Show of Hands bring their seasonal show, with Miranda Sykes and percussionist Cormac Byrne to the Electric Palace at Bridport. year’s series begins on Sunday 1st December at All Saints Church, Piddletrenthide. With their roots in the South Dorset Ridgeway and inspired by the rich sources of locally collected folk songs and West Gallery carols, the Ridgeway Singers and Band, led by musician, historian and storyteller Tim Laycock and musician and director Phil Humphries, have tuned their fiddles and voices to perform a joyous celebration of Christmas past and present, with two dates with Artsreach and concerts at Weymouth and Dorchester. Traditionally sung by village choirs in Eng-
lish country churches from the 18th century onwards, West Gallery music’s demise was brought about by the innovations of the organ and harmonium. The musicians who played the fiddle, the cello and the serpent might have been no more than a footnote in history, if it hadn’t been for this style of popular music being recorded by writers, notably Thomas Hardy. This was the traditional music that Hardy knew as a boy, which he evoked so beautifully in poetry and novels, including Under The Greenwood Tree. This seasonal programme will include
works from Puddletown and Bridport manuscripts, together with newly composed carols in the West Gallery tradition. Interspersed with sparkling instrumental pieces and midwinter stories, plus a few Ridgeway favourites. The Ridgeway Singers and Band will be at All Saints Church, Piddletrenthide, at 4pm on Sunday 1st December, and on Sunday 15th at 4pm at St Christopher’s Church, Winfrith (both with Artsreach), at Weymouth Library at 7pm on Wednesday 11th and at the Dorford Centre, Dorchester on Friday 20th at 7.30pm. GP-W
The Moscow Drug Club come to Chetnole in December
Tel. 01308 423031 The Marshwood Vale Magazine December 2019 97