Description

When the same musicians – and their listeners – are to be found carousing in the pub on Saturday night and hymning innocently in church on Sunday morning, and the same tunes cross back and forth from the alehouse bench to the church pew, something fascinating is happening to the music and the way in which it is received. Chapel and Tavern is both musical laboratory and playground, in which Maddy Prior & The Carnival Band explore the nature of popular music-making from the death of Shakespeare to the accession of Queen Victoria. We begin in the chapel, featuring the vigorous and enthusiastic music of the church gallery bands and reflective songs for private devotion. Then off to the tavern for rousing performances of catches, ballads, theatre songs and dance tunes. Same people, even sometimes the same tunes – only the context is different. What does this say abut the way our ancestors – and we – enjoy music? Our period encompasses the cultural wars of puritans and cavaliers, the London of Handel’s ‘Messiah’ and Hogarth’s Gin Lane, the enthusiastic singing of early Methodism, the riotous life of Georgian theatres, the American Revolution and the village bands remembered by Thomas Hardy. This is a wonderfully rich era in the story of popular music in the English-speaking world. Many tunes from this period are still sung and played today – in chapel and in tavern. Cherish your soul – and let the old Adam (and Eve) run riot!

Andy Watts 2021

Tracklisting:

1. O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Thomas Jarman (1776-1861) arr Watts

2. Ye Servants of God – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Anon. Harmonia Sacra 1754

3. O Thou Who Camest from Above – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Samuel Stanley (1767-1822) arr Watts

4. The Prodigal’s Resolution – words Pills to Purge Melancholy 1719 – trad 17th cent. arr Watts

5. Lady Nelson’s Waltz and Lord Nelson’s Waltz – c.1800 trad arr Lewin

6. Man is for the Woman Made – words Peter Motteux (1663-1718) – Henry Purcell (1659-1695) arr Watts

7. Love Divine – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Henry Purcell (1659-1695) arr Watts

8. Who Would True Valour See (1) – words John Bunyan (1628-1688) – trad. arr. Watts

9. Come O Thou Traveller – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Southern Harmony 1835 trad arr Watts

10. Come Away to The Skies – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Southern Harmony 1835 trad arr Watts

11. Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Robert Williams (1781-1821) arr Watts

12. The Shrewsbury Lasses, The Trip to Highgate, The Comical Fellow c.1800 trad. arr. Lewin

13. The Little Barleycorne – Trad 17th cent. arr Watts

14. Soldier, Soldier – Henry Purcell (1659-1695) arr Watts

15. I Know that My Redeemer Lives – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Randall’s Collection 1794 trad arr Watts

16. My God I am Thine – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – Benjamin Milgrove (1731-1810) arr Watts

17. Mad Moll, Balliorum, I Wish You All Goodnight – c. 1800 trad arr. Lewin

18. Youth’s the Season Made for Joys – words John Gay 1685-1732 – The Beggar’s Opera 1728 trad arr Watts

19. The Jovial Begger – 17th cent. trad arr Watts

20. Old Simon the King – words Pills to Purge Melancholy 1719 – c. 1700 trad arr Watts

21. Light of the World – words Charles Wesley (1707- 1788) – The American Musical Miscellany 1798 trad arr Watts

22. Who Would True Valour See (2) – words John Bunyan – trad arr Maddy Prior and The Carnival Band