Time for one of our periodic trips overseas!
It’s always interesting to learn about the music of another country and this foray into another culture from the comfort of Ruishton Village Hall was no exception. Most recently, we’ve explored tunes from Australia and France but the destination for this Play Day was Poland.
Local musicians Rupert and Olga Kirby treated us to a whirlwind tour of traditional folk music and dance styles. Olga has a Polish background (as she said, the clue’s in the name) and speaks Polish which came in handy for pronouncing all the names correctly! She opened the session with a lovely song accompanied by Rupert on guitar. They then switched to Rupert on violin and Olga on ukulele to demonstrate examples of the dance styles using music that was either traditional or Rupert’s own original compositions inspired by their visits and research. Music had been circulated before the day so members were able to join in with some of the tunes.
First up was the Krakowiak from the Krakow region. Lively and fast paced, we had our work cut out to keep up! Video clips gave a flavour of all the dances in full flow and emphasised the associated folk costume which is now a significant symbol of national pride and identity.
Then we learned about the history of the Polka (which actually means ‘Polish woman’ in both Czech and Polish) and had a go at some variations. The guided tour continued with the spirited Mazur and fast whirling Oberek before enjoying the relative calm and elegance of the Polonez which is a walking, stately processional dance. With a distinctive rhythm to its accompaniment, the Polonez is often the opening dance at major events now like New Year’s Balls and National Days.
There was a lot of material so it was good to have another more leisurely look at it later in the afternoon.
A lunar eclipse was due to be visible that night so the suggested theme for the Shared Tunes was anything to do with the Moon. The theme idea is never compulsory but led to the 3 groups working ‘on message’. Man in the Moon is perhaps well known but the group found an arrangement that hadn’t been used before. The Long Winter Moon is a slip jig written by Rupert Kirby. And a gloriously full version of Blue Moon rounded off the Showcase nicely. Inbetween these groups, we enjoyed a performance of Lord Frog/ Young May Moon and Hunters Moon as an accompanied song. Josephine’s Waltz was also performed by a duo and the audience decided that Josephine no doubt wanted to be an astronaut.
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The next Play Day is on Sunday 2 November. The programme will include Yvette Staelens, a specialist on Somerset folk song so exploring a little closer to home this time! Do join us if you can.
The annual visit of WCCP to the Sidmouth Folk Festival started at All Saints Church Hall on Monday 4th August at 8:15 am when Chris, Tess, Ross and Liz opened up the hall and started setting up for the morning’s activities. The WCCP hires the hall for the mornings of Monday to Friday of Sidmouth week and we have a band session each day led by Paul Barrett, an improvers session run by Sally Barrett and we encourage non-members to drop in and try a concertina. By 9am, the rooms were set up, the kitchen open for refreshments and members were arriving to meet their friends and have a chat before the music started at 9:30. Music was issued and played until around 10:30, a break for refreshments and then back to “playing together” until 11:45. During the session, non-members who drop in are introduced by club members to the systems of concertina and some basic instruction given. From 11:45 everything was packed up before the next folk week event took over and then this pattern was repeated each day.
Band Rehearsal
As the week ran on, the performance of the band improved, the pieces played were expanded and the players present were supplemented by players of the J25 Concertina Band who were to perform in the Parish Church on Thursday afternoon. All of the pieces played are of published works with the arrangement for Treble 1, Treble 2, Baritone and Bass prepared by Paul. The pieces vary in difficulty to allow for a range of abilities and result in a superb sounding combined performance. On average there were around thirty players in the band with around forty different club members playing at least for one day.
Sally ran the improvers group in the smaller club room and had eleven different players at some time during the week with numbers ranging from three to eight. They played a number of different pieces including one played in eight different keys.
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| Sally's group | Liz and Ross on refreshments |
| On Thursday, during the refreshment interval, those present were given a real treat as Sandra Kerr (known for the Bagpuss concertina theme tune amongst many achievements) arrived to be honoured by the International Concertina Association with lifetime membership presented by Liz Ellison. It was a real treat when Sandra played and sang beautifully for those present. |  |
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During the week approximately 30 non-members dropped in to find out about the concertina and this was a significant increase on last year. Four of these joined the club and hired club instruments. |
| Claire introducing Hannah to the English concertina |
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On Friday, the two groups performed their work in a showcase for some family members and friends and this was followed by some closing words and thanks by Chris, the Chairman, thanking the volunteers who manned the desk or worked with the drop-ins, Ross and Liz on refreshments and to Paul and Sally for the music. In particular, it was the end of an era for the event as Paul and Sally were running the workshops for the last time having run them for the club for 25 years. Chris recalled meeting Sally and Paul for the first time at the club Quantock Lodge residential in 2018 when he and Tess were in Sally’s English Ensemble group and made great progress with Sally’s help and Paul was running Band for All in the option sessions. Chris presented them with a framed print of Sidmouth sea front to remind them of their happy times at Sidmouth with WCCP. For the future, the hall has been booked again for 2026 and the bones of a team for opening the hall, setting up and providing refreshments has been established, but as yet we do not know what concertina playing activities we will be running. Members at the event were asked to complete a survey and 28 were returned. A preliminary look shows that band playing needs to be part of the offer. If anyone can offer to run a concertina playing activity next year or knows of a band leader we could employ, please let us know. |
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The Music played by the band was: A Little Prayer;To Drive the Cold Winter Away; Gabriella’s Song;March from Scipio, Myfanwy; Se Fores Tentado; Slaidburn; The Parting Glass; When You Wish Upon a Star.
All arrangements were by Paul except A Little Prayer (Evelyn Glennie) and See Fores Tentado (Horatio Richmond-Palmer).
Recordings of our rehearsal of March From Scipio and of Slaidburn are provided.
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A goodly group of WCCP Members met on a sunny Sunday to play together, including one person completely new to the instrument. And we did play: it was a day of playing without any talks on concertina-related matters.
The theme for the day was ‘the written word’ and individual members regaled us with tunes and songs related to poems and even financial documents! These included the Irish jig ‘The £42 cheque’, the tune ‘Lindisfarne’ (Gospels), ‘Who Wrote the Book of Love?’, ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ (a James Herriott reference) and tunes from Jane Austin dramatisations, amongst many others. It is not at all obligatory to play or teach a tune but these play days exist to offer that chance in the most supportive environment possible.
Some of these were done as ad hoc groups, which is always a fun thing to do, with just an hour’s guidance from the originator.
We also played some pre-prepped tunes from our own library collections, including renaissance dances and three Australian ‘bush dance’ tunes that were collated by our own Iris Bishop. One of our attendees had already learnt them with her in 2002!
In our ‘flexible’ last hour we played some simple canons. Concertinas ‘en masse’ make a lovely, uniform, pure, rich sound when playing canons – probably as close to playing a dry-tuned church organ as you can get.
Our next meeting is on Sunday 18th May (note the date) at 11 a.m., at Ruishton Village Hall, TA3 5JD. All WCCP Members or concertina-curious non-members are very welcome.
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There were big changes for our Autumn Residential weekend in 2024 as we relocated to Wellington School, near Taunton. It was a considerable move with lots to organise but the weekend went well in its new venue.
Wellington School has a very different ambiance from the faded grandeur of Quantock Lodge but everyone embraced the change and a good time was had by all. The weekend hosted around eighty attendees, including new members who were made very welcome.
The weekend took place in the modern prep school, the teaching was in actual classrooms and there was a good-sized modern school hall for the Band to practice in during the day and plenty of room for everyone to congregate for the evening playing sessions. Fewer people stayed onsite this year but as the school is in a small town there was plenty of accommodation options within walking distance. Whether staying onsite or nearby, we were well looked after, with plenty of tea/coffee breaks and lots of good food.
Friday evening was taken up with introductions and a relaxed playing session. On Saturday and Sunday, the day started early with tuition and guidance delivered throughout the day in small groups for beginners and improvers on Anglo, Duet (Crane, McCann and Hayden) and English concertinas. The Band offered more complex music for those who wanted a challenge. Between teaching sessions there were opportunities to participate in Circle Dance and Playford tunes, Rounds, and Slow tunes.
On Saturday evening, after dinner, there was an enjoyable and relaxed social gathering in the hall. We played along with tunes, sang along with some fun songs and were treated to some excellent performances by our tutors.
Steve Dickinson of Wheatstone was available over the weekend to repair concertinas (he also gave an interesting talk about concertina maintenance). Barleycorn Concertinas were also there on the Saturday with a good selection of quality instruments – very tempting!
On Sunday afternoon, there was a showcase where each tutor group showed what they had learned over the weekend – it was impressive to see the progress people had made. There was a presentation and a big thank you to Claire Wren, who is taking some time out from the Autumn Weekend for a while. Claire has been an inspiring and committed member of our tutor team over the years and we will all miss her.After playing the last tune of our weekend together, ‘Farewell Old Friends', we were treated to a delicious cream tea before reluctantly heading home.
The WCCP Autumn Weekend is very friendly, welcoming and encouraging, participants will not only have made progress with their concertina playing but will also go home having made new friends.
There was a full house at this year's Spring Weekend for intermediate and advanced players of all concertina systems, held at Halsway Manor.
The workshop tutors were:
The course members worked diligently in their workshops throughout the weekend, and the groups provided impressive demonstrations of their progress in the Showcase event on the Sunday afternoon. The concertina band were joined by a scratch choir for a performance of "Pastime with Good Company".
Steve Dickinson (Wheatstone & Co) set up a workshop in the lIbrary for consultation and emergency repairs throughout the weekend, and the Barleycorn Concertinas pop-up shop attracted the usual keen interest.
The Saturday evening concert featured virtuoso performances by Brogan, Iris and SImon.
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