Ref to the post about favorite CDs: Do you have an all time favorite concertina tune? Or maybe there's one tune that you heard that got you fired up about learning concertina in the first place? For me, it was "The Lancer's Jig" (though not the tune usually associated with this title.) I heard an unknown player playing this tune and thought, "Man that's something I need to learn how to do". I ran right out and bought the first 'tina I could find (a 20b Stagi) and went to work starting with that tune. Didn't take long until I was hooked on this odd instrument (and found I couldn't play D tunes on the Stagi) and traded in my Stagi on one of Frank Edgley's instruments.

The version of the Lancer's Jig that I'm playing now I learned from Niall Vallely's playing on Tim O'Brien's recent CD "Two Journeys". I just posted the ABC's to the Tune-O-Tron for anyone who's interested.

So what did it for you? I'd like to learn some more life altering tunes.

My favorite tune is the one I happen to be playing at that moment-- Steven

While largely agreeing with steve theer are a few tunes that stand out even when I'm not playing them. The morris tune 'Oranges in Bloom' is one (closely followed by Valentines), 'A shropshire lass' is another. Oh, and redwing is always great fun to play.

I started off by dancing with the 'Shropshire Bedlams' a UK morris team headed up by John Kirkpatrick, so was obviously greatly inspired by that (although I didn't really appreciate how good he was in those days). The first tune I ever learn't (actually on a melodeon) was the Morris tune 'Princess Royal' which still remains a favourite when I play it (Strangely enough I was picking out it on a Bass Guitar just this afternoon).

Clive.

"The Orange in Bloom is another of my favorites", as well, though I play it on the fiddle. Should learn it on the concertina too, I guess.

My all time favourite is the jig "My darling asleep". It's the first tune that I could play on fiddle some 30 years ago (long before I discovered the concertina). At this moment I very much like "An Paistin Fion" as played by Mary McNamara of her "Blackberry Blossom" CD.

Henk

Still my favourite tune, and one of the earliest I learnt, is Gallopede. To hear a good English session chase that tune for all its worth, and to be part of it - there's not much better to be had out of living.

Chris

Robinson's Tune aka The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance Tune.

Gets me every time.

I agree. That's a great one on the Hayden, as well. Another one like it (that I first heard played on the Anglo, at different times, by both Tom and Jody Kruskal) is a tune I've heard called "Walter's Polka" or "Walter Bulwer's Polka #4." Here it is: [note, the B section has 2 sharps]

X:1
T:Walter's Polka
M:C|
K:G
P:A
Bc|:dcB2g3f|e2A2A2AB|cBA2f3e|e2d2B2Bc|
dcB2g3f|e2A2A2AG|FGAB cdef|1g2g2g2Bc:|2g2g2g4||
P:B
K:D
a2fga2fg|agf2e4|e2a2g2e2|dcde fefg|
a2fga2fg|agf2e4|e2a2g2e2|1d2dc defg:|2d2c2=c2Bc|]

I'll look at that when I get home. Walter Bulwer's no. 1 and no. 2 are standards, of course, but I'm not familiar with no.4

Cheers,

Chris

Without a doubt "Niel Gow's Lament for the Death of His Second Wife" from approximately 1806.

If you search for this tune on the Internet, stay away from any transcriptions in 3/4; it should be in 6/8.

Peter Dyson
Bellingham, WA

Oh goodness, my all-time favorite tunes change from week to week.

But Orange in Bloom, use for my Morris side's signature dance, is an enduring favorite, transposed to C, since I play solo on a C/G.

Other all-time faves: Mickey Ainsworth, the Redesdale Hornpipe, Forresters Hornpipe and the utterly obscure but charming Woodchoppers Breakdown (not the familiar Woodchoppers Reel).

But I'm a musician of easy virtue; new tunes are constantly winning my undying affection until I hear the next great one.

This is great! A whole raft of new tunes to work on that are all certified personal concertina favorites.

Another of mine is Rags 'n Tatters AKA Rattigan's, ironically, learned from the same CD I learned Orange in Bloom from: Waterson-Carthy.

Like most everyone else, my current favorite is always the tune I'm currently learning (else why be learning it?), but there are still a few that just seem to "click" the best on concertina, like they were written expressly for it.

I also agree with Gallopede. Lets face it, there are so many good tunes out there (and some not so good) its almost impossible to choose, but the fact that tunes like Gallopede have stood the test of time to become standards must say something about them.


As an off-subject but philosophically related aside: Have you ever been to one of those beer festivals that specialise in rare and obscure beers? Well, having tasted some of those beers you can see why they are rare and obscure!

As a slightly more relavant aside: when morris dancing as a young man (Oh so long ago) we did a Belgian tour arranged by a Belgian accordianist. When asked to play a typical Belgian tune he played, with the exception of a few notes, Gallopede.

Clive.

Bonny at morn

Whoops, guess I neglected to answer the actual question about the FIRST tune that hooked me.

Banish Misfortune, from the classic album. Picked it out on my garage sale 20 button, and was smitten. Oddly, once I got more deeply into the instrument, I never really played it again.

In the all-time fave category, I commend to all of you Larry Unger's The Dancer, a beautiful, eerie waltz that sounds like it was written for the concertina, although it wasn't. When I got my new concertina it didn't have an Eb because of the extra C#s, which made it impossible to play this tune, but Paul Groff, always helpful, fixed that. It's a tune that never fails to make me feel good, even when I don't play it with the skill it deserves.

The tune that made me think "right, I really need to buckle down and do some serious practise" was "Shiner" by John Kirkpatrick, which is on the "Boxing Clever" record. I think more than anything else, hearing that tune gave me a sense of purpose and something to aim at... but aside from that it's a thing of real beauty.

Like others have said, though, my favourite tunes/songs/pieces are whatever I happen to be learning.

My own starter tune was "Constant Billy".
I started learning before the days of "Morris On". Once that came out, "Shepherds Hey" seemed to be the starter tune of everyone that heard it for some years.

Like others my favourite changes from time to time. however, some tunes have remained constant over the years.

My favourite slow air remains The Lark in the clear Air, closely followed by the dark Island. My favourite hornpipe is The Rights of Man. In other categories, I would include The Rocky Road to Dublin, Springtime in Battersea, and the Hen's March.

I find trying to pin down a single tune an impossible task.

- John Wild

Favorite reel/march: Banks of Inverness
Favorite slow air: Da Slockit Light (Tom Anderson)
Favorite Jig: Handsome Young Maids

Many more: Barrow Burn, Round the Horn (Jay Ungar), Morpeth Lasses, Evit Gabriel (Daniel Thonon/Ad Vielle Que Pourra), Stonetown (The House Band), Rakes of Mallow...

I could just keep on playing...

>Favorite slow air: Da Slockit Light (Tom Anderson)
>Favorite Jig: Handsome Young Maids

Great taste! Wonderful tunes. "Handsome" is tough at contra dance speed, but doable (at least for me).

>Many more: Barrow Burn, Round the Horn (Jay Ungar), Morpeth Lasses, Evit >Gabriel (Daniel Thonon/Ad Vielle Que Pourra)

There's a lot of overlap on our playlists!

When I first started playing I had a set of tunes in mind that I would one day be able to play. I have since managed to play these and so now I am able to pick and choose from a wider set of potential good material.
The original "one day I'll play these" tunes included The Hawk, The Belfast Hornpipe and The Eagle's whistle.
The tunes I first learnt were dance tunes, all of which I learnt by ear from recordings of bands. This gives the oppertunity to follow whichever instrument you like!
My favourite tunes of the moment are Moving Cloud, Swaggering Boney and Pinl Floyd's Shine on you Crazy Diamond. No-one said anything about traditional!

Ashokan Farewell - definately

It was a book that hooked me - Last Night's Fun by Ciaran Carson (I think my brother James recommended it to me, and I'd recommend it to anyone). The first tune I picked out on a concertina was The Lincolnshire Poacher. Current favourites include Contentment is Wealth and Longwood (by our very own Jim Lucas!). I got really into chords and stuff around Waltz Montmagny (learned from a recording by Karen Tweed). It's difficult to name favourites because they depend on one's mood at the time.

Samantha

Ashokan Farewell is on my fa vorite list too, as is another Jay Ungar favorite, "Lover's Waltz". I also like to combine "Hector the Hero" with "Neil Gow's Lament for the death of his second Wife", as the two tunes seem to fit particularly well together.

I've tried to find ABCs for most of the tunes mentioned by the various posters, but am not having much luck. I suspect it's because I've been focused on Irish music and many of the favorite tunes are proabably not Irish in origin.

Here in the Midwest USA, Morris dancing and the associated tunes are extremely obscure. I'd venture to say not 1 person in a thousand has ever heard of Morris dance. Can anybody point me to a tune database that might have some of the referenced tunes?

Yepper Scott,

I'm from the Midwest also and had never heard of Morris dancing before joining this forum.

What part of the Midwest are you from?

I'll leave the databases to the more knowledgeable ones.

Helen

In which state is the town of Midwest?


Almost as obscure as concertinas?

FWIW, I processed the listings on http://www.mit.edu/~jcb/morris/geo.html and came up with 185 state-identified Morris teams in the US (including 2 in Washington DC). This includes:
5 Michigan
1 Wisconsin
13 Minnesota
2 West Virginia
4 Ohio
1 Indiana
1 Illinois
2 Iowa
1 Nebraska
1 Arkansas
2 Kentucky
3 Tennessee
3 Missouri
3 Kansas
2 Colorado
3 Texas

I know these aren't all "Midwest"; some are surrounding. But they provide an interesting picture. (But all 13 teams in Minnesota are in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.) And I'm sure the list isn't complete, since nothing is listed for Berea, Kentucky.

I wonder how many of these teams have concertina players as musicians.

Ha! There is a town called Midwest City in Oklahoma, which is a bit far west to be considered actually IN the midwest.

Helen, I'm about 20 miles north of Ann Arbor.

The first reference I ever heard to Morris Dancing was a not too flattering one on a Stan Rogers live CD where he described it as "groups of otherwise normal people dressed all in white with porkpie hats, green sashes and little hankies and jingle bells tied to their wrists and ankles, who rhytmically beat each other with clubs", or words to that effect. Never having seen this kind of spectacle, I can only guess what type of music might be considered appropriate.

Should I be alarmed that there are apparently 5 of these groups running loose in my state?

I would have to say 'The Blackbird', I think this what they call a set dance in Ireland. Jacqueline McCarthy plays it on her 'Hidden Note' CD; also Bothy Band have covered this tune. Alan.

I posted this yesterday on another thread. Worth repeating here.

Don't be alarmed.

Be very, very afraid.

Chris
(Morris musician)

Samantha and all
I agree, Ciaran Carson's book 'Last night's fun' is a fluid account of how Irish musicians live and breathe. Every chapter is a different tune and the way he describes food makes your tummy rumble.
But the tune from Nortumberland they call Bonny at morn will always raise the hairs on my neck. I first heared it in the Cutty Sark in Whitby maybe Thirty years ago sung un-accompanied, but there is a recorded version with harp on one of Cathrin Tickell's records. Works well on concertina.

The Blackbird is, in addition to a fine set dance tune, a wonderful slow air, with about as many great but different versions as there are people playing it on fiddle, whistle, pipes, or whatever.

I assume that this is 'The Blackbird' tune that you're referring to?
http://www.replink.com/ancestors/midi/blakbird.htm

I was just curious about it so I found that through a search...maybe it's not the one, dunno, but, probably. (Or, one version, anyway.)

It is a pretty one, for sure.

Assuming that's the one, 'The Sheep's in the meadow, the kye's in the corn...' etc. (http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/v/volkslieder/bonny.html), that's one of the first songs I had to work on singing, when I was in college for a short time and took some singing lessons and sang in the chorus, etc... The version as arranged by Benjamin Britten.

At the time, I did really like the tune, but, I just couldn't seem to connect...I think it was about 2 weeks into practicing the song before I realized a 'kye' was a COW (and, that's sad, considering that I lived with cows, in a pasture in Iowa...)

Even sadder (maybe), that I myself am part Scottish and yet the brogue was so foreign to me.

Saddest of all, my singing, these days...heheh, boo hoo...

Anyway, it IS a beautiful tune...since being around here at Concertina.net, it came back to memory by surprise and I found the music for it online.

No single tune inspired me to take up the concertina (it was pure impulse actually). The first tune I ever learnt to play was "Watching the Wheat" - a simple tune, but I was so happy to be able to play it at the time

My two favorite tunes (that I am learning) at the moment are "Church Street" and Bach's "Ave Maria" (which sounds surprising good on concertina

Cheers
Morgana

[QUOTE=ScottC,Nov 15 2003, 08:22 AM]
  Should I be alarmed that there are apparently 5 of these groups running loose in my state?


I was amazed to see my home state of Minnesota listing 13! Morris teams. It didn't take long to scroll down the list and locate the first one.

The Asworded Nuts

Imagine my surprise.

Betty Book