Kathryn Wheeler
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Posts posted by Kathryn Wheeler
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Hi folks! Hope this is interesting/of use!
I've used the well-loved tune Brighton Camp (The Girl I Left Behind Me) to show how I approach playing both melody and accompaniments in various ways on the 20b C/G anglo.The video starts with me playing and then it goes on to a discussion/demo.
Brighton Camp is used for a dance we do with my local side Bow Brook Border in Worcestershire, so when I’m not dancing I’ve been jamming along with melodeons/accordion/fiddle and a lot of their tunes are in G major. Some seem to lie easily on the anglo and immediately can be accompanied whilst playing melody. Others require a bit more thought and experimentation. Interesting though!
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Yes absolutely, when for example I’m improvising with friends
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Wonderful anecdotes! I'd love to have a go and I am sure my mum would get all sorts of flashbacks to playing one!
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Aha! Thank you for clarifying - I can see what you mean about the 16th century feel. I'd certainly like to hear it on a spinet or harpsichord.
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12 hours ago, SIMON GABRIELOW said:
Very hypnotic catching melody; reminded me almost of an Elizabethan piece I could well imagine playable on spinette, or even lute.
Thankyou
Which piece are you referring to as I’ve linked to lots in this thread?
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My mum grew up with a harmonium in the front room in the 40s (she remembers he clunking sound of the pedals!) and also remembers evangelical folk (she thinks) pushing a harmonium through the streets, stopping and singing carols (she joined in - all under the street lamp), before moving on. This was in a valley in S Wales
The reed organ I remember was in the 70s and was electric - I definitely remember the whirring sound!Thankyou for your recollections!
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DaveM - Thanks for introducing me to Emilia’s channel (the Juuri and Juuri fiddler - she has more tunes with the two instruments - reminds me of playing fiddle with my piano accordionist friend and also if the reed organ I played as a kid
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Imagine that approach on concertinas!
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Only tangentially related, but I am just reminded of that amazing Hebridean church singing whereby everyone sings their own version of the tune at the same time as everyone else and produces the most amazing heterophony!! (Incidentally that is one tool available to players of medieval music too)
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23 minutes ago, CrP said:
Thank you Kathryn. For reasons I can't identify, your piece brought to mind the open, spacious, sinuous music of Erik Satie -- "Gymnopedies" and "Gnossiennes". Yours is seductive, meant in a good way -- I did not want it to hurry up or speed up or over-emphasize the rhythm. Do more of that, please.
I have to listen to those pieces again! Thankyou for those thoughts- I know what you mean! Much appreciated
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2 hours ago, SIMON GABRIELOW said:
Lovely performance and mysterious melody too!
The Anglo systems two halves of keyboard seems to particularly lend itself to that soulful sound.
Thank you very much
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16 minutes ago, Noel Ways said:
This piece that you wrote Kathryn so reminds of MrManfid's, "For Levon":
I adore this!
I love that it very much comes from the instrument and feels like an improvised, in the moment piece. Way more than mine in that mine came from some improvisation but then has really a very simple structure. Love the bellows “breaths” section particularly. And the bellows shaking (which as an accordionist I’m well familiar with and have experimented with on anglo).
I am encouraged to play further and be looser.
Thankyou for this!
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By the way, if anyone is interested, this is a Worcestershire scene in the video - looking across to the Malvern Hills, just across the Common from the Elgar birthplace museum. This is from one of several green tracks crossing a farm, heading down towards the River Teme. The barbed wire was an interesting shape - the farmer had been inventive in using several pieces to make it stockproof! It was a bleak old midwinter’s day
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10 minutes ago, richard said:
Thankyou for that- very interesting in that ornamentation including vibrato seems to be the main approach used to add to the mood, though there is bellows work in there (some nice use of silence and tailing off too) and sparse but telling additional notes. The contrast of tune mood is grand too
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35 minutes ago, d.elliott said:
I always thought that an expressive Anglo rendition was a bit of an oxymoron, you have proved me so very wrong.
Sensitive playing with a harmonisation that accentuates rather than dominates, well done indeed.
That means a lot, thankyou
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2 hours ago, wunks said:
Your approach works quite well. It's beautiful! Not only the sparse harmony but a frugal melody line as well. It's not easy to resist opening Pandora's box......😊
Thankyou Wunks! It is quite a temptation isn’t it, but easier to resist with the mood of this piece
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54 minutes ago, Gregor Markič said:
Kathryn, I love your playing.
Thankyou so much Gregor!
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Like the drone button you sometimes get eg C in both directions?
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How I play harmonic style on the 20b - demonstration video using Brighton Camp/Girl I Left Begind Me
in Concertina Videos & Music
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Thankyou!