Cav Party was commissioned by The Band of the Household Cavalry in 2020. The idea was to showcase the various musical elements of the band in a party piece that gets more boisterous as it goes on. It utilises three Eighteenth century melodies associated with the band, starting off with a folkish setting of Handel's March from Scipio for harp, violin, flute and cor anglais (all fully cued on regular wind band instruments) and then into Keel Row where the accordion is featured before the whole band enters, and finally to Money Musk. Both Keel Row and Money Musk are played as Trot Marches by the band.
The regimental slow march Scipio comes from Handel's opera of 1725 The Mercy of Scipio, which was based on the life of the Roman General Scipio Africanus.
Keel Row is a traditional folk song evoking the life and work of the keelmen of Newcastle upon Tyne. It was first published in 1770, although it could be considerably older. The opening lines of the song describe Sandgate, the part of the quayside overlooking the River Tyne to the east of the city centre where the keelmen lived.
Money Musk, also known as Monymusk or Monnymusk was originally a pipe tune composed by Scottish fiddler Daniel (sometimes Donald) Dow (1732 - 1783) in 1776. It takes its name from a baronial estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland called Monymusk House. The tune first appeared in Dow's Thirty Seven New Reels, c. 1780 under the title Sir Archibald Grant of Monemusk's Reel.
Duration: 3.45
