England history: pipe and tabor

Cotswold morris dance

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The pipe and tabor were played for Cotswold morris dancing in England for many centuries.

By the end of Victorian times it was superceded by the violin and then the melodeon and accordian.
In the late 20th century and 21st century there has been a revival of the pipe and tabor playing for morris.

[This is not an exhaustive study of the morris, just some items I have come across - project manager ]

"John the piper " occurs in some Newton charters about 1346.
" Myself above Tom Piper to advance,
Who so bestirs him in the Morris-dance,
For penny wage."

Drayton (" Eclogue" iii.) quoted in Rush Bearing by Alfred Burton 1891 p130

In the records of a 1448 feast, Careawey, a harpist, and a certain John Pyper are named, alongside morris dancers
and other minstrels. Goldsmiths’ Wardens’ Accounts and Court Minutes, CL, 165
The theft of instruments, including morris bells (recorded in 1515).
Court of Common Council, Journal 11, CL, 324, Court of Common Council, Journal 12, CL, 421

Morris dances that are mentioned with some regularity in the Watch records between 1477 and 1541.
The Drapers’ Wardens’ Guild account for 1477 for the City of London, when the mayor was a draper,
record that his company provided a morris dance and a pageant for the watch. In 1541 the Drapers provided
a morris dance with its minstrel, a tabor, drums, and flutes. In 1512 the total cost for three pageants, including
the morris dance, was £12 17s. 9d. In the 1520’s the Drapers provided a morris dance with its minstrel,
a tabor, drums, and flutes, as well as pageants.

The Drapers’ Minutes and Records list:

Burnet, William; [minstrel; Morris dancer] 1522
Darrall [Darrell], William; [Morris dancer (leatherseller)] 1530
Fount [Fons, Founs], Walter; [Morris dancer; minstrel] 1525-36
Greves, Robert; [Morris dancer, minstrel] 1521
Lymmyr, John; [Morris dancer; minstrel (bowstring maker)] 1541

MUSICIANS AND COMMONERS IN LATE MEDIEVAL LONDON Simon Polson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2020

In the Zouche Chapel, York Minster, it is recorded that there was an illustration of a
' morris dancer playing pipe & tabor'
2003 'York Art: A Subject List of Extant and Lost Art' Clifford Davidson David E. O'Connor

This image is also mentioned here:
" high up in the Zouche Chapel of York Minster is an illustration of a Morris dancer/musician - dated to the late 15th century"

late 15th century

1510-1625 “One of the crown jewels included a gold salt dish with moms dancers.
"Its foot was garnished with six great sapphires, fifteen diamonds, thirty-seven rubies,
and forty-two pearls, and standing about that were five morris dauncers and taberer.
This magnificent piece was probably melted down around 1625.”

‘A Calendar of Early Morris Performances and References' in Amerlcan Morrls Newsletter page 19 of 36

1550's in Henley, Oxfordshire, some “seasonal games survived …with payments made in the mid 1550s for
refurbishing morris costumes, repairing the garters of bells, and for a fool and tabor-player at Whitsuntide…”

Morris dancing played an important role in the life of the church. Individual churches paid for food and drink
and the costumes of the dancers as well as giving them a payment. It fell from favour after the Elizabethan
Settlement of 1560. Thereafter, tainted by association with Rome and condemned by an increasingly militant
Puritanism, church performances dwindled; they became the target of Episcopal injunctions from 1571.

1577 May Day at Bradgate, Leicestershire

"Then, when the merrie May Pole and alle the painted Morris-dancers, withe Tabor and Pipe, beganne
their spritelie anticks on our butiful grene laune, a fore that we idel leetel Bodyes had left owre warme
Bedds, woulde goode Mistress Bridget, the Tire-woman whom our Lady Mother alwaies commanded
to do owre Biddings, com and telle us of the merrie men a-dancing on the Grrene."

‘The Tablette Booke of Ladye Mary Keyes: Owne Sister to the Misfortunate Ladye Jane Dudlie ; in Wiche Wille be Founde a
Faithefulle Historie of Alle the Troubels that Did com to Them and Theire Kinsfolke, Writt is the Yeare of Oure Lorde Fifteene
Hundred and Seventie-seven’ Printed 1604, page 3

Quoted in Publications of the Folk-lore Society

1580's Lancaster Castle
wood carving, probably part of a casket

“In 1585, John Taylor published " Drinke and Welcome," in which he mentions
"the fagge-end of an old man's old will, who gave a good somme of mony to a Red-fac'd Ale-drinker
who plaid upon a Pipe and Tabor, which was this :
' To make your Pipe and Tabor keepe their sound,
and dye your crimson tincture more profound,
There growes no better medicine on the ground”
[quoted in Rush Bearing]

There is evidence of morris dancing having been performed in Gloucestershire from the early 16th century
to the present day. Throughout much of this time, the pipe and tabor has accompanied the dance. (source)

1589 Canterbury

Evidence of Henry Parkes, 26, 10 May 1589 he is a musician and was hired on May Day last … to play
for Morris dancing; says he was told Peter Manwood had sent for them to dance at St Stephens near Harbledown church

Evidence of J Turrey, says Henry Parkes was hired about a fortnight before May Day to fiddle for Morris Dancing
till St Peter's day next for such days as they should call him at 4s a day; Sunday last danced at Herne in the afternoon,
and on May Day; came together at the signe of the George outside St George's gate and there dressed themselves
in Morris dancers' apparel;

The National Archives CC/JQ/382/iv, Canterbury Cathedral Archives and Library

1591 Ickleton, Cambridgeshire, Diocesan Court Proceedings: Pampisford Iohannem Loughts, minstrell:

“Notatur for pipeinge or playeinge before the morrice dauncers upon trinitie Sondaye,
and twoe Sondayes before mydsomer daye laste, beinge then absent from his parishe Churche from divine service. …”

Terminating the performances of Elizabethan plays a morris jig was danced with an infusion of rhyming songs
or speeches delivered by the clown of the theatre to the accompaniment of pipe and tabor. Jigs usually lasted
for an hour. The Stationers' registers contain entries in 1595 of two jigs described respectively as Phillips's
"Jig of the Slippers," and Kempe's "Jig of the Kitchen-stuff Woman." Other jigs referred to by contemporary
writers are "The Jig of the Ship" and "The Jig of Garlick."

1590
“the picked youth, ..., footing the Morris about a May-pole, and he, not hearing the minstrelsie for the fidling,
the tune for the sound, nor the pipe for the noise of the tabor, bluntly demaunded if they were not all beside themselves"

Plaine Percevall, the Peace-Maker of England [quoted in Rush Bearing, by Alfred Burton 1891, p107]

Elizabethan clown actor William Kemp, (also spelled Kempe), morris danced in 1599 between London and Norwich after accepting a bet. He covered the distance of about a hundred miles in nine days. This feat took 4 weeks in total. Thomas Slye was his accompanist and referee.

1600,Thomas Sly from
‘Will Kemp’s Nine Days’ Wonder’

Photo: Eric Ortner

Wood Sculpture to Will Kempe and Thomas Slye in Chapelfield Gardens, Norwich

1618 poem after Kemp died, before 1608: 1618

1600 a play called ‘The Shoemaker's Holiday or the Gentle Craft’, Eyre announces that:

“for love to your honour they are come hither with a morris dance”.
(By the tabor, the pipe, and the rhythmic fall of dancing feet, Rose is able to recognize her disguised lover.)

Thomas Dekker (F2v , III.iii.49-50).

for other types of dance see:
dance of death
18th century dance
folk customs
moresca

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the Pipe and Tabor compendium

the Pipe and Tabor compendium

essays on the three-hole pipe

England history: pipe and tabor

Cotswold morris dance

Quoted in Publications of the Folk-lore Society