 21st century - unknown |
1900
..... "These instruments, though they have been played within the memory of living men, are now fallen into disuse. Such traditional Morris-men as still exist amongst us use the fiddle, concertina, or accordion."
The Musical Times |
|
A dance collector at the turn of the century asked
an old man watching a Morris side what he
thought
of the dancing. He was told, 'These young lads dance
fine enough, I suppose, but you can't dance well to
those new-
fangled fiddles -
the pipe and tabor's the thing'. |
Headington Morris Revival of 1899
In 1899 Percy Manning and Thomas William Taphouse (1838-1903) organised a one-day revival of Morris
dancing and old songs.
Manning demonstrated the whittle-and-dub, which were old instruments from Leafield.
They had been played for Morris dancing
prior to the 1850’s. |
|
1903 November 5th
"a November 5th procession in 1903..... London this year;..... procession, which I saw from my window in Kensington about the middle of the day;..... For musicians they had a man playing a shrill long tin whistle or pipe, and another following the cart beating a drum...... . It was a poor vulgar show,..... but it retained in its debased state several of the principal features of the old morris-dance...... the drum and penny whistle represented the ancient tabor and pipe;"
Charlotte Burne remembered |
|
1903
'"The music is that of a pipe and tabor
('whittle' and 'dub') played by one man;
a fiddle is now often used. "
The Mediaeval Stage (2 volumes, 1903)
by Sir Edmund Kerchever Chambers |
1904
'A SPECIAL Loan Exhibition OF Musical Instruments, Manuscripts, Books, Portraits, And other
Mementoes of Music
and
Musicians, Formed to commemorate the Tercentenary of the granting
by King James I. of a Charter of Incorporation
to
the
WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF MUSICIANS in 1604...'
c. 1735 item 924. Pipe and Tabor and two sets of Bells worn on the knees of
the Morris Dancers. —
Belonged to Thomas Humphries, of
Witney Oxon., and was played by him at most of the Morris
Dances
in the villages and towns of Oxfordshire for nearly 40
years. Lent by Mr. W. Taphouse.
c 1750 item 918. Tabor Pipe and Drum. Lent by the Rev. F. W. Galpin.
c 1750 item 785. Morris Dancer's Pipe. Lent by Mr T.W. Taphouse
 [Thomas William Taphouse (1838-1905) ]
|
Between 1906 and 1913 George Butterworth travelled extensively through the English countryside painstakingly
noting down words,
tunes and steps of morris dances.
In Sussex, Butterworth was watching two ancient brothers,
Eli and Jack, as they danced in the middle of a village street accompanied by another elderly man on his pipe and tabor:
“He was intent only on the dancing and was entirely oblivious of the crowd of bewildered villagers
who had gathered to see the unwonted spectacle. On the road beside him was a heap of notebooks …
the brothers advanced and retired, they bowed and they capered, they executed intricate figures
with the comrades who were present in their minds, though in fact they had lain many years in the
neighbouring churchyard.” |
|
1906 In an article entitled England’s Folk Songs by Cecil Sharp:  Morning Post - Thursday 23 August 1906 |
1907 Punch gave a full page picture of boys and girls dancing in procession
through the village streets led by Mr. Punch himself playing his pipe and drum.
|
 Punch 13th Nov. 1907 |
|
1908 from the poem ' Where Avon Flows'  Cheltenham Examiner - Thursday 15 October 1908 |
Banbury Guardian - Thursday 15 July 1909
Newspaper article regarding the Headington Morris Men headed 'Morris Dancing in Oxfordshire' recalls
how the side were constantly invited to London and other far-off cities to teach the dances that had been
handed down from father to son. |
1909 letter - Annie G Gilchrist at Bazil Point, Hesketh Park, Southport, Lancs, to Lucy Broadwood at 84 Carlisle Mansions.
'she has heard that Mr C [Cecil Sharp] has been practising on the pipe and tabor - a pair of which he has picked up in Gloucs in the hope of illuminating the structure and limitations of morris tunes. ' |
 Cecil Sharp |
 Cecil Sharp's pipe's mouthpiece made by Dolmetsch
|
|
1909 Commenting upon the ‘Pastoral Fete on the Abbey Lawn’ Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard - Saturday 10 July 1909 |
1909 newspaper article:   Oxford Journal - Saturday 17 July 1909 |
1909 newspaper article entitled ‘The Morris Dance – The History of a Picturesque Old English Pastime’ Midland Counties Tribune - Saturday 15 May 1909 |
1910 introduction of morris dancing to schools:  East Anglian Daily Times - Thursday 13 January 1910 |
1910 Opera ‘Hugh the Drover.’
“the fair scene in Act I has, among much else, entries for a hobby horse and a fool laying about people with a blown up bladder, plus 6 morris men processing with a pipe and tabor man to the tune of the Winster Processional”
Journal of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society No.28 October 2003 |
1910
In a newspaper report ‘Notes of the Week’, the reporter opines, of morris dancing:
"a pipe and tabor should be used for making ther music in order that the picture of
old-world merriment might be complete in every detail" |
|
|
 Thomas Pitts 1855 – 1940
Gloucerstershire
|
Newspaper article about 1911 women's morris side here:
"Women taught the men to dance"
|
1912, 21 February at Kidlington "Lamb-Ale"
"A Morris dancer, insert (photog) with the pipe and tabor."
"Mrs Hill playing the Morris pipe and tabor" March 1927
Oxford Journal Illustrated |
1911 Cecil Sharp visited Oxford to give a lecture on “English Sword Dances”……
He showed the pipe and tabor “found beside the old player when he died in a barn at Temple Guiting.
The pipe is made of plumwood.” |
|
1911 Thaxted
"By July 1911 the morris dancers of Thaxted numbered 60 strong, and included a youths’ team, girls’ team
and two children’s teams. The teams performed to an audience of 2,000 at a flower show in nearby Stisted..."
"...the summer of 1913 as being a high-point for the Thaxted Movement in terms of dance, with much of the town
participating,
if not in Morris but in country and social dance. He states that the phenomenon had taken off across
all social classes, breaking
down barriers between landowners, clergy and sweetfactory workers.
Noel himself did not take part in the dancing, but his curates did, and the vicar who succeeded him, his son-in-law
Jack Putterill,
danced well into his 70s and played pipe and tabor until almost 80. Conrad allowed dancing in
church upon occasion,
but Jack began to actively encourage this, and the offertory dance during the church service
remains a feature of Morris Ring
events throughout the country."
Revival: The Transformative Potential of English Folksong and Dance, 1880-1940 |
1912 "At the Savoy Theatre, London, morris dancers and a pipe player will be introduced into the country
scenes of A Winter’s Tale...”the quaint morris dancers with their accompaniment of pipe and tabor in the rustic scenes..”
Pall Mall Gazette - Monday 19 August 1912 |
1912 story, with James Muggeridge - a pipe and tabor player:
“…with them when we arrived was another elderly man, a little their junior, blowing and beating away
at his pipe and tabor as though dear life depended upon it….The pipe and tabor have now passed
into the limbo of musical archaisms, but it was absurd to allow them to do so…. as they continued,
and the pipe and tabor continued, I became conscious of a new feeling. For the Morris dance is like nothing else.
‘LONDON LAVENDER AN ENTERTAINMENT’ BY E. V. LUCAS |
1912 Bucknell morris men
“The Bucknell men had their own pipe-and-taborer, but he died many years ago. Mr. Jim Pole, who learned
his instrument from the older player, was kind enough, however, to play his pipe and tabor for our two dancers,
when we were noting down their steps….”
‘The Morris book : with a description of dances as performed by the Morris men of England’
by Sharp, Cecil J, MacIlwaine, Herbert C |
1914
“ Oxford society had got over its first surprise at the spectacle of University Dons in bells and baldric
dancing these vigorous
dances to the music of the pipe and tabor or their modern equivalent.” |
1915 Description of the costume worn by morris men:  ‘English Folk Song and Dance’ by FRANK KIDSON AND MARY NEAL |
Visitors to Kelmscott Village Fair were entertained by morris men from
Little Faringdon with their bells and pipe and tabor in 1921 |
1923 Silchester Women’s Institute garden fete  Reading Observer - Friday 01 June 1923 |
|
 1924 |
It is unsual in England to have more than one pipe
and
tabor player playing on any occasion. |
|
 1925 J Sherman's photograph taken alongside the Oxford University Morris Men |
 Georgie Taylor, 1925
playing for morris dancing
|
1925
"A scratch set called the
Isis Strollers danced at a Reading Festival…. accompanied on Pipe and Tabor by Mrs Taylor (Georgie), Secretary of the Oxford Branch." |
In the 1929/1930's Joan Sharp (1898-1968) played pipe and tabor for morris and country dancing in England and on tour to the USA and Canada. |
|
|
 Sheffield Independent - Monday 24 November 1930 |
 1929 Joan Sharp in Canada |
Some morris dancers were completely against women as dancers, managers and musicians until early 21st century.
In April 1934, one dancer of the East Surrey Morris wrote a letter in which his criticism of the intervention of women
in morris dancing was unequivocal: "As regards men’s morris, my feeling is that it should be entirely man-managed.
Women should have nothing to do with its management at all." (source) |
|
 source |
Despite attitudes such as these some women contributed fully to the morris movement. Winsome Bartlett in 1968 for example helped to set up, teach and play the pipe and tabor for Dartington Morris Men. She also made pipes and tabors, sang and appeared on the radio playing the pipe and tabor (1953). |
|
 1970 Winsome Bartlett playing for Dartington Morris Men |
Bexhill-on-Sea Observer - Saturday 16 October 1926 - newspaper report:
Various explanations and a history of folk dancing were given by Mr Douglas N Kennedy.
A notable feature was a morris jig with a pipe and tabor accompaniment. |
1930 brass pipe made by Bill Warder for the St. Albans Morris Men revival.
It is influenced by the pipe depicted on the title page of William Kemp's "Nine Days Wonder."  |
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 2009 Tom Bower |
 2011 Bert Cleaver |
 2011 |
 Colchester Morris Men
Stephen Cheek |
The St Albans Morris Men advertise that they play for dances in many places in the area, accompanied by musicians on
accordion, melodeon, three-hole pipe and tabor. |
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for other types of dance see:
dance of death
18th century dance
folk customs
moresca
Regency dancing
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1949
2022 Gez Pegram 
2023 
