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PAUL SARTIN, THOMAS HAMILL, JON HALL, NATASHA HINGSTON (EDS) - The Last Post Song Book, Volume 1: 1914, Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square

PAUL SARTIN, THOMAS HAMILL, JON HALL, NATASHA HINGSTON (EDS) - The Last Post Song Book, Volume 1: 1914, Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square
Superact CIC ISBN: 9780956936417  

An interesting idea for this year: a musical remembrance of the start of the First World War 100 years ago.  This collection is edited (or to use their horrible trendy word, ‘curated’) in two parts.

The first part is a nice selection of songs and tunes popular in that year (rather than composed in that year) with quite a range of genres - from Handel's Dead March From Saul to The Colonel Bogey March.  These are well set out giving the tune, words and chord symbols, but no piano accompaniment.  The music is easily readable and illustrated by interesting facts and attractive photographs.  The words are a bit random - only one verse of Keep The Home Fires Burning, one of the five verses of British Grenadiers (why aren't the words put under the musical notation as with the others?) but all the verses for Long Way To Tipperary (except the wartime verse – “That's the wrong way to tickle Mary” - just as well I suppose!) but I'm surprised the editor hasn't noted that a version of  Scarlet And The Blue was also one of the best-known and most commonly used of IRA songs - it might cause a bit of interest for some teachers!  The second part of the book contains no less than nine versions of The Last Post - for various instruments (including bagpipes and mandolin) and in different keys - something the authors have found fulfils a need in schools.  Apart from the rather depressing thought that school music teachers are nowadays unable to write out a quite straightforward transposition for keen pupils to use, this will presumably be a boon to some.

There are no copyright indications (i.e. are you allowed to photocopy it?).  So, a strange mixture, probably not aimed at Living Tradition readers, but with some good educational material.

Paul Burgess


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This album was reviewed in Issue 105 of The Living Tradition magazine.