The publication in these pages of the transcriptions of Vic Smith's BBC Radio Brighton interviews with Reg Hall about the original publication of Musical Traditions Supplement No 2 - Scan Tester: "I Never Played to Many Posh Dances" back in 1990, has brought to a head a problem which has been with us for a while. With only about a score of copies of the book remaining (and the interview publication likely to prompt the purchase of those), we will soon be in the position of this important work no longer being available to the public. Topic Records are planning a double CD reissue of the double LP which accompanied the book's original release (with additional material from the Peter Kennedy Collection), but a new hard-copy version of the book would not be financially vaiable.
Accordingly, since Musical Traditions Internet Magazine would seem to be the most appropriate place for our Supplement No 2 to find a home, I proposed to re-publish it here as a PDF facsimile edition. All interested parties were in favour so, after several gruelling hours at a hot scanner, a perfect replica of the original - even the same size - is now available for your attention.
Few people would, I think, welcome having to download a 150-page PDF file, so I have separated it into 9 sections, based on the original layout of the book. The links below indicate the content, number of pages and size of the downloads:
scan00.pdf | Cover picture | 1 page | 9,080KB |
scan01.pdf | Part 1 - Contents, maps, preface, Chapter 1: The 19th Century Sussex background | 12 pages | 6,745KB |
scan02.pdf | Part 2 - Biography: Chapter 2: 1887 - The Great War | 32 pages | 29,289KB |
scan03.pdf | Part 3 - Chapter 3: The Great War - 1957, | 12 pages | 12,096KB |
scan04.pdf | Part 4 - Chapter 4: 1957 - 1972 | 14 pages | 13,562KB |
scan05.pdf | Part 5 - Context and Comment: Introduction, Chapter 5: Dances and dance tunes | 22 pages | 16,992KB |
scan06.pdf | Part 6 Chapter 6: Fiddle, concertina, melodeon & tambourine Chapter 7: Church bands & Village bands Chapter 8: Friendly Society feast days | 16 pages | 13,822KB |
scan07.pdf | Part 7 Chapter 9: The 'other' music Chapter 10: Songs and Singers Chapter 11: Calendar customs | 14 pages | 10,558KB |
scan08.pdf | Part 8 Chapter 12: Minstrels and Carnival bands Chapter 13: Class and social conflict Chapter 14: The 1920s and beyond | 14 pages | 11,828KB |
scan09.pdf | Part 9 - Postscript: Discography, Acknowledgements, Appendix: The wider world, About the author | 11 pages | 5,379KB |
You will, of course, need the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these PDF files - if you don't have it, download the Free Reader from www.adobe.com
My sincere thanks to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at the EFDSS for supplying a copy of the book to deconstruct for scanning.
Rod Stradling - 28.4.08
Article MT215
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