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French Tune book from 1929


Gary Chapin

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That last batch takes the abc file over the 100-tune mark.

 

M Canteloube didn't half like his fermatas, I think I've typed !fermata! more times doing this file than I ever had before in my life ...

The encrypted clue to stop stickin em in was in the word itself! It is the past participle of the Italian 'fermare!' Imperative infinitive for 'Stop!' :lol: :lol:

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That last batch takes the abc file over the 100-tune mark.

 

M Canteloube didn't half like his fermatas, I think I've typed !fermata! more times doing this file than I ever had before in my life ...

 

 

Try using just "H" without quotes. I believe it works in most of the software...

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Cheers cbooby - I knew about the H construct, but avoid using it and that batch of commands if at all possible.

 

Purely a matter of personal preference, but I much prefer the logic of the !<word>! delimiter for special notations in the tune body, rather than the (to me) quasi-random assignment of capital letters to markings that the H construct is part of.

 

ABC notation has a beautiful simple logic of its own, and the H construct (to me) doesn't fit that logic - so I'd rather type out !fermata!. Rather a lot in the current file :-)

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The tune file is now online at http://www.lesession.co.uk/music/La%20Bourree.abc.

 

I'd suggest that any bug reports, transcription errors or notation issues to me personally (either PM me or use the contact mechanism in the file header) rather than cluttering this thread up.

 

I've checked all the tunes several times and played them all through from both the abc and the scans, but I'm not beginning to claim claiming perfection.

 

Enjoy!

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The tune file is now online at http://www.lesession.co.uk/music/La%20Bourree.abc.

 

I'd suggest that any bug reports, transcription errors or notation issues to me personally (either PM me or use the contact mechanism in the file header) rather than cluttering this thread up.

 

I've checked all the tunes several times and played them all through from both the abc and the scans, but I'm not beginning to claim claiming perfection.

 

Enjoy!

 

Many thanks Steve. I'd have used H but tastes differ. You did a wonderful job of matching the manuscript...as least as far as I checked. Bravo to you for all that work!!

 

I've some thoughts about the beaming (or lack of same) on the tunes. I suspect that the lack of beams is a clue to where syllables of the words go. So, when a single syllable goes under,say, two eighth notes they are beamed and if there are two syllables of text they are not. I think you were right to transcribe as you did, but I also think that is much harder to read. I'm debating re-editing to beam those notes. We'll see how time and circumstance work out. Meanwhile, I'd be interested to hear your, or other folks thoughts about this issue. I can only say that if you've ever tried to sing Messiah from an edition that follows that rule of beaming you may go crazy. Maybe you wouldn't have in the 20s and 30s, but now you would.

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The tune file is now online at http://www.lesession...a%20Bourree.abc.

 

I'd suggest that any bug reports, transcription errors or notation issues to me personally (either PM me or use the contact mechanism in the file header) rather than cluttering this thread up.

 

I've checked all the tunes several times and played them all through from both the abc and the scans, but I'm not beginning to claim claiming perfection.

 

Enjoy!

 

Many thanks Steve. I'd have used H but tastes differ. You did a wonderful job of matching the manuscript...as least as far as I checked. Bravo to you for all that work!!

 

I've some thoughts about the beaming (or lack of same) on the tunes.

 

 

Very early on in the process I caught myself editorialising the beaming and performance directions, and (particularly when I realised that other people would be interested in having copies of the final abc file I was creating), I took the conscious decision that I wasn't going to do that.

 

What I've generated in the abc is an attempt to render Canteloube's tune transcriptions as faithfully as possible. There are all sorts of factors which will temper that intention: amongst them

  • the limits of my transcription skills,
  • my concentration and avoidance of typos whilst doing the transcriptions,
  • the abc specification itself and certain personal preferences I hold around the abc specification (as evidenced in the H field discussion),
  • and then all the additional variations probably introduced 'post-production' by factors outside my control, e.g. which software people are using to render my abc into sheet music or sound files or MIDI or whistle tab etc.

What you therefore all have available from http://www.lesession...a%20Bourree.abc is (with the above provisos) Canteloube's musical transcriptions, rendered into abc.

 

Anyone is free, welcome, and positively encouraged, to then take that 'source material' and prepare a 'performing edition' from that original, by changing the beaming, editing Canteloube's performance directions, etc. - but that's not what I've set out to do.

 

I've aimed to make the same point in the file header, which is as follows:

 

 

%% RECUEIL / de Chants et Danses Populaires / EDITE PAR / "LA BOURRÉE"

%% Société Artistique / des Originaires du Massif Central

%% actuellement émigrés dans l'agglomération parisienne

%% SIÈGE SOCIAL: / 13, Bd BEAUMARCHAIS / PARIS - (IVe) / 4e EDITION

%% Musique revue et mise au point / par J CANTELOUBE

%%

%% Published 1929

%%

%% Page photographs published online by Gary Chapin at http://accordeonaire.blogspot.co.uk

%% Abc notation tune transcriptions by and © Steve Mansfield, http://www.lesession.co.uk,

%% under the Creative Commons license as detailed at http://creativecommo...icenses/by/3.0/

%%

%% Specifically :-

%% Please preserve the Z: fields in any and all downstream usage of these abc transcriptions.

%% If redistributing the entire file please preserve this entire header intact and unaltered.

%% You are free to amend, alter and redistribute the abc notation of individual tunes,

%% but any and all changes should be documented through appropriate additional N: and Z: fields

%% (whilst preserving the existing N: and Z: fields) before any redistribution.

%%

%%

%% Editorial notes :

%% -----------------

%% I welcome notification of any transcription errors (e.g. actual erroneous divergences from the

%% sheet music on the scanned page) via the contact details on http://www.lesession.co.uk

%%

%% This is a reproduction of the music as published in the 1929 book. Note spacing is as in the source.

%%

%% Canteloube's dynamic markings, performance notes etc. have been reproduced as follows:

%% Dance/tune forms (Bourrée etc.) have been transcribed as R: fields,

%% initial textual expression and tempo indicators (Assez animé etc.) as N: fields.

%% Crescendos, diminuendos, fermata etc. have been reproduced.

%% In addition Canteloube added various other text notations which have been transcribed as text comments

%% at the appropriate point. Nit-pickers may therefore possibly find what could be regarded as

%% minor inconsistencies in my choices between N: fields, !! fields, and text; enjoy.

%%

%% Tunes 55 to 59 form a linked suite entitled 'Réveillez' - I have represented this

%% through separate tunes with secondary editorial title fields. Another transcriber might have decided to

%% represent this as a single piece with multiple P: sections.

%%

%% This is a LeSession production from the Massif Central corner of the High Peak of Derbyshire, England.

%% April-June 2012. Made in EasyAbc and Textpad, and verified against abcm2ps 6.3.3. using an English concertina,

%% other abc renderers and instruments may vary.

%%

%% Abc tutorial available at http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc

%%

%% La Bourree.abc - file v1.0

%%

Edited by Steve Mansfield
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I appreciate your faithfulness to the text, Steve -- that's what I was hoping for. And a possible goal of mine is to add the lyrics in. One of the things I took away from my interview with Frederic Paris was his pointing out that the vocal tradition attached to this dance music is important. Every tune, it seems, has a lyric, which is very different from the traditions around reels and jigs etc.

 

BTW, which utility (free if possible) would you recommend to print the whole book as one? I'm not actually an ABC master.

 

Thanks again

Gary

Edited by Gary Chapin
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I appreciate your faithfulness to the text, Steve -- that's what I was hoping for. And a possible goal of mine is to add the lyrics in. One of the things I took away from my interview with Frederic Paris was his pointing out that the vocal tradition attached to this dance music is important. Every tune, it seems, has a lyric, which is very different from the traditions around reels and jigs etc.

 

BTW, which utility (free if possible) would you recommend to print the whole book as one? I'm not actually an ABC master.

 

Thanks again

Gary

Go get EasyABC. You can creat pdf files from it that will print beautifully and it will take care of issues like fitting tunes to the pages. By far the best cross platform solution to the matter of making dots from abc. (At least in my NSHO).

 

And, I don't disagree with Steve a single bit on how he transcribed. I just think it is interesting to understand why it is the way it is and what one might (or might not) wish to do with it.

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