The prime requirement of any dance band is that the music should be very danceable. Different kinds of dances require different kinds of rhythms, but all must have the effect of helping the dancers to dance. Ceilidh dancing is no exception.
Tumbling Tom play mainly English traditional tunes, with some self penned and continental tunes to add diversity. These tunes have their natural rhythms underpinned by a driving rhythm section.
Some of the tunes that we play are from local manuscript collections and include -
- the Browne manuscripts from Troutbeck currently held in the Armitt library in Ambleside. This collection is made up of the tune books of James Lishman of Troutbeck Bridge and John Cook from Crook, as well as those from Thomas Browne himself.
- the tunes of William Irwin, formerly of Elterwater in Langdale, and his pupils such as Henry Stables
- the collection of tunes from Wyresdale outside Lancaster, collectively known as the Winder Collection
- a newly unearthed manuscript refered to as the Rooke Manuscript, from Wigton in north Cumbria.
Examples of our music can be heard below.
Two hopsteps, the first from the south of England, and the second written by Hamilton who was a pupil of William Irwin the Langdale fiddler -
Dorsetshire Hornpipe/Stybarrow CragTwo jigs, one from Dartmoor, and the second from the Winder collection near Lancaster -
Woodland Flowers/Moon and Seven StarsTwo Polkas, an English one and a French-canadian one -
Double Lead Through/La BastrangueSee also a video clip published on YouTube where the band is playing The Lichfield Tattoo.