Jump to content

Theme Of The Month, May 2014: Speed Zone Ahead!


Jim Besser

Recommended Posts

One more. Swallowtail is a jig I've played countless times for contra dances at a brisk pace, for rapper dancers at an insane speed.

 

But I think it sounds nice very slow. And with some different chords. As always, struggling to shed my Morris dance phrasing.

 

Comments/feedback?

 

Played on a 32 button Lachenal / Dipper C/G Anglo

 

https://soundcloud.com/concertinist/swallowtail-slowmp3mp3

Edited by Jim Besser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 37
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

 

Alexandra Park, a jolly tune adapted from Kerr's Merrie Melodies tune book, played faster than usual....

 

Which brings me back to my earlier comment/question regarding the relativity of "usual". I've heard this tune before, but always somewhat faster even than the recording you've just given us. So for comparison, how about recording it for us at what you consider to be the "usual" speed?

 

 

Here's another recording of the tune, played at the speed I like to play it at; i.e. my usual speed. After introducing this tune some 7 years ago at my local monthly English session, I found that as people got to know the tune and became more confident in playing it, it started to get played a bit faster and as time went by, faster still. Whether one or more musicians liked it better played faster, or it just got speeded up by someone with a bus to catch, as often happens with some tunes in sessions, I don't know. This version is played at approx 132 bpm and the other one at approx 152 bpm. Played much above 130bpm, I feel this tune loses some of its nice "bounce".

 

http://soundcloud.com/aeolaman/alexandra-park-2-slower

 

Chris

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I was wondering how some Cotswold Morris tunes would work as rapper jigs. The one I tried was Balance the Straw, normally played at a relatively modest pace.

 

A tune I had difficulty keeping down to the right speed in my morris days was Upton-on-Severn Stick. It just cries out to go faster. In fact I once started it way too fast and the resulting spectacle of six dancers trying to do an Upton step at high speed is one of my fondest morris memories! I reckon it could work well for rapper.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

So I was wondering how some Cotswold Morris tunes would work as rapper jigs. The one I tried was Balance the Straw, normally played at a relatively modest pace.

 

A tune I had difficulty keeping down to the right speed in my morris days was Upton-on-Severn Stick. It just cries out to go faster. In fact I once started it way too fast and the resulting spectacle of six dancers trying to do an Upton step at high speed is one of my fondest morris memories! I reckon it could work well for rapper.

 

 

My Morris group, the Foggy Bottom Morris men, dance the Upton Stick Dance, and I've been playing it for them for years. But recently my ceilidh band decided to use it for a fast ceilidh, and it worked great. I really had to focus on returning it to Morris speed the next time I played it for the boys!

 

It's a great tune either way.

 

The Upton Stick Dance does have a kind of downhill feel to it that makes it hard to avoid speeding up. I make a conscious effort to pull it back for every figure, since the sticking chorus almost always accelerates.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

I really had to focus on returning it to Morris speed the next time I played it for the boys!

Go on! Make 'em dance it fast, just once. It's hilarious!

 

 

Not a good idea. They're wielding heavy sticks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Danny,

 

nice approach playing Roslin Castle (I'd spell it like that...) as a Schottische, particularly after several runs in the usual slow manner (and of course a lovely take alltogether)!

 

It crosses my mind however that this might work equally well if not better with lesser notes being added (reduplicated). I might give it a try...

 

Best wishes - Wolf

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosline (however you spell it) Castle is a lovely slow tune that also works really well as a schottische.

 

Apologies for the "here's one I made earlier" recordings: http://rowlhouse.co.uk/concertina/music/Rosline.mp3

 

Hi,

very nice but the second tune played as a schottische is not Rosline Castle with a faster tempo or did I miss something?...

 

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Rosline (however you spell it) Castle is a lovely slow tune that also works really well as a schottische.

 

Apologies for the "here's one I made earlier" recordings: http://rowlhouse.co.uk/concertina/music/Rosline.mp3

 

Hi,

very nice but the second tune played as a schottische is not Rosline Castle with a faster tempo or did I miss something?...

 

Cheers

 

 

It is! There are a few little changes - in particular the second crotchet beat in the first bar, and also a slightly different distribution of accidentals, but it's basically the same tune.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rosline (however you spell it) Castle is a lovely slow tune that also works really well as a schottische.

 

Apologies for the "here's one I made earlier" recordings: http://rowlhouse.co.uk/concertina/music/Rosline.mp3

 

Very nice set, beautifully played. Thank you.

 

For those who are interested: the middle tune in the set is one commonly called Bethany Scottish, but which in reality is a composed tune Mominette. On Melodeon.net. a message thread cites Maxou Heintzen as the composer. I've played it many times for border Morris dancers. I've also heard it played a a jig.

Edited by Jim Besser
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

One thing about changing the tempo of a melody is that it's rarely only the tempo that changes. Ornamentation and accompaniment are two of the more obvious features that tend to increase or decrease, as well as changing in stylistic ways.

 

To illustrate this, here's a recording I made some years ago of a tune with variations, a classical banjo arrangement of which I've changed very little (in the original, the last strain of the last variation didn't have a distinct "first ending"). It's so nice that all the notes of the original arrangement are right there on the treble English.

Old Folks at Home, with variations

Edited by JimLucas
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here's another recording of the tune, played at the speed I like to play it at....

Sorry for the late response, Chris, but thanks for that. Sounds nice.

 

Well, I think it sounds nice at any speed. :) For my own "normal" speed I'm picturing a dance, but one in which each beat/step corresponds to an entire one of those "dee-diddle" progressions at the very beginning, so I think that explains my tempo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I'll return to the ambiguity of "normal" with an Irish (or "Irish"; see below) tune known variously as The Munster Cloak or The Spanish Cloak.

I first heard this played as a slow air. Some years later I heard it played quite fast (like an Irish mazurka?). In both cases played by traditional Irish musicians. So here I've tried recording it both ways, twice through slow, then twice through fast.

The Munster Cloak, as a slow air, then quick


I haven't tried to add any harmonies here, since I normally play this on the whistle, not the concertina, and that was just a quick "translation" on the fly.

But getting back to the name -- the double name -- of the tune:

I'm told that the reason for the two names is that according to legend the tune isn't originally Irish, but was brought into Ireland by a shipwrecked sailor from the Spanish Armada who washed up (but survived) on the Munster coast.


Well, in the past I've done a fair bit of international folk dancing, and I was particularly impressed by some recordings of music for dances from France and Spain (from the Pyrenees, I suspect) played on bagpipes or hurdy gurdy, and thus with a strong drone. "So," I thought, "what if I try to play this tune in that way?" (Of course,it had to be done on concertina, not whistle,)

Well, I tried it, and I think it does sound very much like one of those "Spanish" dances. What do you think?

The Munster Cloak, as The Spanish Cloak :)


Actually, that's slightly faster than I intended, but it's now approaching midnight in Denmark, and I can't do a fresh recording without disturbing my neighbors. At least not before the end of this month. ;) So that'll have to do. B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had a number of ideas for this theme, but kept getting interrupted by more urgent demands. Still, I've managed to contribute a couple, and here's one more before the month is over. (Actually, it's slightly past midnight here in Denmark, but it's still May where Jim Besser lives. ;))

Not exactly what Jim B. asked for, but it is about "different speeds": A couple of times I've created pieces that are deliberately composed of essentially the same tune at two radically different speeds, first as a slow air, then more quickly, and concluding with the slower version. (In both cases, the faster rhythm is a jig, but that wasn't an advance constraint; it just worked out that way.) This one I composed in 1984, while attending a conference in Helsinki. Pajamaki is the name of an area in Helsinki where a friend lived. I think it could be roughly translated as "Smithy Hill".

Pajamaki


Once again, this is something I developed on the whistle, so there's no harmony. But now that I've revived it, I think I might try developing some harmony, at least on the final slow section. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...