Many folk tunes are named after places, for reasons which we'll never figure out. I myself have named tunes after places, and I know I don't have particularly good reasons for most of them.
In any case, I thought it might be fun to explore these links by recording tunes in the places they're named after.
=> (Walking across Wanstead Flats with a concertina in its bag.)
This tune appears in Playford's Dancing-Master from the 4th edition of 1670. I'm playing it at the old Victorian bandstand on Wanstead Flats, now no more than a ring of birch trees, but still maintained by the City of London Corporation as part of the ancient Forest of Essex.
=> "Epping Forest", played in Epping Forest (YouTube)
=> Playford's Dancing Master, digitised edition
This comes from the very first edition of Playford's Dancing-Master, published in 1651. By the fourth edition of 1670 it's gained a second title, Durham Stable, and the minor/modal key signature has been dropped. I ended up playing it in a minor way, but with an F sharp, which doesn't quite match any of the published editions, because I got muddled.
The New Exchange was an early shopping mall, with two levels, each housing a central corridor flanked by shops. Now the site is occupied by a Topshop and a Pizza Hut. The road having been widened, the frontages of these shops run roughly where the central corridor had been. (Update: Topshop didn't survive the COVID times. It hadn't been replaced when I was last in the area.)
Since the tune is only four bars long, I've paired it with "An Old Man Is A Bed Full Of Bones", also from Playford.
=> "The New Exchange", played at the New Exchange (YouTube)
=> The New Exchange was a proper shopping mall with shops on two levels.
=> New tunes, some named after places This content has been proxied by September (ba2dc).Proxy Information
text/gemini
