蜜芽传媒

Matthew Bannister visits Nostell Priory, a grand Palladian house just outside Wakefield, which was the home of Louisa Winn from about 1819. Louisa was an accomplished musician and transcriber who collected some of her favourite tunes in a book - including piano arrangements of Rossini operas and an intriguing French Canadian song that hints at global connections.

In the grand saloon, Matthew meets Simon McCormack the house鈥檚 curator who shows him Louisa Winn鈥檚 piano and allows him to pluck a harp string. Andrew Frampton, a pianist and researcher at Newcastle University takes Matthew to the West Yorkshire Archive Service in Wakefield. to see Louisa鈥檚 music book and some of her sketches of Mont Blanc. Andrew plays some of her music, recorded especially at SJE Arts, and we hear from Nancy Kerr about her fascination with the song Danse Canadienne which is performed by the Melrose Quartet: Nancy Kerr, James Fagan, and Jess and Richard Arrowsmith.

Matthew Bannister is the host of Folk on Foot, a podcast which explores folk music and landscape in the UK, and has often wondered about where 鈥渇olk music鈥� comes from. When he heard about Nancy Kerr鈥檚 involvement in a new project, Music Heritage, Place he wanted to know more.

Royal Holloway and Newcastle University have been sending out researchers, the 鈥渟ong detectorists鈥�, to sift through the archives held in English County Record Offices looking for music. They鈥檝e returned with musical gems that Nancy Kerr has arranged and the discoveries are offering new insights into the way music was shared and enjoyed in the past outside of the places historians and musicologists have traditionally expected to find it

Presenter: Matthew Bannister
Producer: Natalie Steed
A Rhubarb Rhubarb Production for 蜜芽传媒 Radio 3