manx celtic music and dance

MANX MUSIC QUESTIONNAIRES - RESULTS! by Cinzia Yates

05 Sep 2011

Well, it has taken a while to get to them, but I have finally tabulated and analysed the results of the questionnaire, with some surprising (and less surprising) results.

As I’m sure lots of you will have something to say about the results, I have opened the survey again online, so anyone who wants to have their say and missed it last time can join in. I’ve left it as it is, but please feel free to fill in as little or as much as you feel you can, and if you don’t know names/spellings then descriptions or phonetics is fine. I should be able to figure them out. It can be songs or tunes, but remember the emphasis is on what YOU think, not what is right or what anyone else might think. If YOU think it is Manx, then say so, if YOU think it is an awful tune, then please feel free!

The survey can be found here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TW82FPR

Most Played Manx Tunes: Out of 32 responses, 31 responded to this question.

1. Three Little Boats (20 votes)

2. Car y Phoosee (16 Votes)

3. Gyn Ennym (15 Votes)

4. Car Juan Nan / Flitter Dance (14 Votes each)

Most Manx Manx Tunes: This question seemed to cause some problems, with only 28 out of 32 responses.

A fair few responses included comments along the lines of; ‘it depends what you mean by Manx.’ But really, I

want to you know what YOU mean by Manx.

1. Kirree fo Niaghtey (15 Votes)

2. Mylcharaine (13 Votes

3. Eunyssagh Vona / Three Little Boats (10 Votes each)

4. Car y Phoosee / Hop tu Naa (9 Votes each)

Your Favourite/Best Manx Tunes: 30 out of the 32 responses for this one. One might assume that the favourites and the most played would correspond, but that isn’t always the case…

1. Three Little Boats (15 Votes)

2. Car y Phoosee (13 Votes)

3. Cum yn Chen Oanrey Cheh / Flitter Dance (9 Votes each)

4. Kirree fo Niaghtey / Mylecharaine (8 Votes each)

Your Least Favourite/Worst Manx Tunes: I only got 26 responses for this, and very few gave ten tune names. I think we can assume that this is because Manx music is generally Yindyssagh!

1. Mheillea (16 Votes)

2. Cur Shaghey yn Geurey (12 Votes)

3. Car ny Rankee / Chyndaa yn Bwoailley / Hop tu Naa (8 Votes each)

The Must Learn Manx Tunes: I got 29 responses for this, and the feeling it was a mixture of rationales. Some wet with the ones that would be most useful some with the simplest or easiest to learn, and some with the best for teaching music generally. But either way, these are the results:

1. Flitter Dance (17 Votes)

2. Three Little Boats (16 Votes)

3. Car Juan Nan (15 Votes)

4. Eunyssagh Vona (13 Votes)

5. Car ny Ferrishyn / Car y Phoosee (11 Votes each)

Additional Notes:

I’ll be doing all sorts of in depth analysis in the context of the thesis, but as I know so many of you have asked, I thought I’d publish the basic results in a top five sort of way. I’ve chosen to go with the top five as beyond that there gets to be a bit of an even spread and no real order. I had 32 responses that could be used, but I really hadn’t realised how tricky the questionnaire was. It hadn’t occurred to me that so few people use the names of the tunes; years of rif ing through the red and yellow books humming and looking for tune names made me think I was the only one! But lots of the answers came as descriptions of the dance or tune and I was able to work them out. Also, ten tunes is actually quite a few once you start trying to think about it. I tried and my mind immediately went blank! I also hadn’t thought of the diff erence between tunes and songs. By tunes I had meant anything that we would play or sing really, but that did cause some confusion. As a general rule in my research, and really exemplified in this questionnaire, the names of Manx tunes is a bit of a problem. There are various tunes that have different forms or versions and the difference isn’t always clear. I had a few Drogh Vraanes without anything to distinguish them and there are a few versions of Jemmy as Nancy. Trickiest was Mylecharaine. Only when I started trying to tabulate the results did I realise that there is the song, in two versions, and the march and I wasn’t always sure which was which. As a result, I have just put them all together as they share a certain root. I don’t necessarily adhere to the tune family theory, but these are definitely versions of the same basic tune. With regard to names, I have, usually on a relatively arbitrary basis, chosen one of the variant spellings to keep things easier.

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