Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rog]

At a summer school for bell ringing last night i was asked to play some hornpipes during the annual service (in the old church at Bradfield (UK). Previous years they've had some nice 'art' music intervals, plus some handbells. So I start pumping out a Hornpipe set from JKirkpatrick's book (the big ship, the dannish waltz, the coloseum) and the next thing I see the vicar dancing down the aisles and we have a country dance set up and down, clapping and cheering... Well I didn't expect that... But it goes to show the power of the Hornpipe. 

[Nick Collis Bird]

At a summer school for bell ringing last night i was asked to play some hornpipes during the annual service (in the old church at Bradfield (UK). Previous years they've had some nice 'art' music intervals, plus some handbells. So I start pumping out a Hornpipe set from JKirkpatrick's book (the big ship, the dannish waltz, the coloseum) and the next thing I see the vicar dancing down the aisles and we have a country dance set up and down, clapping and cheering... Well I didn't expect that... But it goes to show the power of the Hornpipe. 

That is SO you Roger. Excellent.

[Thrupenny Bit]

Lovely!
Returning the church to what it was centuries ago before they got all...... uptight and religeous 
Great story
Q

[Malcolm]

I have three special moments of church performance.

Many years ago, The Angel Morris Men were invited to take part in Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing.  The participants are invited to attend morning service at the local parish church and as we were the only dance team not wearing clogs, we were asked to dance during the service which we did. Even for us non-believers - as most of us were - it was a special moment, partly because of the fantastic acoustic of the space, for which we received a terrific round of applause. 

In the same vein, one of my annual diary commitments is to play in the band for The Hunting Of The Earl of Rone in Combe Martin, Devon every Spring Bank Holiday weekend.  One of the party got married in Combe Martin Church - a classic Devon church - and we played the couple out with the hobby horse tune.  The highlight though was to watch the last member of the exiting procession, the parish priest, skipping down the aisle in time with the music. A magic moment.

And finally, whilst playing for a dance team from Skipton at an International Folk Dance Festival in Mallorca a few years ago, the team spent a day in Binissalem, a small town in the middle of the island.  We were due to give a dance display with the other groups in the town square but because it was raining we all trouped into the large parish church to perform.  It was a cavernous, dark church inside and we took it in turns to give a display in an area cleared for the purpose just in front of the sanctuary.  Once again, the acoustic of the space was fabulous which really added to the performance by us, a dance group from Bulgaria and a Thracian team but the real show stopper was the final troupe, The Royal Drummers of Burundi - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbS5DFxWmEo.  I'd heard of them many years before but had never seen them.  They entered the church in file carrying there drums 'fore and aft' on their heads whilst playing them. They set their drums down in a semi-circle and gave a thrilling performance before leaving the church in the same fashion that they had entered. The sound was just fantastic and it is a sight and sound that raised the hairs on the back of the neck. Just brilliant.