Annotation:William Kimber's Schottische

William Kimber in the traditional Headington morris costume [from The Morris Book].

WILLIAM KIMBER'S SCHOTTISCHE. English, Schottische (4/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Kimber was an Oxfordshire-man from whom folklorist Cecil Sharp collected many tunes; he was reputed to have known thousands. Sharp said he was "a bricklayer by trade, a dancer by profession."

There were actually two William Kimbers, father and son. William Kimber Sr. danced in the Headington morris side for a short while after the 1889 revival, and afterwards played for it. "He learned the dances from his father, one of the old dancers, who joined the team as a lad of eighteen in the year 1868, and danced as Foreman of the side for fifteen years - that is, until it was disbanded in the first Jubilee year. Mr. Kimber, senior, who has himself on more than one occasion given us great assistance, is a musician as well as a dancer. He told us that he remembers playing the Morris airs to his son when he was in the cradle, to lull him to sleep, and that he taught him to dance when he was a schoolboy. It was this son, Mr. biography:William Kimber, junior, who, with his cousin, came up to London in 1906, and, by passing on to others the tradition that he had inherited, laid the foundations of the present revival"^[1]. William Kimber Jr. died in 1961, aged 90.

Additional notes

Printed sources : - Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 156.

Recorded sources : - Lochshore Records, Whirligig - "First Frost" (2001). Free Reed FRR 011, The Old Swan Band - "No Reels" (1977). Free Reed FRRR 05, The Old Swan Band - "No Reels (Remastered)" (2008). The Goodacre Brothers - "Call for Yer Pipers Three" (1991).

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↑ The Morris Book, "William Kimber and the Headington tradition", pp. 76-77.

[1] The Morris Book, "William Kimber and the Headington tradition", pp. 76-77.

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