Poll: Tune Of The Month For October, 2013

[Jim Besser]

September's TOTM - Jody Kruskal's wonderful Hop and Skip - produced some excellent recordings. But we need more participation to make this experiment work! I know recording a new tune can be intimidating, but the process really is an excellent way to hone our concertina skills. Don't be shy!

 

With that in mind, here are four cracking good tunes for your October TOTM consideration.

 

Zycanthos Jig:

 

I'm not sure where this came from; over on The Session, several posters way it was written by Roger Wilson.

 

The Session has posted a two part version, but I really like the 48 bar version recorded by Eliza Carthy and Saul Rose (and yes, I have the dots for it). This is a hard driving jig that would liven up any ceilidh.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48FHJHTzCz4

 

 

Xotis Romanes:

 

I believe this is Catalan in origin. My band The Squeezers performed it at a big folk festival in June. If it's chosen as the October TOTM and you're ambitious, you can get together with other players - or multitrack it - and play it in parts (I have notation for that, too).

 

Only one recording I could find, but it's an excellent one:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbwu-YlZ9Rc

 

The Girl I Left Behind Me:

 

At the last rehearsal of my band Frog Hammer, our resident Englishman brought in a new Welsh tune. Imagine my surprise when he played this staple of American oldtime music - and a U.S. army marching tune since the War of 1812. If you've ever seen a John Ford Western, it's a cinch you've heard The Girl I Left Behind Me. Wikipedia says it first appeared in Dublin, but it also appears in Welsh tune collections.

 

Making matters more interesting: I first learned it as the English tune Brighton Camp, a common tune in Northwest clog Morris medleys.

 

Here are a few samples:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIih4TdeJcM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7jSdiVqM28

 

And this one, an interesting and really fun bluegrass variant:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk1xahkswTU

 

Bridal Jig

 

I could only find one example on YouTube of this really cool Irish jig; if you want to hear why it grabbed me and why I put it on my "must learn" list, buy a copy of John Williams' superb CD Steam. You can read a little about the tune and its origins on The Session.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sude3DdCnws

 

 

So vote, and, more importantly, make a commitment to learn the winning tune and record it. It's fun and instructive, I promise.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Jim Besser

[Geoff Wooff]

Thanks again for sorting out these tunes Jim,

I can see that it might be disheartening when there have been so few recordings posted this month but let me profer my excuses as they may be relevant to others;

July is a busy time, festivals and other outdoor activities, visitors all take up much time.

August; I started to learn a new Concertina Keyboard, thus putting myself in the learner situation... takes a lot longer to get each tune going and then there is the splitting of practice time with the other concertinas.

September; Work has to be done, Garden clearance ready for winter too and all those little jobs that have been left because it was too hot the last two months.... took a Holiday too....

Each recording I made in March, April,May and June took a whole day... that is after I was sort of satisfied with the way I was playing the new tune. It should not really take that long but it does... recording untill happy with a 'take' then begins the fight with the computer.. to put the MP3 in the right place so as to be able to upload it.... like many of us ,I am neither young nor particularly good with these modern gadjets.

Not forgetting THE DAY JOB ....

However, I really enjoy TOTM and so do many others I am sure... and we will get around to posting recordings....

Now lets have a look at this months selection......?

Edited September 25, 2013 by Geoff Wooff

[Jim Besser]

Thanks again for sorting out these tunes Jim,

 

I can see that it might be disheartening when there have been so few recordings posted this month but let me profer my excuses as they may be relevant to others;

 

Not disheartening, and no excuses needed; I know everybody's busy and these tunes take time. I just want to encourage those who might be a little shy about putting their playing out there for the world to see/hear - and to encourage the broadest possible participation.

[felix castro]

Sorry, but I have read some times about the Tune Of The Month but never went to the posts until a few days ago and I didn't know what it was. It is a wonderful initiative. I hope to contribute also in the future with my "sand grain".

 

As I play by ear I understand better the Bridal Hill (or closer to John William's version) at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS5PC1M2qE8

 

About the Xotis Romanés, the name means "romanian scottische", I don't know if it is its original name, or the author of the tune. It seems a generic name for the tune, not really traditional catalonian in its style, perhaps some one learned it from romanian sources or composed it with eastern europe flavour.

In Spain, there are a traditional genre, called chotis, xotis, more popular in central and oriental regions, of 4/4 or 2/4 tunes that are derived from the XIXth popular scottische.

At youtube I saw mainly catalonian musician versions and galician musician versions, surely learned from catalonian musicians.

I shall inquiry more about its origin.

(I don't know if it is aproppriate tell these things here).

 

Félix Castro

[cboody]

Love to see those dots. I much prefer not hearing someone else interpret the tune until I've some idea of how I think it should go. Any possibility? (I really haven't any right to ask, since I have not participated, but still... If time allows and the right tune shows up I will).

 

Currently I have a favorite, but I need to see that 48 bar version of Zycanthos (though I must admit the sesquialtera thing in that piece tends to leave me a bit cold sometimes -- that is the replacing of a two beat measure with a three beat one as quarter eighth quarter eighth in a jig style tune replaced with three quarter notes. Cool at first but later I'm not so sure...). The video of that underplays those rhythm shifts which are much clearer in the dots. I certainlly like what the players do with things. One more reason to see their version.

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

It's Zycanthos for me this month.

[Jim Besser]

Sorry, but I have read some times about the Tune Of The Month but never went to the posts until a few days ago and I didn't know what it was. It is a wonderful initiative. I hope to contribute also in the future with my "sand grain".

 

As I play by ear I understand better the Bridal Hill (or closer to John William's version) at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS5PC1M2qE8

 

About the Xotis Romanés, the name means "romanian scottische", I don't know if it is its original name, or the author of the tune. It seems a generic name for the tune, not really traditional catalonian in its style, perhaps some one learned it from romanian sources or composed it with eastern europe flavour.

In Spain, there are a traditional genre, called chotis, xotis, more popular in central and oriental regions, of 4/4 or 2/4 tunes that are derived from the XIXth popular scottische.

At youtube I saw mainly catalonian musician versions and galician musician versions, surely learned from catalonian musicians.

I shall inquiry more about its origin.

(I don't know if it is aproppriate tell these things here).

 

Félix Castro

 

Welcome! Hope you have a chance to participate.

 

And thanks for the information about Xotis; I'd like to know more about this lovely tune and the genre from which it sprang.

[Jim Besser]

Love to see those dots. I much prefer not hearing someone else interpret the tune until I've some idea of how I think it should go. Any possibility? (I really haven't any right to ask, since I have not participated, but still... If time allows and the right tune shows up I will).

 

Here are some dots to get you started. Not necessarily exactly what you see on YouTube!

Sorry about the GIF, haven't had time to convert it to something else.

 

And here's the link to a version of Girl I Left Behind

 

http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/AmRev/march/GirlILeftBehind/0000

zycanthos jig 3 parts.pdf

bridal jig.pdf

[Łukasz Martynowicz]

We have only one more day left to vote and only half of vote count from previous months...

[JimLucas]

Love to see those dots. I much prefer not hearing someone else interpret the tune until I've some idea of how I think it should go.

Ah, but with a tune like The Girl I Left Behind Me (aka Brighton Camp) there are so many versions in tradition that any particular version of the dots is itself an "interpretation".

 

Here are some dots to get you started. Not necessarily exactly what you see on YouTube!

You've given a 5/8 version of Zycanthos, which doesn't exactly match the usual definition of a "jig" as being in 6/8 time, though it does seem to fit with the name, which looks like Greek to me. thesession.org give two versions, one in 6/8 and the other in 5/8. Their 5/8 version looks identical to the one you've given, except that yours has 3 parts (forming 3-note chords) throughout the third part, with the middle part being what is given as the melody on thesession.

 

Interesting that the notation you give for Xotis Romanés is a 2-part arrangement. The arrangement is quite different from that in the video, but that also has a lot of interaction between two moving parts, which leaves me wondering if that's characteristic of the local style.

[Robert Fisher]

Aagh! There was a reason he left the girl behind, what's she doing coming back?

 

Xotis Romanes was promising a different sounding for the month, but now we're veering away from the exotic and back towards that determinedly single key, major key, dance tune...

 

There is still time to leave her behind again... but I've done my dash so I'll have to rely on the swinging voters to help us get out of her reach.

[Jim Besser]

 

There is still time to leave her behind again... but I've done my dash so I'll have to rely on the swinging voters to help us get out of her reach.

 

I like it: lobbying for a TOTM choice!

 

C'mon people, vote! Let's make this interesting.

[Geoff Wooff]

Aagh! There was a reason he left the girl behind, what's she doing coming back?

 

Xotis Romanes was promising a different sounding for the month, but now we're veering away from the exotic and back towards that determinedly single key, major key, dance tune...

 

There is still time to leave her behind again... but I've done my dash so I'll have to rely on the swinging voters to help us get out of her reach.

I'm with you there Robert !

 

Leave her behind (alone) for a change and let's get the pulse racing with something xotis and spicy.

Edited September 30, 2013 by Geoff Wooff

[Wolf Molkentin]

Aagh! There was a reason he left the girl behind, what's she doing coming back?

 

Since I find myself trailed behind with having chosen "Zacanthos" (which I found quite appealing for that blending of west & east; reminded me of a version of Drowsy Maggie I once heard where the band created a middle section out of the "oriental" scale) there's some relief by your witty remark - but much more another last-day swing of the poll event (if only favouring that Katalan thing, to be realistic) would do...

 

Yes Jim, that's a funny situation resp. movement...

[felix castro]

Welcome! Hope you have a chance to participate.

 

And thanks for the information about Xotis; I'd like to know more about this lovely tune and the genre from which it sprang.

 

Thankyou, definitively, it isn't an catalonian tune, as I told, but surely learned from catalonian musicians.

It is a klezmer tune learned from the repertoire of Akiva Ben Horin.

This is the sheet and a web page that

http://musicapelsdescosits.blogspot.com.es/2011/10/xotis-romanes.html

 

Surely they named chotis to the tune, as it was in a 2/4 or 4/4 rhythm, the same that i.e. many people names jig when they learn a galician muiñeira.

 

There is Perepau Jimenez playing a catalonian Chotis

Xotis d'en Jaumet Xic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xFNHNs2m8k

 

There are chotis in all over Spain, as I told more popular perhaps in Aragon, Catalonian, and Madrid, in Madrid is their most popular and typical musical genre.

A classical chotis or schotis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUXSOaUJewo

As I told they came from the XIXth central european scottische, but they had now an "indigenous" flavour.

Here a chotis dancing conquest from Madrid, with the "classical" sung chotis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W11h0Wvc2Q0

Félix Castro

Edited September 30, 2013 by felix castro

[felix castro]

The Xotis Romanés appears in this recopilatory of Akiva Ben Harin, released by Galpaz Music the year 2005, it is the 1st tune

The title is Nigun Roimani

http://www.galpazmusic.com/airs-ascent

Félix Castro

[Defra]

The Xotis Romanés appears in this recopilatory of Akiva Ben Harin, released by Galpaz Music the year 2005, it is the 1st tune

The title is Nigun Roimani

http://www.galpazmusic.com/airs-ascent

Félix Castro

Thanks a lot, Felix, for all the info and links concerning a type of music of which I know nothing but find very appealing.

Cheers,

 

Dean

[sqzbxr]

I play English music in an English style on an English-made Anglo concertina; I have spent a lot of money to buy the instruments and spent many years learning the skills to do this. I voted for Brighton Camp, no apologies.