Morris Dancers

[Graham Serretta]

While on a walkabout on Boxing Day in Buckinghamshire, we were lucky enough to find a troupe of Morris Dancers at the local country pub.  Morris Dancing is an ancient tradition that goes back to the 15th century but, contrary to popular belief, has nothing to do with pagan rituals.  We have come across Morris Dancers at all times of the year, so the harvest has no significance either.

More here: http://www.themorrisring.org/about-morris

I shot these images with a Nikon D7000 and an AFS Nikkor 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 VR.  It was a very dull day and I kept the shutter speed fairly slow in order to capture some movement in the dancers.








This is the Morris Fool and his wife - He is the leader of the troupe and holds the highest rank.  His traditional greeting to the crowd is "here we be, masters, six fools and one (pointing to himself) dancer…."  He played a fife (a type of flute) and a drum.


This woman was playing a "Hurdy-Gurdy" which is a string instrument that produces sound by turning crank that causes a rosined wheel to rub against the strings.  More here:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurdy_gurdy




This is my gang enjoying the music.


Festivities ended with a traditional Christmas Crusader play.

[Dennis Gallus]

Graham,

Very interesting, and well-photographed too!  We had seen this type of dancing in a couple of episodes of "Midsomer Murders" and wondered where it came from.  The name "Morris Dancers" is new to us. 

The 18-105 mm appears to have performed well.  I particularly like the Morris Fool, but it is also good to see the informal shot of your gang.  I like photos of people having a good time.

Best wishes for a happy New Year, and much good photography.

Dennis

[Philip]

Graham -- wonderful pictures of an obviously good time!  If I can't be there, I can at least imagine what they sounded like (I bet that hurdy-gurdy and drum sounded great!), and even see what they looked like. Thanks for posting them.

Philip (a folklorist by trade)

[Santiago Montenegro]

They were having a lot of fun, and your pictures capture it very well indeed.

BTW, I didn't know about Morris Dancers, and I fully expected to see some Morris Minors with suspension problems, LOL.

[martolod]

Morris dancers are one of the evils of the Folk world...they are everywhere     :rolleyes: :cool: 
nice collection though graham.
i bet i bet the Tabor fife and drum and Hurdy Gurdy went really well together,
(i really love hurdy gurdy tunes.specially ones from the Aquitaine region .)

[shadowfox]

Where is this located, Graham?

[Ronald Bishop]

Graham you are a very fortunate person to have such events near you. I have never seen anything like it here in the US. We have mock military battles is about the closest thing to what you have. And maybe the Mardi Gra in New Orleans. I guess that is what we get for being such a young country?
And so many great pictures to boot.
    In 1940/41 my mother cooked in a logging camp,there were maybe 25/30 men in the camp. On Sundays some would hang out in the dining hall and play music.Mouth harp, guitar & a harp. I remember that there was a Hurdy Gurdy, it was broken and I used to play with it, one day I got it to play real music,must have done something right. It would get on guys nerves trying to play real music.
BTW-- no one knew what a HurdyGurdy was, I didn't until today.
Thanks
 Ron B

[br1078lum]

I'd always seen references and mentions of hurdy-gurdy's, but never saw a photo of one until today.  It would be interesting to know how the Morris name got attached to this type of troupe entertainment.  Great photos, Graham.  They capture the essence of what was happening.

PF

[Ronald Bishop]

I'd always seen references and mentions of hurdy-gurdy's
PF:

Come to think of it I have heard the words hurdy-gurdy. My mother used it once as I know of, she was referring to 'Boat House Nell'. The lady lived on the St.Joe river in St.Maries Idaho. She was a bootlegger way back when and still had some action in the 40s. My dad used to stop by her place once in ah while?

From another post here-----

Local oldtimers remember this as ''boathouse nell's'' place. Located at the trestle just before the st. Maries and empties into the st. Joe river.

[martolod]

and here is a clip of a hurdy gurdy being played

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjyAA-kRZaw

it sounds not unlike a shawm or continental bagpipe, and in times gone past it would have been played in a consort with reed instruments .
there are usually several melody strings that are keyed and 2 drone strings to provide a sympathetic harmonic to the melody.
a great sound for old tunes.

[Graham Serretta]

Will, this was near the town of Twyford, in Berkshire - near Henley and Windsor.  Dennis, thanks for the good wishes.  I use the 18-105 as my "walkabout" lens on occasion - but I prefer to just use the AF-S 35mm f1.8 G.  PF - No one knows the origin of "Morris" dance, and much has been writen on the subject - have a look at Wikipedia.  Martolod, I'm glad that I could play a part in clearing up one of the mysteries of your miss-spent youth!  Thanks for providing the link.  Santiago, the only Morris Minors around are those one sees at the classic car shows - and the one that I see regularly in Welwyn Garden City, which is still in daily use.  The name has no connection with the dance troupes.

Glad that you all enjoyed this post - Noelin and I wish you all a healthy, happy and peaceful 2012.

[Kalkadan]

Graham - great shots and exposures - the whites have held perfectly!  Interesting to see the 7000 at work.

Loved the one of the Fool and his wife.  And like others here I was fascinated to see what a hurdy gurdy was - it passed into our vernacular down under a long time ago with a slightly different meaning; my parents used to say to me as a boy when arriving at the local Show (Fair) 'do you want to go for a ride on the hirdy girdy?'

I guess it had some connection, as someone was turning a crank (via an electric motor!) and the thing went round and round.

nice shot of your family enjoying their Boxing Day

Dan

[LarryD]

Much more class than the jug band dancers in Stewart county.

[Julio1fer]

Beautiful photo story. Graham!

I had been wondering about hurdy-gurdies since Donovan came out with his hit song, back in the 1960s IIRC.

[BillyBob]

Stan Rogers, on his album Home in Halifax had a little story about Morris Dancers (as an intro to his song "The Idiot" - not about Morris Dancers).

Morris dancers, for those of you who don't know, are cute people who dress up in little white suits with green sashes and pork-pie hats with feathers. They tie sleighbells to their feet and they strap long white hankies to their wrists. In any event, there's nothing really alarming about Morris dancers; they're actually quite harmless.

Except that from time to time they will arm themselves with some kind of cudgel or bludgeon or some kind of blunt instrument. And they will gather in a knot or a mob known as a clot, or a team. And they'll gather in kind of a mystic circle and, to the accompaniment of accordion and violin, they will rhythmically and ritualistically hit each other again and again and again, with these sticks.

This is supposed to be some form of British fertility ritual, or some form of entertainment, or something. Anyway, this next song has the sort of knuckle dragging Neanderthal beat that Morris dancers really love to dance to.