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Name Of This Tune?


Lemon

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I've this tune in my mind - guess I've picked it up once. It begins as in the attached jpg or attached wav. Who knows the title, and how it goes on?

Thanks in advance!

 

it is an unfamiliar key for the tune (to me!) but it could be the start of O'Carolan's Sheebeg & Shemor. I would have to search for the dots for the whole tune to be sure.

 

- John Wild

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Looks to me kind of like the opening of "Maguire and Patterson," a waltz by Robbie Overson, recorded by button accordion player Sharon Shannon on her "Out the Gap" album. It starts like this:

 

 

K:D
zDF|A3 BA2|A2 G2 F2|E2 D2 E2|F3 A, DF|
A3 BA2|A2 G2 F2|E2 D2 E2|D3 |

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It sounds like a tune that I've heard with these words:

 

Have you heard the story of Gentleman Jim

Somebody threw a tomato at him

Now tomatoes are soft and come in a skin

But this here tomato it came in a tin

 

Too-ra loo, too-ra lai ....(can't remember the rest)

 

:D

 

It was set to a tune of a familiar song (I think), but I can't remember the words of that one.

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Thank you all for your replies. I can add this:

 

1. I did a search at www.musipedia.org, using the Parsons code, without result.

2. I found the score of Maguire and Paterson here

It's not the song I have in mind, alas.

3. I tried to find samples of the other named tunes on the Web, without result (yet). So I cannot say whether one of these is indeed the tune I must have heard before.

4. I wrote the tune down in the key of F because I play it in the key of F on my EC. But of course it can be played in another key.

5. I suspect that I've heard before at least the line of the first four bars. However, it's possible that I made up the rest of the tune, as I play it, myself. Hereby the whole tune as I play it.post-757-1119264189_thumb.jpg

 

Greetings to you all!

 

[edited]

Edited by Lemon
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The first bit you posted is the same as a tune called either Arthur Daley's or the Swedish Jig except you've written it in F not D, and with a Bb (but that not is pretty much a grace note) instead of a natural.

 

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/417

 

Ratface, you're right, the beginnings are quite similar. Thanks for the link. Still, I don't think this was my inspiration. I don't think I've heard this tune before, and I don't have it on CD or in a book. I'll put it in my repertoire now, of course.

L

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You've written it in 3/4 time, so I suspect you're playing it more like a waltz than a jig. In Waltz time, it reminds me of a song called "The Rivers of Texas" or "Down by the Brazos." It was recorded in the 50s by The Weavers and in the 70s by Bill Staines. Your ditty is very similar to the last line of the verse. Here's a verse (from distant memory, and I've set it in F for consistency):

post-65-1119281841_thumb.jpg

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You've written it in 3/4 time, so I suspect you're playing it more like a waltz than a jig. In Waltz time, it reminds me of a song called "The Rivers of Texas" or "Down by the Brazos." It was recorded in the 50s by The Weavers and in the 70s by Bill Staines. Your ditty is very similar to the last line of the verse. Here's a verse (from distant memory, and I've set it in F for consistency):

Thanks David. Yes, I play it like a slow waltz. And you're right, the endings are quite similar.

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quote=John Wild,Jun 19 2005, 10:11 PM]

[it is an unfamiliar key for the tune (to me!) but it could be the start of O'Carolan's Sheebeg & Shemor.

Having checked the full score, I think my guess was wrong though there is some similarity. Here is a copy of the tune I guessed for anyone interested in comparing further.

 

- John Wild

[

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quote=John Wild,Jun 19 2005, 10:11 PM]

[it is an unfamiliar key for the tune (to me!) but it could be the start of O'Carolan's Sheebeg & Shemor.

Having checked the full score, I think my guess was wrong though there is some similarity. Here is a copy of the tune I guessed for anyone interested in comparing further.

 

- John Wild

[

 

Well, thanks anyway for trying ...

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Thanks David. Yes, I play it like a slow waltz. And you're right, the endings are quite similar.
I take it, then, that we have not hit upon the correct answer yet.

 

The only other tune I can think of that begins like that (and it's not as close a match as my previous suggestion) is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" from Cabaret. Again, here's the first 4 measures in F:

post-65-1119319461_thumb.jpg

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I've this tune in my mind - guess I've picked it up once. It begins as in the attached jpg or attached wav. Who knows the title, and how it goes on?

My two cents:

 

Though Lemon said "tune", to me the tune fragment seemed part of a song. In fact, it seemed part of several songs I've heard in the past, though I think more often as a final phrase than a beginning one. But I haven't been able to remember any associated words or -- in most cases -- a complete tune. I did get one entire tune that started with that phrase going through my head, but the remainder isn't at all what Lemon subsequently posted.

 

It does start like "Arthur Darley's" (not Daley's). It does not start like "Sidhe Bheag Sidhe Mhor" (so many spellings, so little time), since SBSM starts on the tonic and Lemon's tune starts on the third, giving a very different sound.

 

I'm quite convinced that if I spent a week or two going through my many song books -- something I don't have time for right now -- I would find several songs which start with that phrase, more that end with it, and a few that do both. (A common tune structure for songs is ABBA.) But the full tune, as Lemon gave it, was not familiar.

 

I'm gonna learn it, though. :)

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Could it possibly be "TheDark Isle" ?

Thanks, but ...

The Dark Isle was not the tune that inspired me. It was not known to me before (shame on me, but its only recently that I entered the folk song-world).

 

The reason for starting this thread was: finding out if the tune in my mind is an existing tune ... if not, may I call myself a composer? If so, who is writing the words for the Unknown Lemon song? :P

 

(Could start with: There's a tune in my head ... And it won't go away ...)

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Looks like I'm a Johnny-come-lately to this thread. The first 4-bar snippet of tune you describe is identical to a waltz I know of which that part is the SECOND 4 bars of the tune, (the first 4 bars are similar), and the second part starts out on the high F like you have in your 6th bar.... The rest of your version sounds nothing like the tune I have in mind.

 

Of course I can't remember the name of the tune, but I can hear it very well in my head.... Fiddle is lead with some synth in there and a very pronounced bass (or low quitar?). Seems to me to be the type of thing and mix that Rod Miller (and various cohorts) do. But I've just checked all the albums I have of theirs without luck.... I'll check similar stuff later and can post and mp3 if I find it or the notes of the way I remember the tune if I can't find it. If the latter, maybe that would jog more people's memories to come up with the name and CD.

 

If that's the tune I think it is, the reason why you can't find it on the web is because a lot of Rod's stuff is produced by Great Meadow Music, a very small outfit that only publishes contradance stuff.

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