The "settings" Of A Tune

[Mikefule]

Coincidentally I came across this thread after spending much of the day transcribing some of my own compositions using ABC. I found myself really struggling with decisions along the way. My tunes are jigs, marches and waltzes in the traditional A and B music, 8 or 16 bar format. Some of them I have been playing on harmonica for 30 years.

 

Suddenly I found I was having to decide on a key, and to decide which notes to "dot" - and which notes are an essential part of the tune and which notes are "ornaments".

 

What I have transcribed may be played by others. G is convenient for Morris melodeonists, but sometimes D is better for high tunes - but what fits a melodeon is not always equally easy on an Anglo. And some of the tunes I know I will only ever play on harmonica, probably, but not always, in C.

 

The results that I wrote down were in my view "settings" of my tunes - not a final or definitive version, but internally consistent and playable versions. The next person to read my dots may decide to play in a different key, faster or slower, and with more or less ornamentation. If they write down their preferred version, that will also become a "setting".

 

It is not the same as an "arrangement" because, to my mind, an "arrangement" implies a fixed version carefully structured for two or more "voices" - whether they be separate instruments, or the combination of melody and accompaniment on a single instrument such as an Anglo or piano.