Steve Mansfield

'Chants de mariniers', sorry. Can't find a link for buying them on the AMTA website at http://lafeuilleamta.fr/ ... but it turns out they have a Tune Of The Week!

I got my copy mail-order from AMTA many years ago - it's A5, spiral-bound, and the cover is a fetching mustard colour. Chock full of great tunes. I've also got a book of tunes from 'Chants des Marins' which IIRC was also published by AMTA, I'll put further details up later when I get home.

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 %%

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!

And that's the abc file finished. Phew! I shall now proof-read all the tunes I haven't checked already, and then get the file up on my website - and as soon as it's there, you guys will be the first to know ...

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 :-)

And what an excellent workshop it was. If like me you've not been to one of Rob's workshops I'd thoroughly recommend it, as he really gets you thinking about every aspect of your concertina playing whilst leaving loads of room for personal style and technique to develop. There's lots to take away and work on which will make me a better player if I absorb 10% of it into my playing, and you can't say fairer than that for a day's workshop. Thanks to Rob for the workshop, and to Fay Hield for setting it up.

Oh very good, have a Facebook-style 'like' Gary :-)

Got my joining instructions and advanced notice of the tunes last night, woo hoo. (although I must confess that I saw the email had come but not actually looked at the stuff yet as I'd got engrossed in the Netherlands v Germany game).

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 ...

Just finished reading it yesterday, and I've reviewed it on Amazon thusly - The life story of one of the central figures of English folk music is examined in this thorough but very accessible biography. This is certainly no uncritical hagiography - Dave Arthur examines Lloyd's tendency to embroider the truth of aspects of his own early life, his willingness to actively blur the distinction between the source material as it was collected and the arranged or reconstructed songs Lloyd performed and disseminated, and the inevitable colouration that Lloyd's strong political beliefs brought to his work and the obstacles those beliefs placed in his career path. Against this, however, Arthur rightly points out that such criticisms are made with the benefit of fifty years of the scholarship that Lloyd himself played a part in formalising. He also brings us closer to the man himself, showing Lloyd's unstinting generosity towards fellow performers (even when he personally disliked the results) and researchers, the obvious and genuine affection that almost everyone who encountered him felt for him, and the enormous, pivotal position Lloyd occupies in the history of the post-war English folk revival. Through narrating this latter aspect of his life, the book also acts as a potted history of the early revival itself. Lloyd's interactions with other key figures, such as his complex relationship with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger and with Alan Lomax, are detailed, and the book gives a great insight into the processes, personalities and politics that shaped the folk revival. Lloyd was also a prolific radio scriptwriter and journalist, a researcher into folklore across much of the world, and had interests and influence in a range of other spheres; Arthur juggles the various parts of Lloyd's life with great organisational skill, preferring sometimes to give the arc of a particular aspect of Lloyd's life rather than slavishly following the chronology, but successfully avoiding the twin dangers of confusion and excessive repetition. This is a highly readable biography, meticulously researched without becoming drily academic, affectionate yet critical. The Bert Lloyd who emerges from these pages is at once both more accessible and more impressive than the Marxist pedagogue portrayed by some of his detractors. It is a biography that deserves to be read, not only because it is an important portrait of a crucial figure in the recent history of folk and traditional music, but also because it is a well-written, entertaining and highly informative read. [Edited for formatting]

Not got the videos, sorry. If you record a bit and upload it as an MP3 I'm sure someone, possibly even me, would recognise it ...

Howard has pretty much covered it. Just a couple of extra points - Even if you decided to go acoustic, if the band on the next stage along does decide to amplify (or is just a naturally loud band!) you run the risk of being swamped by, or at least having to compete with, their sound. The other thing I'd say is that playing acoustically, outdoors, you may find yourselves almost subconsciously playing louder than usual, to try to compensate for the lack of reflected sound. If your performance and material is at all likely to suffer as a result of that, you should definitely think in terms of micing up.

Have booked my place, looking forward to it. I was very envious of the Lewes workshop, so to have this less than an hour away is too good an opportunity to miss. Any other Cnetters going?

I quite like the idea of the VMP being 'activists' - hoards of crack ABC-ers roaming the countryside in search of music manuscript books to transcribe, lead by shadowy figures referred to only by their code-names John Adams and Chris Partington, communicating their findings by secret encoded messages all starting X: ... If Hollywood can make a film out of Battleships, just think of the fun that could be had with William Irwin II - This Time It's Minuets ...

The recently reformed UK folk-rock band The Home Service now carry all of their brass arrangements onstage on iPads. I mention this purely to share my favourite onstage announcement from last year, John Tams to the brass section: ' Remember lads, if we get to the end and you've got some notes left over ... don't play them!'

Pretty much what Chris said - as you get more proficient / experienced / hours under your belt you'll find that the 'idle' fingers start to keep themselves active by moving towards the next key where they will be needed. I didn't do any conscious work on developing this, it just sort of happened, and I didn't even notice it was happening until I was watching a video of myself playing and realised that the 'idle' fingers were actually on the move. Having realised it was happening I then had to consciously stop noticing it was happening, because awareness that it was happening focussed too much attention on that and not enough on the 'active' fingers! Amazing what the brain does whilst you think it's concentrating on other things.

Well I'm not sure if I'm of the smartypantscomputerati , but to change the speed of playback in Audacity without changing the pitch ... 1. Load the file into Audacity. 2. Select the area of the file you want to slow down (Click and hold at the start of the section, drag, let go when the area you want is highlighted). If you want to do the whole file, ignore this step as the next steps will automatically select the whole file. 3. Go to the Effect menu. 4. Select Change Tempo. 5. Either drag the slider, or type a number, to select how much you want to change the tempo. 6. Click Play and listen. Those instructions are for the current version of Audacity on Windows, other versions and operating systems may vary.

Ah, fair enough, thanks. Thanks also for the offer re: the words - I would have thought that a straight transcription into a text file would do the job so that the words were available either as a separate file, or attached to the abcs as W: fields. So ... I'll get all the tunes into abc. The words I leave to you, and/or anyone else who wants to pitch in on those. Once we've got to the end of the book, and have some clarification of the copyright status, we can re-assess options then.

Abc update - the tunes are going fine, I'm up to date with Gary's posts. The song words ... well to be honest they don't interest me, so I'm seriously behind ... well actually I haven't STARTED transcribing them. So if someone is interested in them enough to type them out, drop me a PM or a message here and we'll get some kind of effort-merging going. Also .. does anyone know how, in standard abc (e.g. readable by abcm2ps, renderable by abcm2ps-using packages like Easyabc and Abc Navigator etc.) you would do the dotted bar marking under FIN at the start of the 4th line of Le Chant des Auvergnats, page 16? http://accordeonaire.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/la-bourree-part-5.html I shall be highly embarrassed, of course, if someone answers with a link to the relevant section of my own tutorial!

There have been various stabs at auto-converting audio to MIDI down the years (and the hop from MIDI to abc is already catered for by various packages). However none of them produce anything like reliable results on anything other than the purest sine wave tones played in a pristine environment - anything less optimum than that and you will spend so much time correcting the resultant files that you might as well transcribe them yourselves in the first place. None of them remotely cope with the subtle changes of rhythm and pace that we call technique and the software just sees either as errors, or as a note which lasts 13/16 followed by a 3/16 rest before the next note; whilst any kind of tremolo, or even wet-tuned reeds, drive the pitch recognition demented (particularly if the source material tuning isn't brilliant in the first place) If it's audio you want to transcribe, various packages (I use Freecorder, which is a browser plugin, other packages are available) which will record any audio off of the web as it plays, and save it as MP3 - you can then slow down the MP3 in just about any half-decent audio package (Audacity for example). If you literally want to *see* what the musician are doing, e.g. slow down the video to study fingerings etc., there are again various utilities which will download YouTube videos to your local drive (again, Freecorder will do this) and you should then be able to drop them straight into the VLC player to use the slow-downer in there. And anyway, Personally I've always found that the actual act of making a careful transcription by hand teaches you far, far more than the resultant sheet music itself ever does.

(Completely off topic) Yes, that 'feature' of the editor plays merry heck with any ABC tunes using the > construct too! Ah well. Unticking the Enable emoticons box does the trick, but I usually forget that it's on by default ... Loving the tunes in the music supplement, not a tunesmith I'd come across before but some really nice ones there.

Ooh heck, I put the envelope in the recycling without checking the colour ... will have to go fettering in the paper recycling sack when I get home to check now ...

Hang on a minute, I thought we were talking about abc-ing the tunes and songs. There are millions of tunes in abc format all over t'Internet and 'rumblefish and google and amazon and US DMCP' seem to have managed to survived for years without hoovering them up into a pay-walled garden. And let's face it, is there really such a huge commercially-exploitable resource being created here out of a 1920s French music book? Let's keep a bit of perspective ...

Well I hadn't included the lyrics from the ones published so far, but I guess that wouldn't be too much of a stretch if the file's going to become a public resource rather than a private thing. I speak enough French to realise that the lyrics weren't French - if they're Occitan, that explains it!