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| The Winders of Wyresdale by Andy Hornby |
The music of the Winders of Wyresdale, which spans three centuries, will come under the spotlight at a Lancaster University symposium on Thursday 27 March when historians will examine the relationships between regional musical composition and performance and international trends in folk music.
Distinguished Visiting Professor Michael Beckerman, Professor of Music at New York University, together with colleagues and friends, will present a series of free public talks followed by discussion, based on the work of local musician Andy Hornby and his book ‘The Winders of Wyresdale‘.
The Winders, a local family from Wyresdale, were an important presence in the musical heritage of the region, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, and many of their songs and tunes survive in manuscripts.
The Winder collection represents the typical repertoire of a Northern village band between the late 1700s and the early 20th century and mainly comprise tunes to popular dances such as jigs, slip jigs and reels, There are also hornpipes in 3/2 and 4/4 time, minuets, cotillons, quadrilles and waltzes.
The talks will use the Winders as a case study and will also include material on bagpipe music in northern England and on Jewish folk composition during the Holocaust.
The symposium, entitled ‘The Winders of Wyreside Local Histories – International Destinies’ starts at 1pm at the FASS building on campus.
The day will be brought to a close with a concert of music from the Winder family songbook at the Gregson Centre in Lancaster at 7.30pm, featuring Northern Frisk, Folk to Folk, Howard Haigh and Celia Briar.
Both events are open to the public. For further information and to book places please go to: www.Lancaster.ac.uk/fass/history/event or email history@lancaster.ac.uk.
You can find out more about the Winders’ music and Andy Hornby’s book at http://www.andyhornby.net/Winders.html.