Pantechnicon; Spring Revels

In. The month of May throughout the centuries has been the traditional time to welcome the spring and wake up Mother Earth by pounding on the ground beating drums and jangling bells in villages maples were erected and some places were do is worship huge bonfires were built and then jumped across the flames leaping as high as they intended their crops to grow. I'm Eleanor STOUT And I'm Robert Schuller Timo and this is Pam technical. Your weekly magazine on entertainment in the yards brought you in part through the support of the Massachusetts Council on the arts and humanities. Tomorrow and Tuesday at MIT's Kresge auditorium in Cambridge. The spring revels welcome in the season with song and dance including such tunes as John Barleycorn Amazing Grace and with the rapper sword dance and morris dancing. We like to play some of these numbers for you today along with commentary by singer John Lang staff and producer of the spring revels. Terry Tobias But first let's meet the Padstow

hobbyhorse. Close. But. What.

Bigger. Bigger.

Bigger. What's the Padstow hobbyhorse ritual all about. It sounds very and so what is Padstow First of all. Well pesto. I was a little tiny town down in Cornwall you know off the coast of England there and it's a guess where the Celtic people came from and it is full of lot of romantic ideas and you know the piracy and the you snickering generally. I think the kind of people that are down there and but in this this town comes into an incredible thing on a day morning when that what they call the old hoss comes out of the pub the Golden Lion pub and dances through the streets kind of dances to a tune to a song it's only sung by those people. On May Day and the night before it starts in the pub before midnight and they sing this tune and the horse dances wildly through the streets. There are little small streets of this old town and the crowd follows the horse singing and dancing and the horse every once in a while collapses in the street and

falls down and dies in a quiet kind of way everyone stands around the course leaps up again. And it's this rise and fall that the resurrection of the bringing back of the new life the new worst the crops and all the rest. It's not a kind of a club does the house look. It's a large car with black oil cause it's not like an ordinary hobby horse. The man's figure shoulders are not seen as all under this Lars I'd say it's about circular and something about Hillary's eight feet around the run like a drone and actually yeah and then they hit the thing I was interested in watching some films of African dancing at the National Gallery in Washington. I could see in this that this same kind of figures same kind of face is very much like some of the dancing I see you know in Africa. Amazing yes the way this place is drawn there are often as the horse and unicorn also appear in some of these ancient traditions these rites of spring particularly given how do you the hobby horse is probably even older than the unicorn I love the Unocal has always been this magic figure but

it's the same sort of thing I think of the Unicorn being in those tapestries and so on far back in time but the hobby horse is probably even older with some sort of a horse like figure which is a fertility figure in many horses a fertility doctor to rethink a life giving kind of figure and they think of it that way in the horse ranch or in pasture they have girls that get caught up under the skirts of the horse. That's part of the ritual but I suppose that means I have been a tar smudges. Yeah. Yeah I guess that's a good sign. That's not that particular year dear it is not in Europe it's been going on for some time. Oh yes. How many other medical creatures are there involved in spring right. Well we have in our spring rolls we have the fool with the clown was a magic miracle man not a not just an ordinary car of the circus. Great we have the green man that's very important Jack of the green. That's a figure that he's covered wall with Green was a mixture of there these He's a hooded figure so sometimes they get mixed up with this. Robin Hood figure too it's a Robin Hood sort of thing

that is it's all covered with green vegetation god really. So we sing about that one of one of them is do we have there are tears or the teaser is very important with the whole the hobby horse with the big big Padstow horse he goes along with him and brings him back to life and so on. He says guard and then there are many characters to come into the things like the pay saving song which we're going to do which is a ritual kind of making sense taking Yeah it's a song. The pacing play the pace Eggers are people for this time of year for him. You Easter time you main task. I'm not that kind of pacing and they go out and beg for East they beg for eggs and these eggs are given by people in the village to them as a knife they die and sometimes not. They have a song they sing they have a play they do which is very much like our memories play it's a kind of members play. We're not going to do it here in this particular revels but they do have plays and songs and we'll be doing one of the great perceptional songs one of their baking songs like A Christmas wassail or so you know that sort of thing.

How do you decide on how much a Christian celebration to put into your programming and how much. Pagans I don't I don't really think about it that way I don't actually I just let it just let it all come let it flower that really come and most of it is not really I can see there are certain Christian things that do enter into it but not very much really not very much less here than even in the Christmas time Christmas time again it isn't a Christmas celebration as much as a winter solstice. But so much of this then relates to growth of the rebirth of life and this is the case with John Barleycorn Is that right. Yes John Barleycorn of course is one of the great ballads which personifies the vegetation God sort of personification of malt liquor and you know it's the idea of planting this sort of cutting him down and plowing him in and thinking that he's dead then of course he grows up and he he grows a beard and he gets higher and higher and finally they cut him down and they crush him and they you know maybe make malt liquor from him and this is what the chorus eventually sings about this great.

Malt Liquor that comes down to the pub so that by the Ballad of John Barleycorn a song a lot of the parts of it were going to use one of the one of the genius of the song is a ballad with the puppets in the backseat of the day and I was referring to the download they didn't follow the download you got. To or close close to the end. Oh no.

I won't write a song. Oh oh oh oh oh oh. Really one of the things that you think about when you think of spring celebrations is the is the Maypole. I've often wondered where that concept of spring frolicking comes from in relation to the Maypole. What's the background of that.

Well I'm a part of course is a is a sort of a general center of everything it's a fairly fake symbol of course it's used it's used in it is that real. Oh Maypole is not is not sort of the decked with these ribbons he would dash around with ribbons that's a kind of Victorian thing that came in three Maple is a great structure goes straight on up in Padstow they use or they use a mast which is 80 feet tall and they put this great enormous tell you know mass way up in the air and they use that as their May pool to the children of course dancing right here we go around the Mowbray bushes which precisely lets the maples of course it is the same thing and and the Christmas tree is a very recent very recent thing in our history of traditions very very recent actually. But it's always been a kind of a worship of a tree because the Christmas tree the great thing about the Christmas tree it is evergreen and that's very important to tell a mom but the Maple has always been there it's been a marvelous thing that people could dance around make rain dances and circles and so on. It's important that way.

That's how the dancing is very much a part of spring celebration and you're having Morris dancing having Country dancing sword dancing. Yes we are. Rapper sword which is what is the yeah it's also from a town in north of England these are coal mining towns and they have a short flexible piece of steel about 2 2 feet long but they have long with a handle on each side and it's really not clear what these tools were used for either for getting the coal out of the mines or perhaps for grooming horses were actually tool. Yes. And involves five people five men who join hands each one grabs the other end of the sword and they form a ring and then they cross into various patterns and they can make stars but they don't jump over the swords they don't use them on the they do so or know that this is not like a Scottish sword as the one man leaving all but they do jump over their swords and all and some of them I say actually to them and they do even so backward somersault sometimes all kinds of things for

holding onto these things gets a very energetic dance and it has a very has a step almost like a clogging step that is done with and it's done to a really fast you know. Is that what a calling step is addictive you know it's very fast growing heavy step. Misstep like that you know in the in the Christmas rivals it was a sword dance night members play that was a different with a long sword dance and it was quite different with the did lies into believing this was a different crimes England also different darling. And but these things are very true that sawdust was fog. Yeah but.

The bad. News. How do you find people to do such a lot of things.

That are clear to you that require so much oh well that's a hell of a lot people here I mean I was cause that's when remembering this gal that you you interviewed here in the station there and she's the one that taught many of us these things from years and years ago and oh she taught us these dances and many of us have done them. And now here's a group in Cambridge to get together do them just for the fun of it. Doctors lawyers everybody It all comes together and it's miles and miles exercise you know. Yes you've been doing some tear here. Very very enjoyable. Rapper sort of. Yeah so how about my eyes dancing now that the sticks are used in morris dancing is that right. Depending on the dance there. Stick dancers and and handkerchief dancers and stick dancers were. Primarily used to pound on the ground to make sure that the Earth didn't forget to wake up. Well that's rustics for years you know I love that make a lot of noise and to awaken the earth. How about I get just what puts the symbol with us. Why would I see the haggis and I see Morris dancers dancing and hanging just when I dassent myself try to

ask myself there are there an extension really of your body of your limbs or some obvious extension of your limbs and also if you see a bunch of these have just been use a certain quality of light and whiteness and fire rays you learn to think yes they do that sort of harsh and I think of this so it is like going mentation really of the deaths but it's they've been used a lot. We're going to use some branches and so on for the basses instead of instead of moving I could just put the marshmallow blues handkerchiefs and so on of course the Maurice is really the dance for the spring time it's always done this time of year this is the main time it's not really done a Christmas very much. But this is a time when the marsh really comes out and they do dance this particular week of the rebels when they start to do it in England. Is there any symbol involved in the Bells that the Morris dancers wear. I think that's just again and I called my week one of the sound more noise and you know the Saudis fascinate me now that we've been very soon that I get that the Indians of course have their dancing with a it get their sound out of the tortoise shell and they do the seeds they put in there and they attach them the same way are Morris Men do around their legs and they dance they get this sound

as they dance the sound the sticks to clapping us with and of course the sounds you get even in the oriental and whole aspect of fireworks and so on sound this is an important aspect of this jigsaw is just a deal annoying on is a good thing. It's the sort of tell you that this is also done with sticks. Yes and of course the Basque right Basque do the Basque dance a lot with sticks a lot of people do it. And then some as you say sometimes they put them on the ground and so with them they do the same thing on they do the same thing in Scotland. In other parts of the world I've seen some of the African dancing that also the use of sticks and the noise. But what does that where does the term Lara's come from what does it relate to. Well a lot of theories about that. Some people think it's. More Roscoe more Morrish because there are certain parts of being on this one team in England that dances and they they use actually coconuts believe it or not on their legs and they have always disguised themselves

by blackening their faces so they'd look something if you look like more's the sinking of the Moors of course the Basque bassy is very close to the morris dancing. So that is part of the part of one of the reasons but I don't think I think it really is just a man's ritual without a name like that put on it and I don't think it's I don't think it really has anything to do with the actual Morris dancing in the it was a strange thing that was done. A strange thing that came you know people did and I think they thought of a lot of the terms in those terms and they and they like the people should be disguised I mean they don't the team itself is is a divorced sort of from the general life of the village. And there's a part of the village to the same time. You mentioned African music a couple of times in relation to what I assumed was a strictly Western celebration. But how does African music feed into what spring's celebration is all about. Well they they must they must I wish we I we we should talk to a user crowd about this too or the broken day because there certainly are celebrations there for these times the

year and the Africans of course one of the same thing about the African culture is they celebrate with music and with dance. Everything we just sort of occasionally we have a little birthday song people sing and few things from the wedding ceremonies but but they do it for everything so it's a part of everything else or I'm sure it's a part of all planting and all growth and all the rest. So it's very much a part of that life. The connections that we have we see with our with our things are very fast and you know there are certain things that seem to be very much connect with what we see in Africa at the same. Time so. All mad. At something like this Kenya's cultural Weatherby there and the scenes from one another to just a general thing. Yes I urge

you. To. Get with you. Thanks. And the Israelis used sticks and mentioned earlier drums I suppose they have yes they have lots of drums and different instruments and things are a jury else and bells that they hit and so on. We're going to be using some of these in this particular revels this year for the talk of accustoming when the African group have what they they wear their own beautiful costumes they have and then I think Rain Miller our costume designer has worked with the director of this group would love this particularly when the rebels who is brewing and there'll be other people in

the performance who are not actually members of book and day and they will be dressed in in costumes that she is she feels fits in with what the African costumes are for the Africans I'm afraid have I'm not glad to see other own costumes we can't we can't improve on those you know how long does it take to research. When you think of the what time span are you covering really and in the celebration of the spring revels you know how far how far about Darfur are back you know where does it go back to certainly primitive times I mean very definitely primitive times. So you pre-Christian times and so in costuming really gusting investments out of life. We were not trying to we're not trying to really keep our customs in this particular performance to any particular period I mean you know it won't be modern necessarily but I'm a little African costumes seem to me are just of any time today or two hundred years ago. But our costumes will be will be colorful but I wouldn't say we're trying to go back to really. Early primitive times I think trying to fit it into a contemporary art but

not really contemporary occupancy numbers. One of the great scenes takes place in a pub in a different pub characters come in so we're not making a temporary pub but it might be a hundred years ago or 200 years ago but something one of the things you did with the Christmas revels which everyone certainly enjoyed was audience participation and I assume you're going to be doing the same thing with the spring revels. Is this all part of spring celebration however is this a historic part of spring celebration where everybody and just enjoy activity. Yes because I don't think these things really were done as performances for people they certainly were done serious and he said anything our sort of thing like that they were done in the street and people did produce get into them and they were not even across Africa this is obvious but even in our own tradition and the things were learned by people in the village they were passed on to the young people who watch them and it was always brought up and people always involved in it and that's what happens in Padstow people in the street. And those of us who visit dance to we're all caught up in it we all become a part of it. They have one observation I think and in doing it in Assiut are people are

comfortable in seeing it. And sometimes I think if they're confronted with it on the street corner they tend to hold back a little that and not really understand it and it seems like a marvelous way of getting people to understand these traditions and at the same time giving them an opportunity at intermission or at the end of the show to participate in some of the activities and certainly during the show too there are several songs which the audience can consume along with us and at intermission those be a chance to try some contra dancing with contra dancing contra dancing. It's a form of English Country dancing that came all over with the colonists and it has survived in New England up until this present life folk dancing. Yes it started long lines. It's sort of like a New England square dance and you follow directions from the color from the color right.

And I. Think about it's just undergone a real revival within about the last 10 years. I think there was there's one group up in Vermont in Tunbridge and these people are all of the 70s and 80s and they do contradict and they've been doing contra dance and they're one of the groups that have kept alive the tradition and other people have gone to this group and Dudley's certainly has gotten many of his ideas from them and continue to dance as they have them in Granger's and church basements and also throughout New England. What about the songs how do they come from mostly England. You know songs here is do they do most of these do. There is that one may day Carol which has a variant that's very close in Bedfordshire in Iran but the tune we're actually using is the tune that comes from Kentucky. Jean Ritchie who's going to be here and also in town this month singing it's for her family's songs and so we were using that one from Kentucky.

But most of the things I think are from abroad and yet you know they are part of our tradition so there are things that you know were at one time or another we had in the back. Proud of our own work they're not they're not just stuff that I just think I'm sort of important for me because they do belong to us but I think that is that is the one we have as a seeds of love that's being sung by the same stone and that that song will love has certain variants to be found here in the Ozarks and the Appalachian Mountains. You mean with Amazing Grace. Everyone sings together is a is certainly one song that's come from this country. That's just a song everyone can do it's always there and that song was quite popular in England no. Well that's right it has to be the bagpipes play and so on they are having backups in this band Ravel Well actually we're not let out of the finals but they really try to do things a little differently from what we had last year you know add new things but there are certain things that are very exciting we all will carry on have again. Thank you for being with us today. We've been celebrating the season with the spring revels who are

performing tomorrow and Tuesday at MIT's Kresge auditorium in Cambridge for pantechnicon. This is Eleanor stoat and Robert Shiller's of the gun is produced for WGBH radio by Greg Fitzgerald. You. Are an. I. I am. I. This is the eastern Public Radio Network.