Playing nos lowens.
In general:
Nos lowen is about a sense of place and of celebrating and enjoying the unique local culture of Cornwall (whether born here or drawn here!). So, the music used for nos lowen dancing is drawn from the traditional Cornish repertoire. This can mean old Cornish tunes, or new ones written in this style.
The Cornish tune books Fooch 1 and Fooch 2 contain lots of the most popular Cornish tunes and notes on which specific tunes fit which nos lowen dances.
Singing for dancing is not uncommon at nos lowens, and is sometimes known as ‘Treys ha Ganow’ singing (literally 'feet and mouths'), especially when unaccompanied. Although the focus here is on instrumental dance music, most of the suggestions here still apply anyway.
The emphasis at a nos lowen is on: Informality, and a feeling of continuity and momentum. A trancy/hypnotic feel to the night generally, and a slant in favour of dances and music with this feel, but with a reasonable number of upbeat moments mixed in too. Getting into a groove and staying in it for a while. A tendency towards longer dances, and shorter gaps between them. Using dances which people can pick up fairly easily, without explanation, either straight away or after just a few goes.
Some more specific things:
The music needs to fit the dances in specific ways such as being in the right time signature for the dance, and in some cases, having the right number of bars and repetitions of the tune(s). There are normally many tunes that fit any particular dance, and often more than one dance that can be danced to any particular tune.
Ideally, let people know what dance or dances will fit what you are about to play. Unless the crowd attending the nos lowen includes a good number of seasoned nos lowen dancers, you will also probably need to make sure you have at least a couple of dance leaders primed to start dances off when no-one else chooses to or knows how to do so. If you have dance leaders, they will ideally be familiar with any quirks of your repertoire, and be prepared, for instance, for any less well-known dances you may be throwing in. If you’re new to playing for nos lowen dancing, then it is a good idea to meet with your dance leaders in advance, or with someone else who is familiar with nos lowen dances, to check which of your pieces are ‘nos lowen-able’, and which dances they fit.
It’s nice to give less well-known dances an airing from time to time, but it’s best not to throw in too many of these in one night. People like to have at least one chance, and preferably more, to dance each of the most popular ‘core’ nos lowen dances, such as the Hedley, Kabm Pemp, Jowster 3, and Kabm Dew, and you need to allow time for this. Whilst keeping that more trancy and hypnotic nos lowen feel overall, you can still have a lot of variety. Try to make sure there is a good cross section of different time signatures included, as well as both swung and unswung pieces, and also a few up-beat ones by way of contrast.
Dance formations:
Take the various formations in which the dances are danced into consideration too. Nos lowen dances are mostly danced in one of the following formations, or sometimes a combination of a couple of these:
- Serpents: Individuals, as opposed to couples, holding hands in a line. Dance weaving around the floor, sometimes spiralling in and out.
- Circles: Like a serpent, but the line is joined into a circle, occasionally concentric circles if there are a lot of dancers. Sometimes dancers need to be in couples.
- Furry Dances/Processionals - Couples dancing forward in a line.
- Loose Couple Dances - Couples dancing not in any particular formation.
There are some exceptions, such as Scoot or Step dances like Crowshensa/Crossroads, which is a dance for individuals but not in a serpent or circle.
The serpent is the most popular formation of nos lowen dances, perhaps due to its accessibility, inherently more trancy feel, and the fact that you don’t need to be in couples. It’s good to mix in dances in some of the other formations though, for variety. When drawing up a set list for a nos lowen, I usually aim for over half being serpents, and then the rest being made up of all the other formations.
If you’re starting the whole evening off, it’s good to start with a very accessible non couple dance so that as many people as possible can join in easily. A Hedley is a favourite for this.
Fitting the music to the dances:
Tempo.
Some dances have a wider window of tempos at which they feel OK than others. Dancers sometimes slightly adapt dances according to the tempo, for instance minimising steps when dancing fast, so steps might be smaller, or a ‘hop’ might sometimes become just a ‘bob’ on the spot without leaving the ground. You can get an idea of tempos from the tracks on the CDs included with the Fooch books, or search for nos lowen videos online.
Number of Bars.
Some dances need tunes of a certain number of bars, in which case, this is indicated in the individual dance notes below.
Rhythms.
Each dance needs tunes in a particular rhythm. This is also indicated in the dance notes. The important bit is what steps are used in the dance. Certain steps fit certain rhythms, so any dances with a particular step should fit any tune with a corresponding rhythm, assuming tempo and number of bars is also OK.
It helps a lot if you are familiar with the dance steps yourself, so that you can tell for yourself which dances fit which tunes, and whether people are ‘in phase’ or not. This can also give you a better idea of how to play the tunes to best match the feel of the dance. A quick run through the basic step before you start a piece, whether you do this for real or just in your head, can help get you in the right groove and set a good tempo. Occasionally, some nos lowen musicians even break into the step while they’re playing too! For an overview of the most popular nos lowen dance steps, and how they relate to each other follow this link: Nos lowen dance steps.
One of the ‘occupational hazards’ of the informality and egalitarian nature of the nos lowen approach, is that people may sometimes dance the ‘wrong’ dance for the type of tune you are playing. Sometimes this may work OK, and it is just a matter of preference. The Hedley, for instance, is a very popular and accessible dance, which sometimes serves as a sort of ‘default’ dance if people don’t know what dance to do. As such, it sometimes gets danced to tunes like un-swung 4/4 tunes, or perhaps jigs, both of which are ‘sort of’ OK, but, in my personal opinion, not as good as dancing it to a proper swung hedley (hornpipe) tune.
Occasionally, dances get danced accidentally to tunes which they don’t fit at all, or perhaps more commonly it’s the right dance, but just danced out of phase. This can be just as painful to some musicians as if someone was singing along out of tune, or in a different key! If you find yourself in this situation, and the dancers are just out of phase, you can sometimes rectify things by giving them an extra strong first beat of the bar, or, if you’re feeling clever, by missing or adding a beat or two, or part of a tune, to get back in phase. Alternatively, as one nos lowen musician said to me, sometimes you just have to let go, enjoy what you’re playing, and gaze into the distance, beyond the dancers, until the ‘problem’ passes! Usually though, especially if there are enough experienced nos lowen dancers present, this sort of problem doesn’t occur.
Nos Lowen dances, and which types of tunes they fit.
NB: the 'Playing for Dancing appendices in Fooch 1 and Fooch 2 include pointers to specific examples of tunes which fit each type of dance.
Some dances need a short musical introduction, so people know when to start. These dances are marked [i]. The introduction could be the last few bars of the tune, or you could just shout ‘Go’ at the appropriate moment! Couple dances are marked [c], and dances which are less commonly danced at present are in italics.
Serpents:
Furry-step or 1-2-3-hop Serpent - Steady furries/jowsters, although some of these tunes are normally associated with particular furry dances, see Furries/Processionals below.
Grapevine Serpent - As Furry-step serpent.
Hedley – swung 4/4 hornpipes, a.k.a. hedleys.
Jowster-step Serpent (a.k.a Jowster 4, or just a Jowster) - As Furry-step serpent. NB. This dance is a little more tempo sensitive, and needs to be kept at a medium tempo.
Hanter Jowster - 6/4 hanter jowsters.
Jowster 3 - Slow waltzes and possibly also 3/4 tunes which we might normally play swung or faster – but only if played at a slow waltz tempo.
Kabm Pemp - 5/4 kabm pemp tunes. This can be danced to either swung or un-swung kabm pemp tunes.
Turkey Serpent - Mazurkas (i.e., fairly upbeat swung 3/4 tunes).
Running Serpent - Virtually any upbeat tunes such as polka/marches, reels, or jigs.
Scoot or Jig Serpent - Jigs
Furries/Processionals:
Helston Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Helston Furry.
Polperro Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Polperro Furry.
North Cornwall Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Bodmin Riding
Tregajorran Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Tregajorran Furry
Breannick (Waltz-) Furry [c] [i] - Set tune Breannick
Oll a Dro [c] [i] - Steady 16 bar furries/jowsters.
Coinage Hall [c] - As Furry-step serpent, plus some polka/marches if played at a medium tempo. It’s handy to note that the number of bars is not important for Coinage Hall.
Circles:
Ros Vean [c] [i] - 32 bar polkas/marches, although 16 bar polkas/marches can also work.
Mr. Martin’s Reel [i] - Normally associated with King of Sweden (Fooch 1), although not collected with any particular tune. In theory it could be danced to any 16 bar hedley, and also possibly some of the Oll Adro tunes, but they might need adapting. In particular King of Sweden has a natural ‘stamp stamp’ punctuation at the end of each A part which matches the dance well, especially when you play it ‘AABB’ as it appears in Fooch 1, and start the dance on the first A part. In the Racca tune book this is described as the Calstock way of doing it, and is also how we do it at nos lowens. Elsewhere, the dance is started on the second A part, i.e. treating it as an ‘ABBA’ tune (perhaps that is the Swedish connection?!). The dance starts slow and then speeds up, led by the musicians. In nos lowens we usually start it as a heavily swung hedley, and then switch to a straight rhythm somewhere along the way as it speeds up into a reel.
Lulyn Adro [i] - This is a nos lowen-able (i.e. simplified) version of Newlyn Reel (a.k.a. Plethyn Newlyn). Usually associated with the set tune Newlyn Reel, or Lulyn Adro.
Loose Couple Dances:
(i.e., couples not in formation with other couples)
Hand-in-Hand [c] [i] - Jigs.
Annie Askee [c] [i] - Jigs.
Kabm Dew [c] [i] - 32 bar Reels ideally, but 16 bar tunes can also work, as can furry/jowster tunes (see above) if played quickly, and also polkas (see Ros Vean). NB: This is not strictly speaking a ‘loose’ couple dance, as it normally starts with couples lined up (partners facing each other) although there is a second section where couples dance off wherever they like, before coming back into the line.
Turkey Rhubarb [c] [i] - Normally associated with the tune of the same name but could also be danced to other swung 3/4 ‘mazurka’ tunes. Playing this sort of tune ‘swung’ started out as just a musical trend in recent years, in sessions and so on, but we now tend to play them this way at nos lowens too. As with Mr Martin’s Reel above, you may wish to slightly adapt how you play tunes to best reflect the ‘punctuation’ of this dance.
Cornische/Schottische [c] - furry/jowster tunes with a ‘two bars question, two bars answer’ feel. Some hedleys may also work if played less swung.
Polkas and Waltzes [c] – Occasionally couples just dance a polka or a waltz, for which the tune types are selfexplanatory.
Scoot or Step Dances:
Crossroads/Crowshensa [i] - This is a non-couple dance which is not in any of the above formations (everyone dances on their own, but all facing in the same direction). It is also non-conformist in terms of what tunes fit. The furry/jowster rhythm fits the steps, but ideally it would have a tune with 24 bars, of which there are very few, to my knowledge, and none in this book. What happens more often is that furries/jowsters with 16 or 32 bars are used, and you just brace yourself for the dance to go in and out of phase with this! It is worth noting that, although very popular with existing nos lowen dancers, this dance is more difficult to learn than other dances and is perhaps at the outer limits of being 'nos lowen-able' (i.e., dances which can be learned fairly easily at first or second attempt, without much verbal guidance).
Scoot Challenge [i] - This is not really a nos lowen dance in the usual sense, as it is not intended for everyone to join in. Instead, it takes the form of a ‘challenge’ set by one dancer which is answered by anyone amongst the crowd who wants to challenge them. The dance is based on the Mrs. Parkyn’s dance. Sometimes danced to the jig of the same name, but any jig will do.
Nos lowen is about a sense of place and of celebrating and enjoying the unique local culture of Cornwall (whether born here or drawn here!). So, the music used for nos lowen dancing is drawn from the traditional Cornish repertoire. This can mean old Cornish tunes, or new ones written in this style.
The Cornish tune books Fooch 1 and Fooch 2 contain lots of the most popular Cornish tunes and notes on which specific tunes fit which nos lowen dances.
Singing for dancing is not uncommon at nos lowens, and is sometimes known as ‘Treys ha Ganow’ singing (literally 'feet and mouths'), especially when unaccompanied. Although the focus here is on instrumental dance music, most of the suggestions here still apply anyway.
The emphasis at a nos lowen is on: Informality, and a feeling of continuity and momentum. A trancy/hypnotic feel to the night generally, and a slant in favour of dances and music with this feel, but with a reasonable number of upbeat moments mixed in too. Getting into a groove and staying in it for a while. A tendency towards longer dances, and shorter gaps between them. Using dances which people can pick up fairly easily, without explanation, either straight away or after just a few goes.
Some more specific things:
The music needs to fit the dances in specific ways such as being in the right time signature for the dance, and in some cases, having the right number of bars and repetitions of the tune(s). There are normally many tunes that fit any particular dance, and often more than one dance that can be danced to any particular tune.
Ideally, let people know what dance or dances will fit what you are about to play. Unless the crowd attending the nos lowen includes a good number of seasoned nos lowen dancers, you will also probably need to make sure you have at least a couple of dance leaders primed to start dances off when no-one else chooses to or knows how to do so. If you have dance leaders, they will ideally be familiar with any quirks of your repertoire, and be prepared, for instance, for any less well-known dances you may be throwing in. If you’re new to playing for nos lowen dancing, then it is a good idea to meet with your dance leaders in advance, or with someone else who is familiar with nos lowen dances, to check which of your pieces are ‘nos lowen-able’, and which dances they fit.
It’s nice to give less well-known dances an airing from time to time, but it’s best not to throw in too many of these in one night. People like to have at least one chance, and preferably more, to dance each of the most popular ‘core’ nos lowen dances, such as the Hedley, Kabm Pemp, Jowster 3, and Kabm Dew, and you need to allow time for this. Whilst keeping that more trancy and hypnotic nos lowen feel overall, you can still have a lot of variety. Try to make sure there is a good cross section of different time signatures included, as well as both swung and unswung pieces, and also a few up-beat ones by way of contrast.
Dance formations:
Take the various formations in which the dances are danced into consideration too. Nos lowen dances are mostly danced in one of the following formations, or sometimes a combination of a couple of these:
- Serpents: Individuals, as opposed to couples, holding hands in a line. Dance weaving around the floor, sometimes spiralling in and out.
- Circles: Like a serpent, but the line is joined into a circle, occasionally concentric circles if there are a lot of dancers. Sometimes dancers need to be in couples.
- Furry Dances/Processionals - Couples dancing forward in a line.
- Loose Couple Dances - Couples dancing not in any particular formation.
There are some exceptions, such as Scoot or Step dances like Crowshensa/Crossroads, which is a dance for individuals but not in a serpent or circle.
The serpent is the most popular formation of nos lowen dances, perhaps due to its accessibility, inherently more trancy feel, and the fact that you don’t need to be in couples. It’s good to mix in dances in some of the other formations though, for variety. When drawing up a set list for a nos lowen, I usually aim for over half being serpents, and then the rest being made up of all the other formations.
If you’re starting the whole evening off, it’s good to start with a very accessible non couple dance so that as many people as possible can join in easily. A Hedley is a favourite for this.
Fitting the music to the dances:
Tempo.
Some dances have a wider window of tempos at which they feel OK than others. Dancers sometimes slightly adapt dances according to the tempo, for instance minimising steps when dancing fast, so steps might be smaller, or a ‘hop’ might sometimes become just a ‘bob’ on the spot without leaving the ground. You can get an idea of tempos from the tracks on the CDs included with the Fooch books, or search for nos lowen videos online.
Number of Bars.
Some dances need tunes of a certain number of bars, in which case, this is indicated in the individual dance notes below.
Rhythms.
Each dance needs tunes in a particular rhythm. This is also indicated in the dance notes. The important bit is what steps are used in the dance. Certain steps fit certain rhythms, so any dances with a particular step should fit any tune with a corresponding rhythm, assuming tempo and number of bars is also OK.
It helps a lot if you are familiar with the dance steps yourself, so that you can tell for yourself which dances fit which tunes, and whether people are ‘in phase’ or not. This can also give you a better idea of how to play the tunes to best match the feel of the dance. A quick run through the basic step before you start a piece, whether you do this for real or just in your head, can help get you in the right groove and set a good tempo. Occasionally, some nos lowen musicians even break into the step while they’re playing too! For an overview of the most popular nos lowen dance steps, and how they relate to each other follow this link: Nos lowen dance steps.
One of the ‘occupational hazards’ of the informality and egalitarian nature of the nos lowen approach, is that people may sometimes dance the ‘wrong’ dance for the type of tune you are playing. Sometimes this may work OK, and it is just a matter of preference. The Hedley, for instance, is a very popular and accessible dance, which sometimes serves as a sort of ‘default’ dance if people don’t know what dance to do. As such, it sometimes gets danced to tunes like un-swung 4/4 tunes, or perhaps jigs, both of which are ‘sort of’ OK, but, in my personal opinion, not as good as dancing it to a proper swung hedley (hornpipe) tune.
Occasionally, dances get danced accidentally to tunes which they don’t fit at all, or perhaps more commonly it’s the right dance, but just danced out of phase. This can be just as painful to some musicians as if someone was singing along out of tune, or in a different key! If you find yourself in this situation, and the dancers are just out of phase, you can sometimes rectify things by giving them an extra strong first beat of the bar, or, if you’re feeling clever, by missing or adding a beat or two, or part of a tune, to get back in phase. Alternatively, as one nos lowen musician said to me, sometimes you just have to let go, enjoy what you’re playing, and gaze into the distance, beyond the dancers, until the ‘problem’ passes! Usually though, especially if there are enough experienced nos lowen dancers present, this sort of problem doesn’t occur.
Nos Lowen dances, and which types of tunes they fit.
NB: the 'Playing for Dancing appendices in Fooch 1 and Fooch 2 include pointers to specific examples of tunes which fit each type of dance.
Some dances need a short musical introduction, so people know when to start. These dances are marked [i]. The introduction could be the last few bars of the tune, or you could just shout ‘Go’ at the appropriate moment! Couple dances are marked [c], and dances which are less commonly danced at present are in italics.
Serpents:
Furry-step or 1-2-3-hop Serpent - Steady furries/jowsters, although some of these tunes are normally associated with particular furry dances, see Furries/Processionals below.
Grapevine Serpent - As Furry-step serpent.
Hedley – swung 4/4 hornpipes, a.k.a. hedleys.
Jowster-step Serpent (a.k.a Jowster 4, or just a Jowster) - As Furry-step serpent. NB. This dance is a little more tempo sensitive, and needs to be kept at a medium tempo.
Hanter Jowster - 6/4 hanter jowsters.
Jowster 3 - Slow waltzes and possibly also 3/4 tunes which we might normally play swung or faster – but only if played at a slow waltz tempo.
Kabm Pemp - 5/4 kabm pemp tunes. This can be danced to either swung or un-swung kabm pemp tunes.
Turkey Serpent - Mazurkas (i.e., fairly upbeat swung 3/4 tunes).
Running Serpent - Virtually any upbeat tunes such as polka/marches, reels, or jigs.
Scoot or Jig Serpent - Jigs
Furries/Processionals:
Helston Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Helston Furry.
Polperro Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Polperro Furry.
North Cornwall Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Bodmin Riding
Tregajorran Furry [c] [i] - Set tune: Tregajorran Furry
Breannick (Waltz-) Furry [c] [i] - Set tune Breannick
Oll a Dro [c] [i] - Steady 16 bar furries/jowsters.
Coinage Hall [c] - As Furry-step serpent, plus some polka/marches if played at a medium tempo. It’s handy to note that the number of bars is not important for Coinage Hall.
Circles:
Ros Vean [c] [i] - 32 bar polkas/marches, although 16 bar polkas/marches can also work.
Mr. Martin’s Reel [i] - Normally associated with King of Sweden (Fooch 1), although not collected with any particular tune. In theory it could be danced to any 16 bar hedley, and also possibly some of the Oll Adro tunes, but they might need adapting. In particular King of Sweden has a natural ‘stamp stamp’ punctuation at the end of each A part which matches the dance well, especially when you play it ‘AABB’ as it appears in Fooch 1, and start the dance on the first A part. In the Racca tune book this is described as the Calstock way of doing it, and is also how we do it at nos lowens. Elsewhere, the dance is started on the second A part, i.e. treating it as an ‘ABBA’ tune (perhaps that is the Swedish connection?!). The dance starts slow and then speeds up, led by the musicians. In nos lowens we usually start it as a heavily swung hedley, and then switch to a straight rhythm somewhere along the way as it speeds up into a reel.
Lulyn Adro [i] - This is a nos lowen-able (i.e. simplified) version of Newlyn Reel (a.k.a. Plethyn Newlyn). Usually associated with the set tune Newlyn Reel, or Lulyn Adro.
Loose Couple Dances:
(i.e., couples not in formation with other couples)
Hand-in-Hand [c] [i] - Jigs.
Annie Askee [c] [i] - Jigs.
Kabm Dew [c] [i] - 32 bar Reels ideally, but 16 bar tunes can also work, as can furry/jowster tunes (see above) if played quickly, and also polkas (see Ros Vean). NB: This is not strictly speaking a ‘loose’ couple dance, as it normally starts with couples lined up (partners facing each other) although there is a second section where couples dance off wherever they like, before coming back into the line.
Turkey Rhubarb [c] [i] - Normally associated with the tune of the same name but could also be danced to other swung 3/4 ‘mazurka’ tunes. Playing this sort of tune ‘swung’ started out as just a musical trend in recent years, in sessions and so on, but we now tend to play them this way at nos lowens too. As with Mr Martin’s Reel above, you may wish to slightly adapt how you play tunes to best reflect the ‘punctuation’ of this dance.
Cornische/Schottische [c] - furry/jowster tunes with a ‘two bars question, two bars answer’ feel. Some hedleys may also work if played less swung.
Polkas and Waltzes [c] – Occasionally couples just dance a polka or a waltz, for which the tune types are selfexplanatory.
Scoot or Step Dances:
Crossroads/Crowshensa [i] - This is a non-couple dance which is not in any of the above formations (everyone dances on their own, but all facing in the same direction). It is also non-conformist in terms of what tunes fit. The furry/jowster rhythm fits the steps, but ideally it would have a tune with 24 bars, of which there are very few, to my knowledge, and none in this book. What happens more often is that furries/jowsters with 16 or 32 bars are used, and you just brace yourself for the dance to go in and out of phase with this! It is worth noting that, although very popular with existing nos lowen dancers, this dance is more difficult to learn than other dances and is perhaps at the outer limits of being 'nos lowen-able' (i.e., dances which can be learned fairly easily at first or second attempt, without much verbal guidance).
Scoot Challenge [i] - This is not really a nos lowen dance in the usual sense, as it is not intended for everyone to join in. Instead, it takes the form of a ‘challenge’ set by one dancer which is answered by anyone amongst the crowd who wants to challenge them. The dance is based on the Mrs. Parkyn’s dance. Sometimes danced to the jig of the same name, but any jig will do.