The Yorkshire folksong, ‘On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at’, or ‘On Ilkley Moor Without a Hat’ is considered the folksong of Yorkshire and is sung (and titled) in the Yorkshire dialect. The melody used for it comes from the hymnal, namely, the hymn tune ‘Cranbrook’, composed by Thomas Clark in 1805. According to legend, an outing by the Halifax Church Choir to Ilkley Heath around 1855 resulted in the creation of the ‘folksong’.
Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire (photo by David Smith)
In the story, a lover is taken to task by his beloved for being out on Ilkley Moor without a hat. This will result in ‘his death from exposure. This will in turn result in his burial, the eating of his corpse by worms, the eating of the worms by ducks and finally the eating of the ducks by the singers’.
The lyrics were first published in 1915, and historians and linguists can place the words as unique to the Halifax area and having been created sometime in the 19th century, before 1877.
Unknown Composer: On ilkley moor baht’at (arr. G. Langford for wind ensemble) (John Foster Black Dyke Mills Band, Ensemble; Peter Parkes, cond.)
Jump forward now to 1938 and the British composer Eric Fenby (1906–1997).
Sir James Gunn: Eric Fenby, 1932 (London: National Portrait Gallery)
In 1928, hearing of the problems that the composer Frederick Delius (1862–1934) was having since he’d gone blind and was paralysed due to illness, he became Delius’s amanuensis, i.e., someone who writes down what another dictates. For six years, Fenby wrote down Delius’ new music from dictation and helped him revise earlier work.
Delius and Fenby
He served as Delius’ amanuensis for nearly six years, until Delius’ death. Following Delius’ death, Fenby returned to England in a state of exhaustion, both from the notation work and from the difficulty in dealing with Delius.
One evening, a friend who owned a local hotel came over to see Fenby and couldn’t stop whistling ‘On Ilkla Moor Baht ’at’. Fenby remarked that it would have been the perfect melody for Rossini to use for some of his variation parodies. The friend went away, and the next Fenby knew, his new work Rossini on Ilka Moor was announced – and he hadn’t written it yet!
His week was ruined: he found out about his ‘new work’ on Wednesday morning, immediately sat down and wrote the work, and then copied the parts for the orchestra (there being no one else around to do it). He finished at 3 am on Sunday, conducted the rehearsal at 10 am, and then conducted the performance in the evening. He was pleased with the outcome but unhappy that he’d missed the weekend’s cricket that he had planned to see!
As you listen to the Fenby’s parody, you’ll hear echoes of other Rossini works, such as the Overture to the Barber of Seville. The gradual acceleration to the end is a perfect Rossini touch!
Eric Fenby: Rossini on Ilkla Moor, Overture (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra; Rumon Gamba, cond.)
The humour in the piece is immediately apparent, and the piece was an immediate success.
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