HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE HO3030 5/6/03 "HARDY AND MUSIC"
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From: Thudecki@cs.com
Date: Tue, 6 May 2003 20:13:30 EDT
Subject: Re: Hardy and music
Does anyone know if TH was a musician
himself and how far his interest in the study of the stars took him?
Thanks for listening, Janine
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Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 06:34:13 -0700
From: Betty Cortus <hardycor@owl.csusm.edu>
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Yes Janine, Hardy loved music, was a violinist and played at country dances
as a young man.
Have you read any of the Hardy biographies yet? I think you would enjoy
doing so, and I would recommend Michael Millgate's.
There are four short essays on Hardy and music in The Hardy Review Volume
III (2000) which can be ordered through the TTHA website.
Betty Cortus
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From: "Richard Nemesvari" <rnemesva@stfx.ca>
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 10:49:11 -0300
Finally, Hardy was most definitely a musician himself. As he notes in the
*Life,* TH "loved adventures with the fiddle," and played at village
weddings and parties as a youth, on one occasion
"at a homestead where he was stopped by his hostess clutching his bow-arm at
the end of a three-quarter-hour's unbroken footing to his notes by twelve
tireless couples in the favourite country-dance of 'The New-Rigged Ship'.
The matron had done it lest he should 'burst a bloodvessel', fearing the
sustained exertion to be too much for a boy of thirteen or fourteen." (p.
28)
Hope some of this was useful.
Richard Nemesvari
Department of English
St. Francis Xavier University
rnemesva@stfx.ca
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From: "K Eldron" <kaffi@onetel.net.uk>
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 14:55:12 +0100
And there's even a CD by a Dorset folk group who not only play some of the
music found in the Hardy family notebooks, but also use TH's own violin.
But I can't remember their name!
Cheers
K Eldron
kaffi@onetel.net.uk
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Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 13:08:19 -0400
From: Robert Schweik <schweikr@localnet.com>
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
In answer to K Eldron's posting--
Check TTHA Links http://www.fredonia.edu/hardysoc/linksthree/tranter.htm for
a comment on and link to the group you're thinking of. And you'll find yet
more on Hardy and music in the Links index under "Music."
Bob Schweik
schweik@fredonia.edu
schweikr@localnet.com
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Date: Wed, 07 May 2003 19:12:30 +0200
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
From: Eric Christen <ericjchristen@bluewin.ch>
Indeed music was essential to Hardy. As an introduction to the subject a
very good production is THE MUSICAL HERITAGE OF THOMAS HARDY in two CDs by
The Yetties, CD ALD 4010, 1988; there are several excellent CDs interpreted
by THE Mellstock Band, produced by Saydisk, such as SONGS OF THOMAS HARDY'S
WESSEX, 1995 or UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE, 1986. These records may be off the
market but there is a chance to find them. Of course it is useful to read
pages 15 to 20 of THE LIFE AND WORK OF THOMAS HARDY BY THOMAS HARDY edited
by Michael Millgate, Macmillan, 1984.
Cheers! Eric Christen
--
Eric Christen Email: ericjchristen@bluewin.ch
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Subject: RE: Hardy and Music
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 13:22:04 -0500
From: "Mink, Joanna" <joanna.mink@mnsu.edu>
As a footnote to Eric Christen's note -- I did a quick check on the web
(a respite from grading final exams) and discovered that Saydisc is no
longer. However, at least "Songs of Thomas Hardy's Wessex" on CD can be
found at http://www.folkineducation.co.uk/pages/say.html
Cheers, JoAnna
JoAnna S. Mink
Professor of English
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Mankato, MN 56001
joanna.mink@mnsu.edu
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From: "Michael Barry" <michaelj.barry@talk21.com>
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 08:29:13 +0100
They are The Yetties, it's a double CD set and good fun. They have a
web-site. They let me use some of the music in my last production of Tess -
(interval music - but it didn't sit very well!)
Michael B
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From: "Patrick Roper" <patrick@prassociates.co.uk>
Subject: RE: Hardy and Music
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 22:13:54 +0100
Quite a bit of 'Hardy's music' can be tracked down as sheet music.
A couple of days ago I was reading Rosemary Morgan's intro to the original,
unedited version of Far from the Madding Crowd and was interested in her
comments on Farmer Oak's flute. I discovered that one of the tunes he
played was 'Jockey at the Fair'. This was not in my fairly comprehensive
book of English Country Dance Tunes, but I found it in O'Neill's Music of
Ireland (sic) on page 223.
I annoy my family greatly by playing the tin whistle, so I went out to the
shed, played Jockey at the Fair and thought of Oak fluting away in his
shepherd's hut but, sadly, did not see a Bathsheba riding past my garden.
Anyone with rudimentary knowledge of whistle, flute, recorder, violin etc.
can have great fun with Hardy's tunes. Is there anywhere a list of those
he mentioned in his writings?
Patrick Roper
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From: Thudecki@cs.com
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 23:10:54 EDT
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
In a message dated 05/07/2003 10:03:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
kaffi@onetel.net.uk writes:
K, Thanks for the information - someone states in a later email the name
of the group. Is it true that they actually do use the violin that had
belonged to Hardy? Thanks for your response, Janine
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From: Thudecki@cs.com
Date: Wed, 7 May 2003 23:38:55 EDT
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Michael, Do you know the website for the Yettes? Cool that they let you use
the music in one of your productions. Too lively for your audience or what?
Thanks for the info,
Janine
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From: "K Eldron" <kaffi@onetel.net.uk>
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 10:51:40 +0100
>Is it true that they actually do use the violin that had belonged to Hardy?
Thanks for your response, Janine<
According to their website http://www.theyetties.co.uk/ :
"Thomas Hardy (the Dorset writer and poet) was also a musician. He and his
family, over several generations, collected hundreds of folk tunes. The
Yetties have done 2 recordings [using] Thomas Hardy's own fiddle and other
Hardy family instruments. So, because of The Yetties, Hardy's violin was
brought back to life and so were his favourite jigs, polkas, reels and
waltzes."
K Eldron
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From: Martin Ray <enl090@abdn.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 11:16:00 +0100 (BST)
Dear All:
I'll reprint below a piece which I wrote in the October
2002 issue of the Thomas Hardy Journal about the Hardy
fiddles:
QUOTE
A wonderful article on 'Thomas Hardy's Violin' is shortly to appear in
Fiddle On magazine. It is written by John Dike, the Dorset violinmaker
who has been repairing the Hardy family instruments in the County Museum.
He writes:
"The Dorset County Museum has a replica of Hardy's study
with a violin and cello on display. Unplayed and neglected
instruments are always a sad sight, and even more so were
the two violins in Tesco plastic bags kept shut away in a
cupboard. These two violins were labelled 'Father's' and
'Uncle Henry's'. I had been asked whether it would be
possible to put these instruments into playing order. New
bridges were needed, pegs had to fit, soundposts put up,
and new gut strings fitted, etc. All these fairly
run-of-the-mill repairs were carried out to two of the
violins. Uncle Henry's was rather badly worm-affected, and
a cello needed extensive restoration. Hardy's own violin
was, to be truthful, not of great quality. Tonally it was
thin, and in appearance very dark, almost black, the wood
plain, with a lion's head carved in place of the
traditional scroll. Uncle Henry's also had a similar head,
a feature of many instruments originating from the Tyrol."
This brings to mind numerous Hardy passages and poems, and even
the reference to the Tyrolean violin might lie behind the description of
Mop's instrument in 'The Fiddler of the Reels' as being made in
'some Italian or German city'.
The most apposite poem is probably 'To My Father's Violin', and Mr Dike
explains that this fiddle is a finer looking instrument than the others.
It has a repairer's label inside it written by Nathaniel Sparks
(Hardy's cousin and brother of Tryphena) and dated 1906. Hardy had sent
the violin to Nathaniel in Bristol, and it had travelled there by horse and
cart with a load of succulent Puddletown apples! The repairs were carefully
undertaken and the fiddle returned to Max Gate, where Hardy played it well into the 1920s.
The idea to restore the instruments came from the Yetties and the then
fiddler in the group, Roger Trim. Funds later became available to repair
the cello, thanks to the generosity of an American member of the Hardy Society.
I am very grateful to Jed Mugford, the editor of Fiddle On, for sending
an advance copy of this article. Details of the magazine can be obtained from him at
4 Lee Close, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 2XZ, or see his website at www.fiddleon.co.uk.
The Yetties have recorded a double CD entitled 'The Musical Heritage of Thomas Hardy'
(price £15.95). It is available from Bonny Sartin, Sheeplands Lane, Sherborne,
Dorset DT9 4BW (Tel. 01935 814611), or see their website at www.theyetties.co.uk.
END OF ARTICLE
Dr Martin Ray
School of English and Film Studies
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen AB24 2UB
Scotland, UK
m.ray@abdn.ac.uk
Editor, Thomas Hardy Journal
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From: Thudecki@cs.com
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 12:19:09 EDT
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
Hi K Eldron, The fact that the Yetties are using the actual musical
instruments in facinating. I deal in antiques and this interests me very much
- the fact that they still exist and are fully functional. This is the "icing
on the cake"! How do the members or a member of the Yetties know the
ancestral family of Hardy in order to use these instruments in their
recordings? What is the connection...do you or anyone out there know?
Thanks, Janine
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From: Thudecki@cs.com
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 12:30:16 EDT
Subject: Re: Hardy and Music
:
In response to:
....I'll reprint below a piece which I wrote in the October
2002 issue of the Thomas Hardy Journal about the Hardy
fiddles:
This answers many of my questions. Very thorough
- this is super! Good work researching and writing this article! Sure all
will find it interesting. Thanks for sharing
it, Janine
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From: "Michael Barry" <michaelj.barry@talk21.com>
Subject: Fw: [TheYetties] New Newsletter and CD
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 03:07:38 +0100
Hi Janine - I'm writing this on a "forward" command of a yetties e-mail,
which should have all the info you need. I see someone else mentioned the
Tranters, whom I'd forgotten. I think they're the other Dorset-based group
playing Hardy or Hardy-derived music.
I think the reason the Yetties music didn't sit well in the last Tess
production was that it seemed so compulsively merry and didn't fit in with
even the joyful high-point of such a tragedy (ie the interval after Act 2).
It's purely a personal hunch, but I do rely on my gut reactions a lot in my
work, and if I'd had a more appropriate option, I'd probably have taken it.
(But don't ask me what it would be!)
Best wishes
Michael B
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From: Thudecki@cs.com
Date: Thu, 8 May 2003 21:00:46 EDT
Subject: Re: Fw: [TheYetties] New Newsletter and CD
Hi Richard, Good information on the group Tranters - I had not picked that
up. On your production of Tess ......"I think the reason the Yetties music
didn't sit well in the last Tess production was that it seemed so
compulsively merry and didn't fit in with
even the joyful high-point of such a tragedy (ie the interval after Act 2)".
My comment: Probably broke the thoughtful mood - I would agree with your
hunch. Tess was definitely a heavy story inspite of any high points since she
was always questioning her self worth. Hate to be pessimistic, but the abuse
from Alec set the mood for the whole of the book, don't you think? Just bad
timing on the songs. Perhaps the "merry" music in the beginning would have
been more appropriate. Thanks for listening, Janine
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