Music
The side has had a large number of musicians during its history. At present the main musicians for the Hong Kong side are Sue Ellis and Sue Papper (melodeons), and for the Brackets Steve Butler/Hall, John Bacon (both piano accordions), John Rowlands (button accordion) and June Rowlands (fiddle). The squeezebox and fiddle players normally carry the main burden of the tune, while attractive decorative effects are produced by supporting musicians with less powerful instruments. Bill Crump and Dave Ellis, for example, use the tin whistle to counterpoint and harmonise with the main melody. While most of the side's musicians play traditional morris instruments (the piano accordion, the button accordion, the melodeon, the concertina, the fiddle, the guitar, the bodhran and the tin whistle), the Hong Kong Morris has never disdained less conventional instruments. The late Mike Cowley's inimitable performance on the trombone (Mike died on 18 November 2010) will be particularly missed, as it gave the side’s music a depth and volume that considerably enhanced the performance of the dancers and at times reduced them to tears of laughter.
Read more about this topic: Hong Kong Morris
Famous quotes containing the word music:
“When we are in health, all sounds fife and drum for us; we hear the notes of music in the air, or catch its echoes dying away when we awake in the dawn.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“During the cattle drives, Texas cowboy music came into national significance. Its practical purpose is well known—it was used primarily to keep the herds quiet at night, for often a ballad sung loudly and continuously enough might prevent a stampede. However, the cowboy also sang because he liked to sing.... In this music of the range and trail is “the grayness of the prairies, the mournful minor note of a Texas norther, and a rhythm that fits the gait of the cowboy’s pony.””
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)