Introduction 
Ordering North Yorkshire cornmiller & musician.
190 tunes, songs and dances, presented by Bowen and Shepherd
Edited by Geoff Bowen & Robin Shepherd - dance notes by Liz Bowen- historical notes by Robin Shepherd - family history notes by Rosalind Shepherd - music typesetting by Geoff Bowen
| Introduction |
Ordering |
Joshua Jackson was born in 1763 into a family of North Yorkshire cornmillers,
who traded in South Stainley, West Tanfield, and adjacent parishes
in the Ripon area. He was christened in Burton Leonard and was
buried there in 1839.
Family tradition suggests that he was a fiddle player who played in some of the large houses in the neighbourhood. He may also have played in musical societies and in local hostelries like another local fiddler, Blind Jack of Knaresborough. In common with many of his musical contemporaries, he wrote out his repertoire painstakingly into a music manuscript book.
Joshua Jackson's book, dated 1798, still in the possession of the family, contains a remarkable collection of more than 500 handwritten tunes, dance notations and a few songs. English country dances, Scottish and Irish jigs and reels, a few anthems, incidental music for the theatre and excerpts of classical music, are all included in the leather bound volume, giving an indication of the kind of occasions when Joshua Jackson's musical skills would have been in demand.
In selecting the tunes for inclusion in this publication we have tried to present a representative cross section of the material, including our own favourites and all of the tunes recorded on the Canny Fettle LP Trip to Harrogate (TSR 027) and the Magnetic North CD The Miller's Jig(YDW CD 005). We have generally excluded well known tunes which are readily available from other sources except where Jackson has an interesting personal or local variant.
The selection in this book includes 190 tunes, 30 with dance notations and 5 with song words. There are also chapters on the family history, background information on music and dancing in Jackson's time, and help with interpreting and adapting the dance notations. The index includes a full listing of the Manuscript contents.
NB - Currently out of print
but Volume 2 available from robin shepherd publications
enquire by e-mail to fiddle@ydw.org.uk
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