Shrove Duos, for two treble instruments

Composition

These are duos for any two melody instruments. A Welsh folksong, 'The Pancake Song', recorded in Aberdaron, Caernarvonshire is the inspiration for the first three parts which were premiered together first. I made a detailed transcription of a performance of this song by ‘Williams the Postman’ (b.1899) collected in 1964. At first listen it's a funny little jaunt, a person asking for ingredients for a pancake. But it doesn't take much to sense the humour as darkly comic and illuminating the poverty of the time and place. This resonants with me with the present times of coronavirus. The text is as follows:

Woman of the house and good family,
Please may I have a pancake?
Mother is too poor to buy flour
And Father too lazy to work.
Please may I have a pancake?
My mouth is dry for want of a pancake.
If there is no butter in the house
Put a large spoonful of treacle,
And if there is no treacle in the house
Give a terribly large pancake.
Terribly, terribly.

Authors: Lewis, L

• Publication date: 2021-02-17
• Language: English