Farnicle Huggy
Interpretations of Late 17th and Early 18th Century
English Country Dances by Andrew Shaw.
Played by Rebecca King, Jon Berger and Jim Oakden
“Both book and CD are hugely satisfying and rewarding. The style and format of the book, with its striking and colourful cover, is as impressive as ever.
Andrew is well known for his scholarly erudition and, both live and on the page, presents his material with much supporting – and entertaining – evidence. Thus for each dance and its music we have full details of sources, facsimiles of the originals and, where appropriate, supporting material from song, playtext or other sources. Thus the whole dance collection becomes something much more than just an extension to the dance repertoire: we have fascinating insights, detailed and often humorous, into the world from which these dances emerged.
The CD is equally satisfying. The 3 players perform with great enthusiasm and imagination. Mention must be made of the range of instruments played, 13 in all. These are used most effectively and add greatly to the colour and variety of the recording. In ‘MacDonald’s March’, when the [clarinet] player is given his head the piece resembles a wild Hungarian gypsy dance: wonderful!”
“The CD is billed as ‘18th century England meets 21st century California,’ and what a great combination it is. Three very talented musicians play an imposing array of instruments.
They have produced a disc with a wide variety of tunes to different tempi and for dances in various formations. It is wonderful to listen to, as well as being a pleasure to dance to.
In the UK in recent times we have become used to the American style of English dance music presentation, and here we have it at its best with plenty of lift and drive to make the dancers keen to dance.”
Robert Moir, English Dance & Song Magazine, http://eds.efdss.org
Congratulations on the Farnicle Huggy CD -- it is excellent and stands out as a country dance CD, I think, amongst many others recently produced.
Much could be written about it, but here's what comes to my mind:
- excellent musicianship
- each tune gets a treatment which is just right for the dance and has the atmosphere wanted
- what a variety of instruments: that's really great
- highly danceable
To sum up, a great dance CD, an example for others.
Philippe Callens
