The Cambo march

“Now, the other little march, they call it Cambo March. Now Cambo’s about 12 mile out of Morpath in Northumberland. This march was written, composed by Windham. He was a teacher, a music teacher, and me father used to play it when they had a band at Cambo at that time.”

~ Ned Pearson (78 when recorded by Peter Kennedy) was a footman to dukes & ambassadors and gamekeeper to Sir Charles Trevelyan, Cambo, near Morpeth… (born 1876 & died 1964)

Ned Pearson only played four parts for this march and did not repeat the parts, so once through. I was expecting this to be a 6-parter but could not chase up two other parts for it, however, in Andrew Kuntz’s “The Fiddler’s Companion” it does list it as having 6 parts… Here is an extract from that resource:

The Cambo March: “England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard. AABBCCDDEEFF. Composed by musician, teacher, composer, dancing master and fiddler Robert Whinham (1814-1893), originally from Morpeth. ~ “

If anyone does have the other two parts it would be good to add another transcription, here out of consideration for the composer’s original intent, and for comparison with this take from the fiddling of Ned Pearson…

Damn, slipped, sorry ~ the influences of strong cider… 😏

http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/CAIT_CAMER.htm

There is no transcript of the tune here, just further information…

Graham Dixon
Wallace Music, 1995
A collection of Whinham tunes with notes and a biography…

It’s on my Christmas list along with his “The Lads Like Beer: The Fiddle Music of James Hill” ~ but sadly I think these may now be out of print… 🙁

I have just had this tune played for me over the phone. I can now confirm that these a the first four parts of his composition and the repeats are in it, so AABBCCDD… A 5th and 6th part and a Coda were also played for me, but I actually prefer this tune with just the four parts. However, when I get those notes in the post, when they arrive, I will out of courtesy for free choice and consideration for the composer, add some semblance of them here. I was told that the ‘Coda’ was how the piper Billy Pigg took the tune and that what was being played for me over the phone was a transcription of his piping…

When I’ve the EEFF & Coda I’ll be back, though the latter is for the individual musician to make his own closing statement, so I won’t be adding Pigg’s Coda (‘tail’)…

|: d>d |
d4 g2 d>d | e4 g2 d>d | a4 a>^ga>b | a6 dd/d/ |
d4 gG (3Bcd | e4 a3 a | g2 g2 f>gaf | g6 :|
|: d2 |
d>d dd/d/ dBdg | d>B d/e/f/g/ d3 d | adbd adbg | a/b/a/g/ f>e d/e/d/c/ B>c |
dd/d/ dd/d/ dB (3deg | dBdg d2 (3Bcd | ad/d/ dc/d/ bd/d/ dc/d/ | g2 g/a/g/f/ g2 :|

I got an early Christmas gift… 🙂
Sadly, “The Lads Like Beer” is no longer available in print… 🙁

Key signature: G Major
Submitted on February 12th 2007 by nicholas.
https://thesession.org/tunes/6800