Saturday 28 September 2024

Playford @ The Hut - First Tuesday of the month, Feb - Dec, 7.30 to 9.30pm

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What is Playford dancing? Wikipedia 

Playford’s Dancing Master: The Compleat Dance Guide  An exhaustive collection, catalogue, and index of all dances published in editions of the Dancing Master, 1651-1728
     This website is an Open Educational Resource (OER) with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license. Permission is given to use and adapt any material on this website for non-commercial purposes, as long as attribution is given.
     Every dance in every edition of The Dancing Master is included in this site, with step-by-step instructions, modern music notation, and thorough indexes of publication information, musical aspects, and every dance step used in each dance.

Sydney Playford Dancers facebook page  We teach English dances published by John Playford from 1651 onwards, as well as later dances, eg from the Apted collection (late 18th century); & a few more recent dances in English style. Hut 44, Community Centre, 142 Addison Rd, Marrickville. 7.30pm.

The musicians are waiting when the dancers arrive.

1. Julie & Alex Bishop,  July 2024  (Sandra Nixon photo) 









2.  First arrivals, July 2024  (Sandra Nixon photo) 







3. December 2015 (Sandra Nixon photo) 



4.  March 2019 (Fay Lau photo)


5.   March 2019  (Fay Lau photo) 

6.   March, 2019  (Fay Lau photo)

7.  March 2019 (Fay Lau photo)











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Compilation of Saplings articles

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Saplings in concert, NFF 2023 (Sandra Nixon photo) 

Website - Saplings, Young People playing Australian Music   

Saplings is for musicians aged approx. 8 – 16 who play acoustic instruments at all levels.

We provide music and some of the tunes are written in simple versions for beginners.
Unless you are an ear player we prefer c instruments but we do have some music in bflat.
Singing is encouraged and we always include songs as part of our sessions and workshops. Words provided.

We have a number of tutors who share a passion for our music history with a great love of bush music and traditional songs.

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1.   BMC @ The National Folk Festival, Easter 2014
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/bmc-national-folk-festival-easter-2014.html

2.   Saplings workshop for young Bush Musicians 8-16 years, Marrickville Saturday 10th August 2014
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/saplings-workshop-for-young-bush.html

3.   Report on Saplings Master Class – held Sunday 10th August 2014
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2014/08/report-on-saplings-master-class-held.html

4.   BMC at Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, 2014 
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/bmc-at-kangaroo-valley-folk-festival.html

5.   Saplings session, November 2014   
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/saplings-session-november-2015.html

6.   BMC @ Illawarra Folk Festival 15-19 January 2015   
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/bmc-illawarra-folk-festival-15-19.html

7.   Saplings @ 2015 Illawarra Folk Festival was a magnificent success! 
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/saplings-2015-illawarra-folk-festival.html

8.   Saplings session of traditional music for young musicians 8-16 years old, Sunday 15th March 2015 
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/saplings-session-of-traditional-music.html

9.   Report on Saplings session March 2015   
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/report-on-saplings-session-march-2015.html

10.   Saplings @ 2015 National Folk Festival - another success!
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/saplings-2015-national-folk-festival.htm

11.   2015 Saplings Master Class, Sunday 16th August 
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/2015-saplings-master-class-sunday-16th.html

12.   Report on Saplings Master Class - held Sunday 6th August 2015  
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/report-on-saplings-master-class-held.html

13.   Report on Saplings workshops @ Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, 2015
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/report-on-saplings-workshops-kangaroo.html

14.   Report on Saplings @ Illawarra Folk Festival 2016
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/report-on-saplings-illawarra-folk.html

15.   Report on Saplings sessions at 2016 National Folk Festival
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/report-on-saplings-sessions-at-2016.html

20.   Report on Saplings @ Bush Traditions Gathering, October 2017
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/report-on-saplings-bush-traditions.html

21.   Report on Saplings @ Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, October 2017
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/report-on-saplings-kangaroo-valley-folk.html

22.   Report on Saplings @ Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, 2018
http://bushmusicclub.blogspot.com/2018/11/report-on-saplings-kangaroo-valley-folk.html

23.   Report on Saplings gigs @ 2018 Illawarra Folk Festival
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2018/02/report-on-saplings-gigs-2018-illawarra.html

24.   Report on Saplings workshops & concert at National Folk Festival 2018
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2018/11/report-on-saplings-kangaroo-valley-folk.html

25.   Report on BMC @ Bush Traditions Gathering, October 2018 
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2018/10/report-on-bmc-bush-traditions-gathering.html

26.   Bush Music Club participation in 2018 AMEB Online Orchestra
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2018/11/bush-music-club-participation-in-2018.html

27.   Report on Saplings sessions @ 2019 Illawarra Folk Festival
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2019/01/report-on-saplings-sessions-2019.html

28.   Report on Saplings sessions at 2019 National Folk Festival
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2019/04/report-on-saplings-sessions-at-2019.html

29.   Bush Music Club participation in 2019 AMEB Online Orchestra
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2019/08/bush-music-club-participation-in-2019.html

30.   Report on Sapling sessions @ 2019 Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2019/11/report-on-sapling-sessions-2019.html

31.   BMC & members gigs @ National Folk Festival, 9-13 April 2020
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2020/03/bmc-members-gigs-national-folk-festival.html

32.   Festival reports - National Folk Festival 2022  
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2022/06/festival-reports-national-folk-festival.html

33.   Festival Reports - 2023 National Folk Festival - BMC & friends
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2023/05/festival-reports-2023-national-folk.html

34.   Festival Reports - Saplings @ Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, 2023
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2023/11/festival-reports-saplings-kangaroo.html

35.   Festival report - Inaugural Bundanoon Folk Festival November 2023 
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2023/12/festival-report-inaugural-bundanoon.html

36.   Festival Reports -  Illawarra Folk Festival 2024, Sharyn Mattern collection
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2024/01/festival-reports-illawarra-folk.html 

37.   Festival Reports - Saplings @ Illawarra Folk Festival, 2024
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2024/02/festival-reports-saplings-illawarra.html

38.   Report on BMC @ 2024 National Folk Festival - Saplings
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2024/04/report-on-bmc-2024-national-folk_9.html

39.   Saplings Session @ The Hut Saturday 20th April 2024
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2024/04/saplings-session-hut-saturday-20th.html

40.   St Albans Folk Festival 2024    
https://blog.bushmusic.org.au/2024/05/st-albans-folk-festival-2024.html   

41. 

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Saturday 21 September 2024

From the Library - New City Songster - 6 issues from the 70s

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our holdings - Volumes 1, 2, 4&5, 7, 8 & 10

New City Songster - About  NEW CITY SONGSTER represents a huge input of work, spread over 17 years. This was-almost half the period that the magazine’s compiler, Peggy Seeger was with her co-singer/songwriter and then partner, Ewan MacColl. Both contributed some of their finest song compositions to the magazine. Their mobility around UK, USA, as well as their two Australia tours, placed them in venues where they would hear and collect new songs. Contributors to New City Songster included established songwriters, members of The Critics Group, and up and coming folk singers such as Eric Bogle, who went on to be internationally known for his song compositions.

Peggy Seeger is ideally qualified for the roles of contemporary song collector and compiler. Approachable at folk venues, she was also able and willing to transcribe and notate compositions submitted on audio-cassette. Compiling songbooks was a discipline which she had learned through involvement in her mother’s projects. Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) was a classical composer and concert pianist. By the 1930s, she was also a folk specialist. She compiled several songbooks including Nineteen American Folk Songs for Piano (1936-1938), American Folk Songs for Children (1948), Animal Folk Songs for Children (1950) and American Folk Songs for Christmas (1953).

What makes NEW CITY SONGSTER unique? Peggy Seeger’s collection of contemporary folk songs differs from Ruth Crawford Seeger’s song compilations in that most of the content is overtly political. Collected between 1968 to 1985, NEW CITY SONGSTER is born out of three closely related folk revivals which extended their coverage to non-traditional contemporary music: i.e. the issues of the day. 

  • A leading figure in both the post 1940 American folk music revival and the British folk revival, which followed in the 1950s, was folklorist and field collector Alan Lomax. Lomax moved from America to Britain in 1950 during Senator Joseph McCarthy purge of researchers, artists, educators and union activists associated with the political left. It was through the pioneering interests of Alan Lomax that Ewan MacColl was introduced to A.L.Lloyd in 1950 and to Peggy Seeger in 1956. From 1950, MacColl and Lloyd became heavily involved in Topic Records, which started in 1939 as an offshoot of the Workers’ Musical Association . From 1956, MacColl and Seeger were to embark on a partnership which would promote both traditional folk compositions and contemporary songs of love, politics or a blend of the two.

  • An Australian folk revival was also underway from about 1960 when trade unions, aware of their US and UK counterparts’ contribution to culture through sponsorship of the creative arts, encouraged new compositions through song competitions. Invited by Warren Fahey (founder of Folkways Music and Larrikin Records) and sponsored by the Amalgamated Metal Workers’ Union (AMWU), Ewan and Peggy toured Australia in 1976 and 1979.  (Our library also holds a Double Cassette of an undated concert at the Thomas Mann Theatre 

  • Mapping world concerns and social change from 1968 to 1985, NEW CITY SONGSTER provides rich pickings for those interested in political and social history and cries out for a SUBJECT INDEX. The subjects of the songs reveal the very essence of the US, UK and Australian folk song revivals, in which political motivation is integral. The 399 contemporary folk songs are ‘a touch on the times’ for people who were there (many now pensioners!) as well as those who were absent or too young. NEW CITY SONGSTER offers timeless themes and templates for modern day satirists and new songwriters
  • 1. Cover of Volume 1, originally published in 1968, reprinted 1974

    2. Editorial, Volume 1 & Ewan MacColl's Ballad of the Big Cigars

    3. cover, Volume 2

    4. Introduction to Volume 2 


    5. Cover & contents of Vol 4 & 5


    6. Cover no. 7, January 1972

    7. Editorial Volume 7

    8. Cover vol. 8, Sept 72

    9. Editorial Vol. 8

    10.  Front & back covers Vol. 10, Sept 74 - The Singers Club

    11. Editorial vol. 10

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    Sunday 15 September 2024

    Two books to remember Dorothy Hewett's Centenary - 1923 to 2023

    Click images for larger size.

    Extracts from Singabout - the early songwriters - Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) & Merv Lilley (1919-2016)

    These books have been compiled & published by Dorothy's son Joe Flood & Marilla North, see links for purchasing details.  Thanks to Karen Fong for the review of What About the People

    Joe's youtube channel - Dorothy Hewett Centenary celebration 

    Dorothy Hewett - facebook

    Remembering Dorothy   

    Dorothy Coade Hewett (1923-2002) was a major Australian playwright, poet and novelist, a true innovator of the theatre and a feminist icon. She fearlessly tackled all kinds of issues and shibboleths, setting her own direction and encouraging others to find their own path.

    This is the first book-length biographical work on Dorothy Hewett. Like some of her best-known work, it has multiple perspectives, in which different people give their views of Dorothy, her life and work. This colours her complexity as a writer and as a person, while charting her setbacks along her rise to fame. It is a book of love from all who knew her.

    Contents

    Part I. Hewett's Wheatbelt 1923-45. "The heart and soul of a nation's literature". Her ancestors, and the matriarchy in which she lived. Her stormy and rebellious early life and her early talent, winning open national poetry prizes at the ages of 17 and 22. Her suicide attempt after a failed love affair, her first marriage and her embracing of activism.

    Part II. The Perilous Path 1947-71. As a reporter on the Workers Star, she covered the 1947 Aboriginal Stockman's Strike in the Pilbara and wrote her anthem for the indigenous struggle, “Clancy and Dooley and Don McLeod”.

    In 1949 she eloped to Sydney, lived in a squat in Redfern and worked in a spinning mill. This gave her the material for her first novel Bobbin Up and her first play. In 1958 she escaped to Perth, and published her first joint book of poetry What About the People! which included a dozen folk anthems, especially "Weevils in the Flour" which became synonymous with the Depression. In the 1960s, many famous literary and music figures visited the "Crowded House" of five children. Her cycle of great "magic realism" plays began in 1971 with The Chapel Perilous.

    Part III. City of Marvellous Experience. In her busiest period, from 1971 to 1979, her plays were performed across the country and her fame multiplied. Her character "Sally Banner" became a feminist icon. As well, she published three more books of poetry. This section has many of the memories from leading directors, actors, composers and literary figures.

    Part IV. Mountain Maid. From 1990 to 2002 she won many awards, but she became increasingly immobile from osteoporosis. However, in her last years she published two novels, two more books of poetry and a final end-times play, Nowhere.

    The book concludes with an assessment of her original contributions to literature in Australia and worldwide, The real woman, the public figure and the writer are disentangled as separate but intersecting entities.

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    3rd edition of  What About the People - poems by Dorothy & her second husband Merv Lilley.

    The legendary book What About the People was self-published in 1961 by the poets Dorothy Hewett and Merv Lilley. Twelve of the poems were set to music, most notably the lyrical ballads Wheevils in the flour and Norman Brown, and helped to launch the Australian Folk Revival. The first edition is now a rare collectors' item costing more than $600. This third edition of 120 copies is part of the centenary celebration of the birth of Dorothy Hewett, and is also a collector's item

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    Review by Karen Fong, 29 September, 2024

    A Review of What about the People! by Dorothy Hewett and Merv Lilley


    The third edition of this book of verses contains 75 poems by Dorothy Hewett (1923-2002) and her husband Merv Lilley (1914- 2014), published by Yarnspinners Press Collective with Deluge Publishing in Wentworth Falls. This special edition was published last year to commemorate Dorothy’s birth in 1923.

    Available from https://deluge-publishing.square.site/product/WhatAboutthePeople/5 or 0444 500 266

    Two of Dorothy’s poems that are familiar to folkies are ‘Ballad of Norman Brown’ and ‘Where I Grew To Be a Man’ (or better known as ‘Weevils in the Flour’). These two poems and many others by both Dorothy and Merv in fact have been put to music. This reviewer remembers hearing Bob Fagan sing ‘Ballad of Norman Brown’ at the Loaded Dog one Saturday evening last year in Annandale.

    Weevils in the Flour’, about the life of Dorothy’s friend Vera Deacon during the Depression, has also been sung by many including, Gary Shearston, Declan Affley and Robyn Archer.

    Merv Lilley was an early member of the Bush Music Club and first met Dorothy at a combined Bush Music Club and Sydney Realist Writers’ get-together in 1957. Many of the poems in this selection reflect his many occupations such as wool presser, cane cutter, lead mining and ship’s stoker in Queensland. One of the first poems in this book by Lilley, ‘What about the People?’, is a real call to action in the treatment of Aboriginal Peoples:

    Mr Policeman, when you goin’ to stop arrestin’ me,
    Jailin’ me and punchin’ me, chargin’ e with loiterin’.
    Why do you bully me, Mr policeman?

    Things don’t seem so different decades on. Merv’s poem ‘The Anti-Fouling Roll’, written in 1961, won the Waterside Workers’ Federation national song competition three years later.

    It is difficult to choose favourites but Dorothy’s ‘Atomic Lullaby’ and 'Lulluby for Katie' stand out for this reviewer. Every parent wants their child(ren) to be safe:

    Hush my baby, do not cry;
    A mother’s tears are never dry,
    The mushroom cloud hangs in the sky,
    But lulla-lulla-lullaby.
    I did not ache that you might die,
    The world will hear my bloody cry - ….

    Let’s hope so.

    If you would like to step into the working lives of Australians in the decades after WWII, this book of poetry will give you a great insight.

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    Sunday 8 September 2024

    Photos from the 11th Annual John Dengate Memorial Get Together, August 2024

    Click images for larger size.




    *Photo featured is John’s Stage Plan that he filled out for the year 2000 Jamberoo Illawarra Folk Festival. Supplied by Jason Roweth.

    Unfortunately some performers couldn't be wth us, & Doug's video was unable to be shown. 

    Photos © Sandra Nixon 


    1. MC Max 


    2. Doug 

    3. Helen, Margaret Bradford, Frank & Anne Maher 

    4. Sean, Dale, David

    5. audience

    6. audience 

    7. Leyne setting up camera

    8. BigRuss & Dale

    9. David & Sean

    10. Anne Maher with daughter Helen


    11. toast

    12. Introduction by Dale 

    13. Baton twirling by Mandy 

    14. Baton twirling by Mandy  

    15. Baton twirling by Mandy  

    16.  Dale & Max

    17. a special song 

    17. Sean 

    18. Sean 

    19. ComradeSirBigRuss

    20. Jenny 

    21. Lachlan 

    22. audience 

    23. audience

    24.  Sally

    25. audience 

    26. Lachlan 

    27. Lachlan & Stephanie 

    28.  sound check for Stephanie

    29.  Margaret Bradford 

    30. John Tubridy, winner of the 2019 Illawarra Folk Festival Dengate Parody competition

    31. Chris Maltby 

    32. Margaret Walters & Chris Maltby 

    33. Margaret 

    34. Di Clifford from Dubbo

    35. Seamus Gill

    36. David Iverach 

    37. Dale, David Iverach

    38. David Iverach

    39. Max & Leyne 

    40. Max, Leyne & Russel Carey

    41.  Leyne & her parents, Gae & Max

    42.   Gae, Leyne & Max

    43.  Gae, Leyne, Max

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