Timon's Getting Married! Sumer
SS017
The hermit John Wells, also known as Timon of the Tees, was married (later found to be bigamously) at Seaton Snook Mission on 8th July 1866. A brief biography of uncertain accuracy can be found on this page.
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A section of 1/4" tape of terrible quality (SS017a) has been uncovered from a Peoples Mass rehearsal, at which either Fred Foster or Frank Warnes (though probably the less-proficient Foster, given the trouble he is having with it) is practising this melody in the background:
NOTES ON THE PIECE
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Northumbrian Smallpipe characteristic:
Diatonic transposition in bars 5 and 6 [blue squares]
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Snookish characteristics:
Major 7th interval in bars 1, 3 and 7 [orange boxes]
Ends on Supertonic (A or Rey) [purple circles]
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Other comments:
Being a summer event, the piece has been designated the Sumer Tempo, possibly by Robson Booth; the Sumer Tempo is played before and after the main tune in the above demo.
Note the pealing church bell effect in bars 1, 3 and 7.
The words of the title fit perfectly with the rhythm of bars 2, 4 and 8, though we have so far failed to locate a full set of lyrics to go with this piece.