In John Leyland's descriptions of the dance
in 1880 he includes a reference to "a band of music" but with no mention of
which instruments that comprised. Newspaper accounts of earlier performances
also mention a band. There is no information about music for the 1901
performance although Adam Ingram mentioned a concertina being played. Our
musicians currently play concertina, melodeon and recorder although over the
years they have from time to time been augmented by piano accordion, fiddle and piccolo. We
do not use any form of percussion as it is not in keeping with the
performance.
The music was described by John Leyland as a
"slow and measured air". It is important that a constant speed
is maintained throughout the dance, with no speeding up or slowing down
for the different figures. This is especially important at the change of
rhythm both going into the "C" and coming out of the
"D" music. We have found that around 80bpm is the most
comfortable and effective speed.
In 2020 some of the musicians made the following online recording of the
music for the dance so that the dancers could dance through it in isolation,
a truly strange performance!
