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Tune Of The Month For April: Waltz From Boda


Jim Besser

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Back on topic, I'm floundering around a lot with this "playing more than one note at a time lark, it's like rubbing your head and patting your stomach at the same time ... so any tips will be gratefully received.

 

Geoff has already given you some good advice. I might add the following as based upon my own experience:

 

Just get familiar with "empty" fiths in some common keys (i.e. F/C/G/D/A maj, G/D/A/E/B min a.s.f.). Let's take, for example, Cmaj: Start playing around with the G and the upper C (octave), try out some ornamentation a.s.f., then switch to the parallel minor key (i.e. Amin) and do just the some with the E and upper A notes, then maybe switch to (subdominant) Fmaj or (dominant) Gmaj a.s.f.

 

That's how it worked for me... :)

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Thanks for all the tips.

Geoff and BES have given me exercise ideas, and

I have quite a bit of classical guitar music from my youth, so that sounds like a good place to start. I think we also have some keyboard stuff, but the guitar will mean I don't have the extra headache of reading a bass clef (I had the loan of a bassoon a while ago, but DH told me I was just too loud when I practiced - putting a sock in it made no difference at all!).

 

In fact I even have some Scott Joplin arranged for guitar, but I didn't manage to get to grips with those on a guitar, so Geoff has much respect for tackling them on concertina!

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The right chair is also very important. Whilst it might appear that single line mélodies can be played whilst standing on one's head , some of this multi finger stuff gets you right out of shape with the grip of an EC. The instrument starts to hang loose and floppy but a firm and comfortable sitting position ,repeated accurately each time after its discovery will aid the playing.

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The not so secret ambition is to record a TOTM in the bowl :lol:

Tuesday is maintenance day when we're all parked nicely, but I must admit that from shouting tests, the acoustics are dire!

In the middle of a parabolic reflector?! :blink: I'll bet they must be dire.

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Looking through the Stats of the two months so far, there have been a large number of 'views' in comparison to the number of downloads of the recorded material. What does this mean ? Vistors are interested in the Tunes but not particularly interested in how other people have interpreted them ?

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Looking through the Stats of the two months so far, there have been a large number of 'views' in comparison to the number of downloads of the recorded material. What does this mean ? Vistors are interested in the Tunes but not particularly interested in how other people have interpreted them ?

 

I wonder(ed) too - but we have to consider that there might be numerous counts of participating people like you and me just revisiting (but again, why not revisit the takes themselves as well...?).

 

Having mentioned this I'd cautiously agree that general interest in other people's recordings might be not that overwhelming... :ph34r:

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Looking through the Stats of the two months so far, there have been a large number of 'views' in comparison to the number of downloads of the recorded material. What does this mean ? Vistors are interested in the Tunes but not particularly interested in how other people have interpreted them ?

 

I wonder(ed) too - but we have to consider that there might be numerous counts of participating people like you and me just revisiting (but again, why not revisit the takes themselves as well...?).

 

Having mentioned this I'd cautiously agree that general interest in other people's recordings might be not that overwhelming... :ph34r:

 

well, I can only answer for myself, and will gladly do so:

 

I am still working on a version of my own, which my own ambition won't allow me to crank out on the fly. Also, I am somewhat irritated by the piece itself: To me, a waltz is a cheerful, carefree and glamorous dance which leads itself to happy squeezing. The waltz in question here, in contrast, is a gloomy, hesitant and melancholic (albeit very beautiful) melody which just happens to be in waltz time. I can't for the life of me figure out how people could waltz to it (the images that come to my mind are more like the dance of the vampires than a wedding). Thus, to make sense of the piece, at least I feel like having to work a lot on expression and interpretation (which actually is about the hardest part in making music).

 

I'd really hate to see the effort of the TOTM falling silently asleep. In a muisc forum, it's all about music, so the best contributions in my view are musical ones. The TOTM to me is one of the most important and relevant sunforums and deserves all the support it can get. I also love to listen to other people's takes on the same piece. I promise to add a contribution (although for schedule reasons, it won't be before middle of May)!

 

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Looking through the Stats of the two months so far, there have been a large number of 'views' in comparison to the number of downloads of the recorded material. What does this mean ? Vistors are interested in the Tunes but not particularly interested in how other people have interpreted them ?

 

I think the views v downloads will always look distorted in that way. I have listened to every recording but I look in on these pages daily.

However, I would suggest future tunes thread so we have a pool of tunes to put forward to the monthly poll.

Edited by Gerry
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Looking through the Stats of the two months so far, there have been a large number of 'views' in comparison to the number of downloads of the recorded material. What does this mean ? Vistors are interested in the Tunes but not particularly interested in how other people have interpreted them ?

 

I wonder(ed) too - but we have to consider that there might be numerous counts of participating people like you and me just revisiting (but again, why not revisit the takes themselves as well...?).

 

Having mentioned this I'd cautiously agree that general interest in other people's recordings might be not that overwhelming... :ph34r:

 

well, I can only answer for myself, and will gladly do so:

 

I am still working on a version of my own, which my own ambition won't allow me to crank out on the fly. Also, I am somewhat irritated by the piece itself: To me, a waltz is a cheerful, carefree and glamorous dance which leads itself to happy squeezing. The waltz in question here, in contrast, is a gloomy, hesitant and melancholic (albeit very beautiful) melody which just happens to be in waltz time. I can't for the life of me figure out how people could waltz to it (the images that come to my mind are more like the dance of the vampires than a wedding). Thus, to make sense of the piece, at least I feel like having to work a lot on expression and interpretation (which actually is about the hardest part in making music).

 

I'd really hate to see the effort of the TOTM falling silently asleep. In a muisc forum, it's all about music, so the best contributions in my view are musical ones. The TOTM to me is one of the most important and relevant sunforums and deserves all the support it can get. I also love to listen to other people's takes on the same piece. I promise to add a contribution (although for schedule reasons, it won't be before middle of May)!

 

 

Yes Ruediger,

I am very much in agreement and realise that to have a new tune up to a satisfactory (personal) standard can and does take longer than one month. I am working on another version and cannot see that being ready any time soon. We all have busy lives and I certainly am not criticising those who have not yet posted a recording, but I'm wondering what the other 2000 views are about.

 

Future tunes thread Gerry?.. hmmm yes I think so too.

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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Also, I am somewhat irritated by the piece itself: To me, a waltz is a cheerful, carefree and glamorous dance which leads itself to happy squeezing. The waltz in question here, in contrast, is a gloomy, hesitant and melancholic (albeit very beautiful) melody which just happens to be in waltz time.

This is an interesting concept of what a waltz is, and clearly it resonates with you, but perhaps not everyone would agree.

 

Jean Sibelius certainly didn't:

 

Nor did Frederic Chopin:

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I am somewhat irritated by the piece itself: To me, a waltz is a cheerful, carefree and glamorous dance which leads itself to happy squeezing. The waltz in question here, in contrast, is a gloomy, hesitant and melancholic (albeit very beautiful) melody which just happens to be in waltz time. I can't for the life of me figure out how people could waltz to it (the images that come to my mind are more like the dance of the vampires than a wedding).

 

I voted for the "vals" without hesitation primarily because of its melancholic mood, which I really enjoy. I played it (as the Paul Hardy tune book has it) in A-B-A form, i.e. ending with the somehow sad minor part. But out of this general peacefull sadness emerges the (major) B-part in its joyous flow, and will do this repeatedly as long as the tune gets another round.

 

Such is life, as taken in a both realistic and optimistic way, and that's what this "vals" means to me. Thus it would fit perfectly for wedding celebration IMO, whereas the vampire connotation seems pretty strange to me.

 

Regards - Wolf

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Also, I am somewhat irritated by the piece itself: To me, a waltz is a cheerful, carefree and glamorous dance which leads itself to happy squeezing. The waltz in question here, in contrast, is a gloomy, hesitant and melancholic (albeit very beautiful) melody which just happens to be in waltz time.

This is an interesting concept of what a waltz is, and clearly it resonates with you, but perhaps not everyone would agree.

 

Jean Sibelius certainly didn't:

 

Nor did Frederic Chopin:

 

Absolutely. It's a purely personal sentiment of mine, never meant to be a statement with any claim for universality whatsoever. Thanks for clarifying it. I don't expect anybody to share my sentiments, just trying to explain which (aside from technical) difficulties I encountered when approaching the piece.

 

@Wolf: I was actually born and raised in Hamburg, so I am aware that the overall degree of cheerfulness within a culture appears to correlate with the climate (rough estimate: The farther north a people resides, the more dominant the minor modes ;-)), so I am not surprised that Steve considers the Boda waltz on the more cheerful scandinavian side...

 

but let's not pursue this road further; I still consider the Boda waltz (as I do many scandinavian pieces I encountered) as a beautiful piece of music and look forward to trying to rendering it appropriately, I just have a hard time relating to it. That's basically all I meant to express; apologies if the statement should have irritated anybody. Now back to the concertinas!

 

Edited by Ruediger R. Asche
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@Wolf: I was actually born and raised in Hamburg, so I am aware that the overall degree of cheerfulness within a culture appears to correlate with the climate (rough estimate: The farther north a people resides, the more dominant the minor modes ;-)), so I am not surprised that Steve considers the Boda waltz on the more cheerful side...

 

Well, I'm a native of Hamburg too, which appears to share the line of latitude with Whaley Brigde, Derbyshiry more or less... Currently I live another 100 km or 60 miles further north. So maybe I'm determined to an even deeper melancholy (I have been told such a thing quite a few times, for instance whilst trying out my actual piano at the residence ot the former owner and seller). :)

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Ok, I decided to be stupid courageous and post my attempt here. I'm only a beginner on the concertina, and last weekend's fun at the Scandinavian squeeze-in gave me new inspiration and courage :) . And in addition, I hope some other beginners will be inspired to post too.

Boda is close to where I grew up, and I've been there several times at the Gammelgård for dance and music events. It's a fabulous area, so if you ever decide to visit Sweden and Dalarna, do it in July so that you can join the dance events at Boda gammelgård.

 

Ok, on to the tune. Sadly I had to do some cutting and pasting to have a recording with few errors (it takes me some time to learn a tune well enough to not mess up when recording), but I'm quite happy with it for now.

 

http://youtu.be/WoNEsueppiw

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