The+great+northern+tunebook+william+vickers+collection+of+dance+tunes+ad1770+[repack] Free

What Is It?

This is a modern scholarly edition of one of the most important English manuscript tune books from the 18th century. William Vickers, a gentleman from Newcastle upon Tyne (or possibly Wylam, Northumberland), compiled this manuscript around 1770. It contains over 500 dance tunes, making it the largest known English country dance manuscript from its period.

5.1 Online Archives

Digitized versions of the manuscript are available for free through various academic and folk music archives. Key repositories include:

• The Village Music Project: A major digital archive dedicated to transcribing and preserving traditional music manuscripts. They hold a complete transcription of the Vickers manuscript.
• The Farne Archive (Folk Archive Resource North East): This is the primary digital repository for Northumbrian music. High-resolution scans of the original manuscript pages are often hosted here.
• IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library: While primarily for classical music, public domain folk collections are sometimes indexed here.

1. Overview

Title: The Great Northern Tunebook (also known as the William Vickers Manuscript)
Date: Approximately 1770
Compiler: William Vickers (likely a land surveyor or musician from North East England)
Nature: A handwritten manuscript of dance tunes from the 18th century
Modern Edition: The Great Northern Tunebook – published by the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society, edited by Dr. Matt Seattle
Free Access: The PDF edition is legally available for free download under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC-ND) What Is It

2. Provenance and Authorship

Abstract

The Great Northern Tunebook refers to a significant manuscript compiled by William Vickers around 1770 in North-East England. Containing over 300 dance tunes, it stands as one of the largest and most important sources of 18th-century English, Scottish, and border country folk dance music. This paper examines the manuscript’s historical context, musical content, and its modern availability as a free resource. It argues that Vickers’ collection provides an invaluable window into the vernacular instrumental repertoire of Georgian Britain and offers a rich, accessible corpus for contemporary musicians and scholars.

3. The FARNE Archive (Folk Archive Resource North East)

Though the original FARNE website is now static, the archived content remains accessible. Search for "Vickers" to find annotated lists of the tune titles, which serve as a companion guide to the manuscript. The Village Music Project: A major digital archive

✅ 1. Internet Archive (archive.org)

Search exactly:
"Great Northern Tune Book" Vickers
You will often find a borrowed or downloadable PDF of the 2008 edition (public domain in some jurisdictions, or uploaded by contributors with permission).

Direct link example pattern (note: links change; search fresh):
archive.org/details/greatnortherntun0000vick Tune types : Country dances

Key Content & Musical Features

• Tune types: Country dances, jigs, reels, hornpipes, marches, and a few song airs.
• Instruments intended: Primarily violin (fiddle), but also suitable for flute, pipes, or keyboard.
• Regional character: Strong Northumbrian and Border Scottish influences, though it includes tunes popular across England.
• Notable inclusions – Early versions of:
  • The Keel Row
  • Buffalo Gals (under an earlier name)
  • Lads of Alnwick
  • Many tunes that appear in later collections like the Northumbrian Pipers’ Tune Book.

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