‘And a Bit for the Morris Dancers’

Abstract

In the music of English ritual dances we have an important though rarely exploited resource for creative work in the classroom. The author examines the range of materials available in the collections of Cecil Sharp and Herbert MacIlwaine, and describes a project in a Lincolnshire Junior School in which children, using Orff instruments, developed their own musical ideas starting from a traditional Derbyshire. Morris tune. They retained the essential characteristics of the tune while, at the same time, making imaginative use of the very considerable possibilities offered for melodic and rhythmic variation.