Cobblers Hornepipes
No Words REFERENCES
Morton Nance R
Cledry Plays, Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, Penzance, 1956: p85
NOTES
" Dance is "executed in a crouching posture, the bended arms being
jerked in and out in imitation of a cobbler stitching, while the legs are
alternately stretched out as far as possible sideways in time with the motion of the elbows"
Cledry Plays, Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, Penzance, 1956:"p84
Robert Morton Nance wrote the Cledry plays during the early part of the 20th Century. Some of these plays were published in a collection under that title in 1956, others remain in manuscript form in the Royal Institution of Cornwall Library (Morton Nance box 4 ). Morton Nance does not identify sources for his music and whilst he clearly wrote some, others can be cross-referenced to oral tradition. In his own Words from the preface of The Cledry Plays, Federation of Old Cornwall Societies, Penzance, 1956: these plays were " aimed at carrying on the West-Penwith tradition of turing local folk tales into plays for Christmas acting. What they took over from these guise-dance drolls, as they were called, was their love of the local speech and their readiness to break here and there into rhyme or song" And of the music " the simple airs do not ask for accompaniement or for trained voices to do them justice. They are only a slight extension of the music that West-Penwith voices will put ionto the dialogue."
