Jim Besser Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 Randy Stein and I are rehearsing for our "Squeezers" performance at the Washington Folk Festival on June 2. The 50 minute show will feature English and Anglo concertinas and G/d melodeon; the program will include trad, jazz, tangos, klezmer, English music hall songs and more. This is a little something we've been rehearsing: Mylecharaines March, a traditional Manx tune. We're still not quite there, but getting closer! Performed on Wheatstone English concertina and Jeffries G/D Anglo. If you're in the Washington-Baltimore area the first weekend in June, don't miss this great festival. More information here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Molkentin Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 That's fun to listen to. And you've got the two instruments of yours very nicely balanced in terms of both music and sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mglamb Posted May 20, 2013 Share Posted May 20, 2013 (edited) . Edited August 10, 2013 by mglamb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted May 20, 2013 Author Share Posted May 20, 2013 Very nice! Those two boxes sound great together, although Jim was a bit quiet in the mix. I really liked Randy's countermelody work. I'd love to come up for this performance but am a bit worried about the time - it's 4+ hours to get home from there on a work night, so we'll have to see. Jim - will you be at Marlboro this weekend? I was quiet because it was a quick and dirty recording and the iPhone was closer to Randy. Yes, I'll be at Marlboro, and hope to play this tune with Will Quale - which is where I learned it! He's working with a Boston area Morris team that's doing traditional Manx dances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Harrison Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 ...............well done Jim. Very nice; anglo and English ? Robin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted May 21, 2013 Author Share Posted May 21, 2013 ...............well done Jim. Very nice; anglo and English ? Robin Yep, and thanks. Will I be seeing you this weekend in Vermont? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayman Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 (edited) That's coming along VERY nicely, Jim and Randy! I'm sorry I won't be able to get down to see this on 2 June. I hope you'll be able to send me an audio or video recording of this tune in performance -- And Sometimes Y (my western Massachusetts-based Manx dance team) and the Manx Heritage Foundation (sort of their CDSS or EFDSS analog) will both be thrilled. And I'm excited to get to play this with Jim (and Robin I hope, if you want to add the tune to your repertoire!) at the Marlboro Morris Ale this weekend! (Well, and Gus -- does he play along on this when Squeezers perform it, or is it just a concertina duet?) Randy's counter-melody is great. What was the source/inspiration for that? Jim, I've changed how I play it since I made you that first recording (in D on your G/D Morse). I now play it in D on my C/G Morse, with ornamentations and chords that are closer to how the Manx themselves play it in recordings I've heard. It's a great tune for bass runs on the Anglo, and you can throw in some juicy dissonances (inspired by the Manx band Barrule's recording). There may be only two Anglo concertina players on the Isle of Man, incidentally; I've been corresponding with both in the run-up to my visit in July, and I'm very curious to hear how they approach these tunes. Edited May 21, 2013 by wayman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted May 21, 2013 Author Share Posted May 21, 2013 And I'm excited to get to play this with Jim (and Robin I hope, if you want to add the tune to your repertoire!) at the Marlboro Morris Ale this weekend! (Well, and Gus -- does he play along on this when Squeezers perform it, or is it just a concertina duet?) Randy's counter-melody is great. What was the source/inspiration for that? Jim, I've changed how I play it since I made you that first recording (in D on your G/D Morse). I now play it in D on my C/G Morse, with ornamentations and chords that are closer to how the Manx themselves play it in recordings I've heard. It's a great tune for bass runs on the Anglo, and you can throw in some juicy dissonances (inspired by the Manx band Barrule's recording). There may be only two Anglo concertina players on the Isle of Man, incidentally; I've been corresponding with both in the run-up to my visit in July, and I'm very curious to hear how they approach these tunes. Here's the source for Randy's counter melody: http://www.manxmusic.com/media/Learn%20Tunes/Mylecharaine%27s%20March%20Roy%20Baker%20PARTS.pdf Tonite we're rehearsing with our bassist, who will do the double bass part in the notation. We tried it once and it was super cool, but we're running out of rehearsal time. Eager to hear how it sounds in D on the C/G. Haven't tried that yet. No, Gus probably isn't playing this, although he may when we do this show in the fall in an expanded format. But Gus and I are going a kick ass version of Andy Cutting's The Abbess. No doubt you'll hear us practicing it this weekend. And he's playing a tango and jazz standard with the two of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Harrison Posted May 21, 2013 Share Posted May 21, 2013 (edited) Yes, I'll be at Marlboro..............and not by coincidence, my "new" tune is also Mylecharaine's March. I heard it from Will's playing at another recent Morris weekend He does a lovely job on it with a really accomplished left hand accompaniment. My great grand parents lived on ther Isle of Man for a time around 1900 so I was drawn to this tune............it's a cracker, isn't it! I transcibed it and was going to show it to Will this w/e for errors etc but I'll attach it now. Best Robin Didn't see your link Jim but I'll leave the PDF...............my source for the note by note transcription was this Mylecharaine's March.pdf Edited May 21, 2013 by Robin Harrison Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted May 21, 2013 Author Share Posted May 21, 2013 Yes, I'll be at Marlboro..............and not by coincidence, my "new" tune is also Mylecharaine's March. I heard it from Will's playing at another recent Morris weekend Didn't see your link Jim but I'll leave the PDF...............my source for the note by note transcription was this Guess I know one of the tunes we'll be playing this weekend! Can't wait. I also did this tune in parts with concertina, fiddle and cello. We didn't have a chance to really work it, but the early attempts sounded pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayman Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Robin, your notation looks good. I think I often play more triplets (in other situations which are similar to where you noted them), but those seem to me like the sort of ornamentation that doesn't have to be notated precisely or played the same way every time through. There's also basic notation here: http://manxmusic.com/learn_page_144681.html (it's several pages into the PDF). Many of the harmonies and bass runs I play come from trying to follow Jamie Smith's piano accordion and Adam Rhodes' bouzouki chords in the Barrule video and emulate them as best I can on the Anglo. They've got a wide variety of different rhythms and changes in the accompaniment (some of which I would never have come up with on my own), and it's fun to try each of them. Just last Saturday was the first time I played the tune for a dance performance in D on the C/G, and I was really chuffed that afterwards our team's dance leader (the one who has studied these dances on the Isle of Man) said "wow, that sounds a lot more Manx now!" And ... well, those bass runs make extensive use of that unusual left-hand customizations I made, Robin. I know it's really weird... but it really works for me, especially for harmonies in the key of D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 And ... well, those bass runs make extensive use of that unusual left-hand customizations I made, Robin. I know it's really weird... but it really works for me, especially for harmonies in the key of D. We rehearsed it last night with ANglo, English - and double bass, bowed. Really changes the texture of the tune, and we really liked it. Now if our bassist could only play two instruments at once, we could add cello.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Molkentin Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Now if our bassist could only play two instruments at once, we could add cello.... Well, he might switch to cello and than add a foot bass like bellowbelle's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Harrison Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 Hi Wayman!...just realized who you are ! Slow or what ! A warm welcome to the forum. Do feel free to introduce yourself if you'd like to. Robin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Stein Posted May 22, 2013 Share Posted May 22, 2013 And ... well, those bass runs make extensive use of that unusual left-hand customizations I made, Robin. I know it's really weird... but it really works for me, especially for harmonies in the key of D. We rehearsed it last night with ANglo, English - and double bass, bowed. Really changes the texture of the tune, and we really liked it. Now if our bassist could only play two instruments at once, we could add cello.... There is always room for cello... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Besser Posted May 22, 2013 Author Share Posted May 22, 2013 Hi Wayman!...just realized who you are ! Slow or what ! A warm welcome to the forum. Do feel free to introduce yourself if you'd like to. Robin Yeah, me too. Better late than never. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iradcliffe Posted June 9, 2013 Share Posted June 9, 2013 "There may be only two Anglo concertina players on the Isle of Man, incidentally; I've been corresponding with both in the run-up to my visit in July, and I'm very curious to hear how they approach these tunes." I think your figure is a bit inaccurate, I reckon there are four Anglo players on the island plus three or four English concertina players including myself. I guess one of your correspondents is Paul Helps who plays and dances with Perree Bane. Nice to hear some Manx music escaping in to the wild. The Barrule version is reasonably true to the style it has been played in over the past thirty years and it the right pace for the dance. My own preference is to play the first half of the B music in a staccato style mimicing the sound of the clashing sticks. For another (early) version of the notation have a look at the one on my site, http://www.mannincloud.info/docs/music/Manx2.pdf (towards the end of the file). This file and the others there were put together in abc format by the late Tony Hopson, and passed on to my by John Kaneen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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