alex_beecroft

To recap:

1. Post about something that made you happy today, even if it’s just a small thing.
2. Do this everyday for eight days without fail.
3. Tag eight of your friends to do the same (Feel free to do it, but don’t feel obliged.)

Three things today too, all morris related, as I’ve spent the day playing whistle for Coton Morris Men for the first day of Ely Folk Festival, and tomorrow I’m going to spend the day dancing with the Riot for the second day.

1. Dancing with the Riot in Coton kit.

My muso’s outfit with Coton tends towards ‘The Matrix’ – tight black trousers, tight black waistcoat, long flappy black leather coat. The Riot’s kit is all colourful hankies and bright, rainbow waistcoats and costume jewellery. I very much enjoyed being drafted in to dance the Riot’s signature dance at the end of the show and looking like the spectre at the feast in the process.

2. A hatchet job on my Riot kit.

Remember that waistcoat I keep blogging about – the teal one which I made to a size 18 pattern when I joined, not realising that a size 18 pattern makes a size 14 garment? The one I had to make a stomacher for to make it big enough to fit my size 18 person? About a year ago I took the stomacher out because it fitted as it was. Now it’s too big, so today I’ve taken it in, to fit my now size 12 person. I’m happy with the weight loss and I’m happy that finally my waistcoat fits properly again.

3. Spending birthday money.

In June, my Dad gave me some money for a birthday present. Today I bought a low D whistle, so that instead of Coton’s band consisting of two high Ds, we could have the more interesting sound of one high, one low. It should sound like this:

because it is indeed a Dixon low D. But unfortunately I do not have such long and spidery fingers as the man in the video, so I need to learn to play with parts of my hand I did not think were designed for such frivolity, and – despite all the fingering for all the tunes being exactly the same – it will take me some time to adapt to it. It’s still a gorgeous monster of a thing, though, and will help me if I ever want to move on to the Uillean pipes.

Mirrored from Alex Beecroft - Author of Gay Historical and Fantasy Fiction.

It may be apparent, from all the little snippets of wild and wacky information I’m coming across, that I’m doing research at the moment.  Previously I’ve tended to think “nobody could be interested in this stuff.  Just put the book down and walk away.”  But this time around, I thought it might be fun to share some of it.  So, here I am discovering that, according to the Anglo-Saxons, my newfound ability to play the whistle may come with unexpected side effects.

From this website http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/1001Lovett.htm

Since they were similar by nature, musica instrumentalis could exert sympathetic influence over a listener by appealing to musica humana, his own physical music, both emotional and physiological. According to this system of influence, the type of music played could exert specific physical and emotional responses. Soft sounding instruments were played to encourage sleep, and faster songs and dances to promote physical vigor… The musical performance in each of the above examples is a meaningful event, and intended to have a very specific effect beyond its value as entertainment. Along with the beneficial potential of music came the threat that a musician would play intervals calculated to rob the listener of his or her rational ability, leaving the listener vulnerable to the devil’s temptation. Despite sounding somewhat fanciful to modern individuals, music’s practical, physical and moral influence was treated very seriously in the middle ages.

Members of the clergy often suspected music’s persuasive powers of demonic origin, especially when attempts were made to influence the natural world through secular musical acts. As a result, instructions were written outlining punishments for the practice of sinful superstitions. An example of this is found in the latin Indiculus Superstitionum , which forbids the playing of wind instruments to influence the weather or the passing of an eclipse. (Griffiths, 100)

Damn!  I’ll have to give up my plan of plunging the world into darkness by playing my pennywhistle after all.  I guess I’ll have to settle for disturbing my listeners’ reason and making them run around with their fingers in their ears shouting “Argh! No! Stoppit!” instead.