Cat No. JM31877
Price £30.00
Composer: Roger Payne
Category: LIGHT CONCERT MUSIC

Dedicated to The COPTHORNE SILVER BAND on its 70th. Anniversary.

Four Tableaux played without a break;
Prologue;
Pas de Deux;
Waltz Grotesque;
Burlesque.

Synopsis
This piece was inspired by a series of prints about an English 18th Century street fair. From these developed a piece combining the more striking scenes into four sections to be played without a break. The title derived from the form of the movements and the bustle and dance in the original prints, the last of these being the entire assembled company revelling in a Bacchanalia.

1st Tableaux: Prologue
The music is intended to set the scene outside a tavern, tables are being assembled in the square to form a stage. There is much activity and a constant procession carrying tables into the street (5th after C etc.). The work however is not so important that the Landlord’s coquettish daughter cannot be admired. (Broader after D). However our host, with fingers clicking, ushers her inside (4 before E) and the work re-commences leading to the Pas de deux.

2nd Tableaux: Pas de deux
A couple dressed in classical costume dance a ballet sequence from a Greek tragedy. The sombre tempo changes with the girl’s solo variation (a little faster) to which her lover responds. (Tempo 2 after J). They dance slowly together (K) but the fates intervene and appear (2 before L). After an ecstatic climax the lovers sink to the ground in eternal unity.

3rd Tableaux: Waltz Grotesque
The next entertainment is to be a Spanish troupe but a dancing bear on a chain gatecrashes (3rd bar) to the delight of the more intoxicated onlookers (5th after M). The bear is pulled off and the Spaniards try to begin (N) only to be interrupted by the bear—now wearing a tricorn hat (13th of N). Order is again established and the full troupe perform but the bear lumbers on again (13th of N) and again (9th of 0).
A Tarentella-like dance continues with the bear in the background. The troupe eventually gives up and with tugs on his chain the bear is taken away, at first reluctantly (8th bar of Q) then easily (R). The antics on the stage, aided by the flowing ale, prove too much for the onlookers who rush the stage and do their own dance (4 before Burlesco).

4th Tableaux: Burlesco
At first the old ladies do a seventeenth century “ Knees up Mother Brown,” revealing barters which had not been seen for 50 years (8th before 5) and all join in (5). Young men drunkenly get up (5/8) and begin to dance (7 before T). From a group of soldiers, a bugler blares a wrong note call (4 before T) and the rest join the young men’s dance (T).
The soldiers smartly stamp their polished boots on the stage (8th of T), and another attempt by the bugler brings a general dance-cum-melee (8 before U). Each group dances a figure (U in 2 barphrases) and the scene culminates in a middle- aged hag twirling round and round (3/8 before V) to be finally carried off by the young men (V). A tipsy local dignitary, pompously dressed with cane, dances, but cannot keep his feet (5/8 after V etc.) and is mimicked by the children (6 before W) all in good humour.
After a quick breather (G.P.) everyone starts again, the action ends as everyone crashes down in one exhausted heap.