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Latest revision as of 16:17, 4 October 2024

Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).

According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.

He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.

Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.

He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left. Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.

"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."

...more at: Elk River Blues - full Score(s) and Annotations

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{SheetMusic
-|f_track=Trenchmore.mp3
+|f_track=Elk River Blues.mp3
-|f_pdf=Trenchmore.pdf
+|f_pdf=Elk River Blues.pdf
-|f_artwork=Circle_of_William_Scrots_Edward_VI_of_England.jpg
+|f_artwork=Ernie Carpenter.jpg
-|f_tune_name=Trenchmore
+|f_tune_name=Elk River Blues
-|f_track_title=Trenchmore
+|f_track_title=Elk River Blues
 |f_section=abc
-|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/jacob-heringman Jacob Heringman]
+|f_played_by=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar Jatek Zenekar]
-|f_notes= Portrait of Edward VI of England, seated, wearing a gown lined in fur (ermine or lynx) over a crimson doublet with the collar of the Order of the Garter and holding a Bible.
+|f_notes=Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997)
-|f_caption=The first record of the tune and dance is in an account of the Christmas festivities at the court of Edward VI of England in 1551, where a list of expenses for the year’s Lord of Misrule (the character responsible for overseeing the celebrations) included, for his dancers, the cost of thre garments of sarsenett with iij payre of sloppes of owde store, for them that daunsed trenchemore.
+|f_caption=According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life.
-|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/jacob-heringman/trenchmore Soundcloud]
+|f_source=[https://soundcloud.com/jatek-zenekar/elk-river-blues Soundcloud]
 |f_pix=420
 |f_picpix=200
-|f_article=[[Trenchmore | '''Trenchmore''']]
+|f_article=[[Elk River Blues | '''Elk River Blues''']]
-The dance featured a number of ‘tricks’ or ‘capers’ and seems to have been a large, boisterous activity. Thomas Deloney, writing in his work '''The Gentle Craft, Part II''' (London, c. 1598), describes a character who “like one dauncing the trench more he stampt up and downe the yard, holding his lips in his hands.”
+Composed by Braxton County, West Virginia, old-time fiddler Ernie Carpenter (1909-1997).
-It was mentioned in a 1564 morality play by William Bulleyn, where a minstrel was described as "dancing Trenchmore”; William Sampson’s '''The Vow Breaker''' (1636) gives: “We had a Wedding to day and the young fry tickle Trench-more.”
+According to the booklet accompanying Carpenter's LP, the story behind the tune is one of a difficult adjustment to a forced change in Ernie's life. He had worked most of his life for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company in Clarksburg, prior to retiring in 1972 to his home in Braxton County, West Virginia.
-Some time after its introduction the dance was sufficiently common as to attract allusion in both literature and common usage—any unrestrained, wild activity was likely to provoke comparison with ‘dancing Trenchmore’, and, on a more sinister note, one recorded letter threatens that a man will be made to talk by being suspended so that his feet barely touch the ground, so that he will ‘dance Trenchmore’ in his agony (see Donnolly).
+He was a regular visitor during his working years to his homeplace on the Elk River, and was witness to the planning and construction of the Sutton Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the river during the 1950's and 1960's.
-Trenchmore is given by John Playford as the title of a dance, however, as Dean-Smith & Nicol point out:
+Unfortunately, this resulted in the flooding of his boyhood home and the surrounding area, despite the efforts of himself and neighbors to forestall the project through a lobbyist. He refused the government's initial offer for his land (they didn't offer him anything for his house), and took the case to court.
-<blockquote>
-''The word is used elsewhere as the name for a kind of dance with an under-and-over movement''
+He was able to gain a marked increase in the money he eventually was paid through this process, although he had to pay legal fees out of his pocket. He stayed in his Elk River homestead while the dam was being constructed, even though most of his neighbors had already left.  Workmen blocked the roads in and out of the area, but Carpenter found alternate routes until they too were closed off.
-''(like 'Grimstock' or the roll-figure of certain sword-dances) or danced under and over the furniture''
-''through the hall and kitchen; the word is often used in the literature of the period:--"Capering a''
+"I was the last person out of there," he said," I went ahead then and tore the old place town and brought it up here. Part of its in this house." Of the tune, he remarked: "I was sittin' here one day, an' I had the blues. I reckon as bad as anybody could, thinkin' about my old homeplace up on the Elk River. I started sawin' on the fiddle an' that's what I came up with."
-''morrisca or trenchmore": "Like one dancing the trenchmore he stampt up and down, holding his hips in''
-''his hands," "Among a number of these contrey dances I did light on such a Galliard as had a tricke''
-''(caper) above trenchmore", while 'The West-country Jigg' or 'A trenchmore galliard' to the tune''
-''of 'Up with Aley' in the Roxburgh Ballads described a country gathering like "Come Lasses and lads" as''
-''the wedding of the Lasses of Trenchmore Lee''<ref>Margaret Dean-Smith & E.J. Nicol, “The Dancing Master: 1651-1728: Part III. “Our Country Dances.” Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, vol. 4, No. 6 (Dec., 1945), p. 226. </ref>.
-</blockquote>
 }}