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The "settings" Of A Tune


Lyle

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As I read posts here, I see people mention that the "settings" of a tune are good or bad.

 

What does "settings" mean in this context?

 

I'm guessing it's tempo, maybe chord changes, etc

 

Thanks....Lyle

 

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A tune is a string of notes, played one after the other. When a musician plays a tune, many decisions must be made, for example:

  • How many times?
  • How fast?
  • What kind of instrument?
  • In-line embellishments?
  • Side-line harmonies, drones, chords?
  • Phrasing?
  • Solo or ensemble?

The answers to these questions and others determine the setting.

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As I read posts here, I see people mention that the "settings" of a tune are good or bad.

 

What does "settings" mean in this context?

 

"Setting" has (at least) two different meanings, at least when it comes to Irish tunes.

  • The usual meaning, not limited to music, is "environment", "background", or "surroundings" (as in the "setting" of a diamond, or the "natural setting" of a forest park). Musically, this is stuff like accompaniment or arrangement, maybe chords, ornamentation, tempo, etc.
  • But (at least) in Irish traditional music -- e.g., in O'Neill's tune collections, -- the word is used just to mean different, usually significantly different, versions of a particular tune. O'Neill collected from tradition quite different but obviously related versions of various tunes (including some of the O'Carolan tunes), and he identifies them with the same name, but as different "settings".
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I think it is a confusing word and concur with Jim that it essentially means a variation ............

i.e. I would use variation, version or setting interchangeably with setting seeming to have an Irish flavour.

Would "division" have had a similar meaning in an earlier time?

 

 

 

Robin

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I think it is a confusing word and concur with Jim that it essentially means a variation ............

i.e. I would use variation, version or setting interchangeably with setting seeming to have an Irish flavour.

Would "division" have had a similar meaning in an earlier time?

 

 

 

Robin

Version or setting might be used interchangeably (though usually setting refers to quite different, well -- settings, and version might be more normally used to describe differences that are less extreme). Variation or division are entirely different. Variation obviously refers to variations of a single melody or composition. I suppose if one gathered together a group of "settings" one might have a set of variations, but usually the term variation means something more structured than that. Take a look in the Northumbrian Pipers Tunebook (1 & 2) for example of real systematic variation. Division can mean variation, but is also used in the sense of "Divisions on a Ground" which are usually a progressively more complex set of melodies based upon a bass line. The usual "Pachelbel Canon" is really a cunningly contrived set of tunes that fit over the bass and can also be played as a "round." A good compositional trick that! Divisions may have melodies that are only related by the common bass line, while variations usually, though not always, refers to varying a melodic line. Piano variations? Lets leave that out of the discussion.... :)

 

Edited to clean it up.

Edited by cboody
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Would "division" have had a similar meaning in an earlier time?

In renaissance and baroque music, "division" is used to describe once through a tune where, as a variation, each note in the tune is represented by two (or four or eight...) notes in the division. So, for example, here is a division on "Twinkle, Twinkle":

X:1
T:Twinkle, Twinkle
M:C
K:G
G2G2 d2d2|e2e2 d4||

X:2
T:Division on Twinkle, Twinkle
M:C
K:G
GABc dGBd|eGce dBGD||
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My view is that a tune or a harmony is something completely abstract. To make it audible, I have to perform it on some instrument or other (of which I have several, including my voice). But each instrument has different capabilities and limitations, and these are going to influence how the abstract melody and harmony are translated into the world of physical sound. So when I have a tune with harmonies in my head, I work out an Anglo setting, a Crane duet setting, a finger-style banjo setting, and an autoharp setting. I may also get the bass-player of my group to arrange a group setting.

 

Although I play the same melody and use the same chord structure, all the settings will be different. The concertina settings may use "note shaping" (e.g. crescendo or sforzando), which the plucked strings can't, and the autoharp arrangement can exploit the incredibly long sustain, which the banjo hasn't got and makes up for by being more agile.

 

I have several tunes that I've arranged for Anglo, Crane, banjo and autoharp, always adhering strictly to the melody, and using the same chord sequences, and usually the same tempo and often the same key. But if you transcribed them into dots, you'd see vast differences.

 

A "good setting", I would say, is one that exploits the strengths of the given instrument, and a "bad setting" is one that would probably be better handled by a different instrument.

 

And then we have to differentiate between "setting" and "arrangement" ...

 

Cheers,

John

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yes, but I think that you are talking about what is commonly called an arrangement. I still think that lyrics have musical settings and that tunes are the setting. There is no essence to these choicesetween words, but simply what people are typically talking about when they use the terms.

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... So when I have a tune with harmonies in my head, I work out an Anglo setting, a Crane duet setting, a finger-style banjo setting, and an autoharp setting. I may also get the bass-player of my group to arrange a group setting.

...

A "good setting", I would say, is one that exploits the strengths of the given instrument, and a "bad setting" is one that would probably be better handled by a different instrument.

 

And then we have to differentiate between "setting" and "arrangement" ...

 

yes, but I think that you are talking about what is commonly called an arrangement. I still think that lyrics have musical settings and that tunes are the setting. There is no essence to these choicesetween words, but simply what people are typically talking about when they use the terms.

 

Not so fast, Jack.
Here is an excerpt from a review of a recent recital of Bach organ music that, as it happens, I read yesterday. It uses the word "setting" in the same sense that John (Anglo-Irishman) used, above, and I used in an earlier post in this thread. There is no question that in this context, Bach is setting a tune, not words.

Bach's specific intentions for each work were dramatically illustrated by the three settings of Allein Gott in der Höhe sei Ehr’, one of the most frequently used tunes in the Lutheran church and therefore one that Bach set and reset many times. Of these early settings ([...]), the first two are texturally sparse and without pedals; the second is a duet for a flowing lower part, [...] under a hovering chorale.

http://newyorkarts.net/2013/03/01/bach-peter-sykes-organ-st-stephens-church-pittsfield

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PS, the British English dictionary refers to a setting in music as adapting a poem or other text to music. It seems to me if one were referring to the setting of a tune it would be a matter of what instruments were employed, etc. which I think is more typically called an arrangement, but again these are just words and different words can be used to refer to the same concept or to denote different concepts. So it really comes down to an issue of common usage and among whom. So my guess is that some use "setting" and some use "arrangement" to refer to the same concept. But I must admit I do not really know what is common usage among musicians.

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Hi, Dave. Point taken, but it still sounds as if setting is being used as a synomym for arrangement.

I think I'm with you on this one; 'setting' implying an arrangement of a tune would sound strange English; you set words to music. Not music to music.

 

The title asks about the plural though. The settings of a tune. That may have some other arcane useage somewhere.

Edited by Dirge
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Hi, Dave. Point taken, but it still sounds as if setting is being used as a synomym for arrangement.

 

Setting and arrangement are certainly closely related, but I'm not sure I'd call them synonyms. In my mind, "arrangement" describes the distribution of musical tasks among the different instruments involved in a performance (or the different voices of a single instrument) while "setting" involves all that plus decisions about phrasing, ornamentation, etc.

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There is a thread started within the past 24 hours on the Morris Dancing Discussion List entitled "Orchestral settings of morris tunes" and a recent entry contains:

You can find an intriguing setting of Brighton Camp in An Irish Symphony, by Sir Hamilton Hardy.

I think we can lay to rest the question of whether it is common usage for "setting" to refer to treatment of a tune.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

You can find an intriguing setting of Brighton Camp in An Irish Symphony, by Sir Hamilton Hardy.

I think we can lay to rest the question of whether it is common usage for "setting" to refer to treatment of a tune.

 

There are two common meanings of "to set." 1. We can set existing words to music, or 2. we can set an existing tune for a particular instrument or ensemble.

 

Perhaps we could put it this way: Setting words to music is a composer's job. Setting a tune for a particular instrument is an arranger's job - or in the context of traditional music, a player's job.

 

Cheers,

John

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Perhaps we could put it this way: Setting words to music is a composer's job. Setting a tune for a particular instrument is an arranger's job - or in the context of traditional music, a player's job.

 

"Setting" IMO is - at least regarding folk music - not that restricted.

 

Apart from the first meaning (which we are familiar with from the German word "Tonsetzer") I'd mainly think of the different versions of any traditional tune, be it by accident or even mistake or because some player liked it that slightly different way,

 

Some (or many) of these different settings (in different keys as well) may have been made just to fit a certain instrument. But the range is much wider apparently. Here is an example (taken from a current discussion somewhere else around here)...

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