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Suggestions For Future Tunes Of The Month


Jim Besser

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Some nice ideas coming along but some of these later suggestions are perhaps not the sort of pièces that can be 'knocked-out' in a month... I've been working on Joplin's "The Entertainer" for two and a half years... maybe it is just me being slow... or the fact that I was working from a Piano score.... and it is still not really ready.

 

I'd be up for Autumn Leaves with Matueswitch dots.

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How about Autumn Leaves. Written in Paris in 1945 by the French-Hungarian composer Joseph Kosma. Made famous when Johnny Mercer wrote the American lyrics and reintroduced the song in the States in 1947.

Nat King Cole's vocals are classic.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kP8jPa1wCg

Here is Piaf's version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2s2tPORlW4

Just saying....

 

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I like it. The problem is, can we get notation without violating copyright?

 

I googled "Autumn Leaves" and "ABC" and came up with this. Obviously not the Nat King Cole version!

 

But if I can find notation that's legally available for free, I'll add it to an upcoming poll.

I think this is a great suggestion, too. Would it be asking too much to see if folks could work out their own arrangements without a notational source? Or creating their own?

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X:1

T:Autumn Leaves

M:4/4

L:1/4

K:Em

DEF[|:"Am7"c4-|"D7"cDEF|"GM7"B2B2-|

"CM7"BCDE|"F#m7b5"A4-|[1 A"B7"B,^C^D|"Em"G4|

"N.C."zEFG:|][2 A"B7"FAG|"Em"E4-|E"N.C."z^DE||

"F#m7b5"FB,F2-|"B7b9"FFEF|"Em"G4-|G"N.C."GFG|

"Am7"A4-|"D7"AFdc|"GM7"B4-|B"N.C."z^AB||

"F#m7b5"ccAA|"B7b9"F3c|"Em7"B2"Eb7"B2-|"Dm7"B3"Db7" E|

"CM7"A3G|"B7b9"F2GB,|"Em"E4!fine!|"<("z"N.C."EF">)"G|]

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Rather than saying we want something that isn't a dance tune why don't we settle for tunes with a slower tempo? Here's one I was going to post in Something For The Weekend, a 9/8 mazurka (!) that is simply stunning. It's up for Tune of the Month over on melnet but many people here will probably miss that. So here is the very gifted Pascale Rubens playing a tune she wrote a few years ago, played here as a demo for a workshop, Le lac de St-Croix.

 

Originally in C, the dots here are offered in G too.
X:144
T:Le lac de St-Croix
C:Pascale Rubens
O:Belgium
B:Naragonia Tune Book, 2010
M:9/8
L:1/8
K:C
|:"Cmaj7"D2C3G3C|"Em7"D2B,3G3B,|"Dm7"D2Fc2B3A|"G7sus4"G3D6|
|"Cmaj7"D2C3G3C|"Em7"D2B,3G3B,|"Dm7"z3d2cB2c|"G7sus4"[G3B3][D6G6]:|
|"Dm7"F2Ae2d3c|"G9"B3B2cd3|"Cmaj7"z2E[c2e2]E[c2e2]E|"Am"c3B3A3|
|"Dm7"F2Ae2d3c|"G9"B3B2cd3|"Cmaj7"E2Gd2c3B|"Am"c3B3A3:|
W:©2008 Pascale Rubens. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
X:146
T:Le lac de St-Croix
C:Pascale Rubens
O:Belgium
B:Naragonia Tune Book, 2010
M:9/8
L:1/8
K:Gmaj
|:"Gmaj7"A2G3d3G|"Bm7"A2F3d3F|"Am7"A2cg2f3e|"D7sus4"d3A6|
|"Gmaj7"A2G3d3G|"Bm7"A2F3d3F|"Am7"z3a2gf2g|"D7sus4"[d3f3][A6d6]:|
|"Am7"c2eb2a3g|"D9"f3f2ga3|"Gmaj7"z2B[g2b2]B[g2b2]B|"Em"g3f3e3|
|"Am7"c2eb2a3g|"D9"f3f2ga3|"Gmaj7"B2da2g3f|"Em"g3f3e3:|
W:©2008 Pascale Rubens. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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There is a great version of "les feuilles mortes" (autumn leaves) by Harry Scurfield, on hic CD "patches in your gussets"

(by the way, an excellent disk with a nice a varied selection of tunes and songs)

 

The melody is simple, but playing it with all the 7th and 9th chords will surely be a challenge, especially for anglo players with "only" 30 buttons...

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Inspired by Randy's suggestion of "Autumn Leaves," two others occur to me (and I should add that I have never tried to play any of these—my suggestions or Randy's—on the concertina):

 

  • Gershwin's "Summertime"
  • Jobim's "Girl From Ipanema"
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Inspired by Randy's suggestion of "Autumn Leaves," two others occur to me (and I should add that I have never tried to play any of these—my suggestions or Randy's—on the concertina):

 

  • Gershwin's "Summertime"
  • Jobim's "Girl From Ipanema"

 

 

Randy is playing "Girl From..." at today's "Squeezers" event at the Washington Folk Festival. HE and I are playing "All of me," which turns out to be a great concertina tune. And he's doing a gorgeous rendition of "Stardust."

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If we are deviating from folk and dance music, may I suggest this Polish-Russian classic tango: "Ostatnia niedziela" by Mieczysław Fogg. The dots can be found online for free. This piece is very popular amongst polish accordion players. The melody isn't all that difficult, but the downside is that it requires fully chromatic instrument, so Elise and 20-button-Anglo players would be excluded. That includes me as well...

 

Here is one of original recordings from 1936: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-hg58QQmdc

 

And here is an absolutely crazy arrangement by Gideon Kremer himself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C071-M1e5Vk

 

But as Geoff pointed out, all those non-folk entries require substantially longer practice time and are not well suited for a monthly contest. So maybe it would be wise to come up with some sort of tune-of-the-quarter for advanced tunes and keep TOTM relatively simple. For all those players outside of UK and US it's often the only "place" where one can actually learn something directly from other players - there are almost no concertina players in central and eastern Europe..

 

BTW: if someone knows a nice tango that can be played without G#'s and D#'s and could share the dots I would appreciate that... :)

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I've played the girl from ipanema in my jazz piano years, and woud certainly not try it on the concertina !

Full of chromatisms, and wild modulations. A nightmare...

Maybe some good english or duet players could do something with it, but it is certainly not suited to anglo.

 

On the other hand, i've had a try with "besame mucho" (tango) and think something can be done with this one... (and for lucasz : no d# or g# ! If played in dminor. YOu will find plenty of scores on the net)

Edited by david fabre
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My two suggestions for non-dance tunes, off the top of my head, that would not be too difficult to play on the concertina, are, Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, originally written in the key of D but can be transposed, and Pachelbel's Cannon in D.

I myself am just working on the latter (in order to make it sound as appealing as other pieces of music played on that little instrument of ours), whereas the former had been one of the first tunes for me to to approach the EC with. It's really fun to play (be it in single line melody or with bits of added chords or bass notes). For TOTM we would have to limit it to a shortened version though, because the middle section has "chromatic" modulations which are not that simple...

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My two suggestions for non-dance tunes, off the top of my head, that would not be too difficult to play on the concertina, are, Bach's Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring, originally written in the key of D but can be transposed, and Pachelbel's Cannon in D.

I myself am just working on the latter (in order to make it sound as appealing as other pieces of music played on that little instrument of ours), whereas the former had been one of the first tunes for me to to approach the EC with. It's really fun to play (be it in single line melody or with bits of added chords or bass notes). For TOTM we would have to limit it to a shortened version though, because the middle section has "chromatic" modulations which are not that simple...

 

Err. I hope you are referring to the modulation in the Bach. The Pachelbel's safely in a key. Recollection says either 17 or 27 variations above that bass line though which would be a bit much for TOM. Frankly though I'd hope those two pieces, lovely as they are, might be avoided as just plain too overplayed. But then, maybe I'm just being grumpy....

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Err. I hope you are referring to the modulation in the Bach.

 

Of course I do! :D

 

And regarding the "overplaying", IMO it's a challenge in its own right to reveal the substance of such pieces.

 

I prize the Bach piece, albeit just acting as ostinato or countermelody in its original context, pretty highly. Besides playing this piece makes up a great exercise in timing and phrasing - quite similar to Prelude No. 1 of The Well-Tempered Clavier for the pianist: easy-peasy dots but that hard to play in a real appealing and adequate way...!

 

If we would choose the BWV 147 the above-mentioned limitation would be required if only because the inclusion of Anglo players, wouldn't it?

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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If we would choose the BWV 147 the above-mentioned limitation would be required if only because the inclusion of Anglo players, wouldn't it?

 

That's damned elitist - those of us with 30+ buttons can play these if we so choose. I personally have little interest in playing this type of music on concertina, but I resent your inference that I can't.

 

I had a recent look at the dots (of an already shortened version, which includes the middle section however). You will be right that the entire piece can well be played on an Anglo conertina - in the key of Gmaj just C#, F#, G# and Bb (with the exception of C# in two octaves) are required.

 

Anyway, you may call my post sort of "ignorant" regarding the Anglo or Bach or both of them - but "elitist"? The EC eases certain things, the Anglo others - that's what I intended to mention regarding the accessibility of future TOTM exercises.

 

Nevertheless, I apologize for apparently having offended you!

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