Episode 8 of the second series of The Old Songs Podcast, supported, so very kindly, by the English Folk Dance and Song Society, is an unusual one as it focuses on an old tune rather than an old song. Prepare yourself to delve into the background of one of the most well-known Morris dancing tunes, ‘Princess Royal’.
Joining Jon Wilks to discuss the tune is one of the country’s finest melodeon players, John Spiers, or “Squeezy” as he’s fondly known as on the English folk scene. Many of you will know Squeezy as a founding member of Bellowhead, not to mention a myriad of other bands he steps in and out of when the road calls.
Over the course of an hour or so, the pair look at the history of ‘Princess Royal’ tune. Did it start life as an accompaniment to English Morris dancing, or does it stretch further back and over greater distances than that?
Squeezy tells us a bit about growing up, somewhat hesitantly, in the Morris tradition, and talks about the difference between being a musician performing this tune on stage and a musician playing for a Morris side. He explains what a jig is, what a reel might be, how to recognise a slow, and who’s wearing the trunkles in this relationship?
Squeezy mentions video clips and different versions throughout, which we have listed and embedded below.
Click to listen on: Apple | Spotify | Google | Mixcloud
The Old Songs Podcast is supported by the English Folk Dance and Song Society.
‘Princess Royal’ podcast notes
Links
Over the course of the episode, John Spiers and Jon Wilks mention the following things:
- The English Folk Dance and Song Society
- The story of Cecil Sharp and Headington Quarry Morris
- Mat Green (Magpie Lane) playing and dancing ‘Princess Royal’ on Youtube
Track listing
- John Spiers playing the Abingdon version on the Spiers and Boden album, Bellow, 2003
- Spiers & Boden playing the Bampton version on their album, Vagabond, 2008
- Magpie Lane playing ‘Princess Royal’ on their 2006 album, The Oxford Ramble
- Clannad playing ‘Mrs McDermott’ on their 1973 album, Clannad
- Mat Green of Bampton Lane, performing the tune while dancing a jig (see above)
- The Unthanks singing ‘The Scarecrow Knows’ from the soundtrack to the TV series, Worzel Gummidge, released in December 2022
- Jim Moray singing ‘Gypsies’ from his 2003 album, Sweet England
- ‘Princess Royal’ from Morris On, released in 1972
- A snippet of Eliza Carthy and Nancy Kerr performing the B part on their 1995 album, The Shape of Scrape
- John Spiers performing an exclusive version of the North Leigh version, spoken about in an earlier part of the conversation
For more info on John Spiers, head to johnspiers.co.uk.
Excellent podcast. I have Mr Fox cd. Seeing John on Friday in gigspanner and again in April.
Interesting that music scholar and folk song collector Frank Kidson certainly didn’t believe O’Carolan wrote the tune. This is a piece he wrote in Grove’s Dictionary of Music (1910).
Arethusa, The (or the Princess Royal)
The song appeared in the opera The Lock and Key, acted 1796, words by Prince Hoare, the music composed and selected by William Shield. It chronicles, in almost accurate detail, an engagement of the English frigate, The Arethusa, with a larger French vessel, La Belle Poule, in the English Channel on June 17, 1778.
The fine air has long been and is yet persistently referred to as the composition of William Shield, who never claimed to do more than add the bass.
Irish writers have also stated that the air is by Carolan, and named The Princess Royal, in honour of the daughter of Macdermott Roe, a descendant of one of the Irish kings. Nothing but tradition favours this view, which Bunting, apparently, first puts into print in 1840, except that in O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, vol. iv. c. 1810, there is a version of the melody named Air by Carolan.
The present writer was the first to point out that the air was commonly known in the early part of the 18th century as a country dance tune named The Princess Royal, the new way, and that about 1730-35, it appeared in several London publications. The Princess Royal, after whom the tune was named, was evidently Anne, daughter of George II, who married the Prince of Orange in 1734. This conclusion is further confirmed by finding in the dance collections, in which the tune occurs, printed about 1730-35, other airs named after the family of George II, as Prince William, and Princess Caroline, the first being the hero of Culloden, the Duke of Cumberland and the other the Princess Elizabeth Caroline, his younger sister. This combination is strong evidence that the title ‘The Princess Royal’ really applies to a living personality then prominently before the public rather than to an obscure descendant of a long extinct race of kings.
Under the name Princess Royall the new way, the air, agreeing, almost note for note, with the Arethusa version, is found in an edition of Walsh’s Compleat Country Dancing Master, c. 1730, with a tune named Princess Caroline, on the preceding leaf (a copy of this book is in possession of the present writer), and under the title New Princess Royal in Wright’s Compleat Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, vol. i. c. 1730-35 (in the Leeds Public Library). Wright’s copy is reprinted from the same plates in a later edition, published by John Johnson. In Wright’s dances is the air named Prince William. As The Princess Royal the air also appears in Daniel Wright’s Compleat Tutor for Ye Flute, circa 1735 (in possession of the writer). Also, traditional versions of the air have been found used for tunes to Morris dances still retaining the name The Princess Royal.
The subject has been somewhat fully dealt with here for the reason that so many misstatements have been made regarding an English air of great strength and beauty which possesses the best characteristics of our national melody. For some details regarding the air see an article by the present writer, ‘New Lights Upon Old Tunes’, Musical Times, Oct 1894.