Navy were often likely to be a huge bank of tunes, their history true that one could dance the ‘Sailor’s step-dancers can’t really be called a and details of how they connect with Hornpipe’ to reels instead, this omission speculation for some of them surely each other.