Cotswold morris Dancers generally prefer to dance to music from one or two musicians. Border, North West, and Molly dancers may have a whole band of musicians - or even a brass band.
Melodeons did not appear until the nineteenth century. but today, morris music is often played on a variety of "free-reed" instruments - accordion, melodeon and concertina.
The fiddle was the other popular instrument, and still is in the right hands. Underneath is a 'photo of Headington Quarry Morris Men - dancing Bean Setting to their fiddle player ....... in 189? When Cecil Sharpe came upon HQMM on Boxing Day 1899, their music was provided by William Kimber playing a concertina.
