Field Recordings

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.)

Epping Forest (May 2020)

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

The New Exchange (June 2020)

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.

See also

New tunes, some named after places