Boscastle Breakdown No Words REFERENCES
Davey
Hengan, Dyllansow Truran, Redruth, 1983, (see bibliography). page 56
Corollyn, Cam Kernewek, Perranporth, 1993 (see bibliography).
Collected from Charlie Jose and Arthur Biddick
Richard Dimbleby
BBC Sound Archive 6796 and 6918 recorded in October and December 1943 NOTES
" Continuing as a living tradition in 1999 played and danced at Boscastleand Calstock as well as being used by the various Cornish dance display teamsand a regular feature of the Annual Cornish Dance Competitions
Charlie Jose performed this dance for us in the Napoleon Inn , Boscastle, My Day Eve 1981, a little under a year before he died. Charlie stressed the importance of dancing on slate explaining that revellers had been known to `borrow` a gravestone for the purpose when a suitable slate floor was not available!
Arthur Biddick, a native of Boscastle who had since moved to Goonhavern, was able to elaborate more on the dance for us. He stated that the dancers would improvise on the steps and gave us some examples which we include here. He described a scene in which the men would circle around the room as a preliminary to the dance and stressed that neither dance nor tune had a very rigid format. Dancers would innovate around the basic pattern of the dance and try to out do each other. He explained that the name derived from the ` old Boscastle Jigs and reels` which were `broken in together` to form the `breakdowns`. Arthur was able to provide with an additional two eight bar `breakdowns` to the tune given by Charlie Jose.
The tune `Boscastle Breakdown` was recorded by Richard Dimbleby in October and December 1943 (BBC Sound Archive 6796 and 6918). Arthur remembered the occassion and maintained that the original musicians from Boscastle were plied with so much beer by way of encouragement that they were incapable of playing by the tine the recording started . The tune was carried by other musicians who had come to join in the festivities but barely knew how to play it! Certainly in the BBC recording the tune is a little vague and gives way to a fairly strong chord sequence. Whether this is due to the age of the recording or the reasons Arthur gave must be a matter of conjecture!
This tune and dance does not seem to have been unique to Boscastle, the same (or very similar) tune is known in Calstock and associated with a step dance which has sadly passed from living memory. In 1991 the tune is still kept alive by the Calstock revellers who celebrate darkie days at Christmas and on May Day.
Jon Mills transcribed this tune from the playing of pianist Beatrice Beer in the Cobweb inn in Boscastle in 1974 she played the tune in the key of F. When communicated to me by Arthur Biddick of Goonhavern in 1982 there was sufficient variation on the tune to be parts "4" and "5" or a separate entity, see Four Hand Reel. He was originally a native of Boscastle.
(Corollyn, Cam Kernewek, Perranporth, 1993 (see bibliography).)
