A Medley of Cornish Folk Songs

Our saxophone quartet plays at many and various local events, weddings, garden parties, church events and so on. We were often asked if we could play this local folk song or that local folk song so during lock down I bit the bullet and set about arranging a medley of the most popular local folk songs.

I did this by borrowing various piano music books and taking the arrangements from the piano scores. This wasn't always as straightforward as it might seem and I had to do quite a bit of original harmonizing along the way. I put the lyrics on the score and produced a song sheet for our audiences to sing along to. I originally included a modulation from one key signature to the next but eventually decided not to and instead just deleted the modulation and left a Tacit bar between songs. I might put the modulation back one day though.

This was a fun project and though it's probably only relevant to us here in Cornwall in the far South West of Great Britain, I though it might be of interest to some posted here. The title, by the way, is in the Cornish language and translates simply as Cornish Medley.