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Suggestions For Future Tunes Of The Month


Jim Besser

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Gcoover's presentation of his new tunebook gave me the idea of choosing Christmas carols (or tunes) as THEME OF THE MONTH December...

 

What do you think?

 

Or "holiday" or "winter" tunes/songs? E.g., "Winter Wonderland", "Frosty the Snowman", and "Jingle Bells" aren't exactly "carols", though the Christmas season is usually the only time when you hear them sung. And some folks celebrate other holidays in December... Hanukkah, the winter solstice, etc.

 

I'd certainly be interested in hearing songs/tunes from non-English traditions. I know that Denmark and Sweden each have some of their own, and I've heard a couple of Spanish ones. I suspect that Germany has more than O Tannenbaum and Stille Nacht, both of which have become (in translation) English standards. :D

 

Almost certainly not time to organize this crazy idea for this year, but what about a concertina band version of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, or at least excerpts therefrom?

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I suspect that Germany has more than O Tannenbaum and Stille Nacht, both of which have become (in translation) English standards. :D

Yes indeed, and I know which of them I'd contribute...

 

Almost certainly not time to organize this crazy idea for this year, but what about a concertina band version of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, or at least excerpts therefrom?

Crazy but attractive!

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How about Chinese?

 

X: 38
T: Stars of Ice
C: Chinese Carol
C:Fan T'ien-hsiang
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: G
"G"d3 B "Am"A2 GE|"G"D2 (EB,)D4|"D"D3F "Em"E2 (GA)|"G"B2 (ed)B4|
"D"A3B (dB)A2|"Em"G3B AG E2|"D"D3 G A2"G?"B2|"Am"A2 GA"Em"E4|
"G"d3 B "Am"A2 GE|"G"D2 (EB,)D4|"G7"B2 (de)B2 (AG)|"C"E8|
"C"e2 (ge) "G"d2 (ed)|B2 (dB)"D"A4|"^N.C."(DE) (GA) B2 "Em"de|"Am"A2 "D(Bm)"(dB) "G"G4|]
W: I wonder about the chords
W:
W:1. Stars of ice, wheel of moonlight bright,
W:Shine on sheep with silvery light;
W: Humble shepherds chatting circled round,
W:Sit content on grassey heights;
W: Sudden light! Hark, the angels sing!
W:Shepherds crouch in awe.
W: Mid the clouds theangels proclaim:
W:God's Son is born in Bethlehem.
W:
W:2.Dies the song, stars and moon gently fade,
W: Shepherds leap for very joy;
W:Leave their quiet flocks homeward quickly fly
W: Worship then the Holy Boy,
W:Wondrous news thru the streets resounds (sic)
W: Glad Praises fill every home.
W:Poor man's Saviour, peasant's Friend, Comes today to Bethlehem.
W:
W:3.Learned men from far eastern lands
W: kneel befor the Holy Child,
W:Bring abundant gifts, rare, luxuriant,
W: Crowd the agewron village inn.
W:Miles on miles had they come to adore;
W: No distance seemed too far.
W:Boundless saving, peaceful love
W: Now has come to Bethlehem.
W:
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I suspect that Germany has more than O Tannenbaum and Stille Nacht, both of which have become (in translation) English standards. :D

Yes indeed, and I know which of them I'd contribute...

 

Almost certainly not time to organize this crazy idea for this year, but what about a concertina band version of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, or at least excerpts therefrom?

Crazy but attractive!

 

If someone can figure out a way to do this on line I'm in...

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Not to jam all mine in here, but wanted to make some suggestions of genres (with an example tune each, but I'm fine for whatever cool in the genre) for future TOTM, before I forget my ideas. :unsure:

 

I guess I mostly play a mix of Irish trad, some Newfoundland, some Northern English, some American Old Time, hymns including Shape Note, etc. Only for a few of those genres do I do the dance music largely popular here, for a lot of others I either do voice accompaniment, instrumental versions of ballads, or loose-form styles like slow airs and their equivalents.

 

Here are a few suggestions for genres that don't generally use concertina, but for which concertina might be a great fit:

  • Breton: A lot of an dro are pretty simple and repetitive so lots of room to build on a basic riff. Here's a clip of
    , and the dots of one of many interpretations.
  • Gaspar Sanz: Aragonese baroque guitar composer (1640-1710), formed the basis of a lot of modern classical guitar playing. Some of his slower and easier tunes might be fun to arrange; a good choice would be Rujero. Dots I prefer the tune
    , but not seeing good dots as quick, though we could find an out-of-copyright score and just scan it for the forum.
  • Persian: there's a really infectious and simple plaintive song by Iranian classical/pop singer Hayadeh,
    ("Flower of Stone"). The basic riff is pretty straightforward, and there's some neat bass lines below it for the left hand.
  • Icelandic: Another really simple theme that's easy to riff on are the various Krummi (Raven) Icelandic folksongs. Here's an
    ,
    ,
    , etc. Very easy to pick up by ear and arrange.
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Not to jam all mine in here, but wanted to make some suggestions of genres (with an example tune each, but I'm fine for whatever cool in the genre) for future TOTM, before I forget my ideas. :unsure:

 

I guess I mostly play a mix of Irish trad, some Newfoundland, some Northern English, some American Old Time, hymns including Shape Note, etc. Only for a few of those genres do I do the dance music largely popular here, for a lot of others I either do voice accompaniment, instrumental versions of ballads, or loose-form styles like slow airs and their equivalents.

 

Here are a few suggestions for genres that don't generally use concertina, but for which concertina might be a great fit:

  • Breton: A lot of an dro are pretty simple and repetitive so lots of room to build on a basic riff. Here's a clip of Hanter dro de Languidig, and the dots of one of many interpretations.
  • Gaspar Sanz: Aragonese baroque guitar composer (1640-1710), formed the basis of a lot of modern classical guitar playing. Some of his slower and easier tunes might be fun to arrange; a good choice would be Rujero. Dots I prefer the tune Pavane, but not seeing good dots as quick, though we could find an out-of-copyright score and just scan it for the forum.
  • Persian: there's a really infectious and simple plaintive song by Iranian classical/pop singer Hayadeh, Gul-e Sangam ("Flower of Stone"). The basic riff is pretty straightforward, and there's some neat bass lines below it for the left hand.
  • Icelandic: Another really simple theme that's easy to riff on are the various Krummi (Raven) Icelandic folksongs. Here's an instrumental version, acapella version, jazz version, etc. Very easy to pick up by ear and arrange.

 

 

Excellent suggestions, and you can be sure some of these will show up in future polls!

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Today the topic came up twice: in messaging another Cnet member who lives in Hawaii, and also at a jam session where a suggstion of such came up.

 

What about doing a traditional Hawaiian tune on concertina?

 

There are pop-culture classics like "Aloha Oe", but if we want to dig deeper Honolulu Magazine has a slist of "50 Greatest Songs of Hawaii" that's ripe for mining. Could be a really neat source of a very harmonic style of melodic playing. Here's a slack-key guitar version of "Aloha Oe": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tRFSQVfC4I

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just throwing out another idea:

 

  • Turkish: there are a lot of neat tones with some odd chromatics, but probably the one that's most familiar to Western listeners, and a really widely-known folk melody in Turkey, would be Üsküdar'a Gider İken ("While on the way to Uskudar neighborhood"), also known by Anglicisations like Uskudar. Westerners who've covered or riffed on the tune include Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy, Eydie Gormé, Eartha Kitt, and Boney M. Here's a version
    with I believe a lavta (long-neck oud). And
    . And here's
    .

 

 

EDIT: Huh, turns out someone uploaded an arrangement of the tune on Maccann duet back 5 years ago, so here's an even more direct example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pChz1Tsry-A

Edited by MatthewVanitas
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  • 6 months later...

Here's a lovely slow air from Alistair Anderson's "Steel Skies" suite, The Air for Maurice Ogg. Alistair allows amateur use and recording of his music as long as he is acknowledged as the composer.

 

X:1

T:Air For Maurice Ogg, The
C:From Steel Skies by Alistair Anderson
Q:1/4=110
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
de | f3 A A2 d=c | B d3 G2 AG | F3 A d3 A | d>e f<a e2 de | f2 A2 A2 d=c|
"6"B3 G E2 AG | F3 A d3 A | d>e f<e d2 cd || e3 A A2 ce | d3 B G>A B<d |
"11"=c>B A<G F>A G>E | F2 D2 D2 ^cd | e2 A2 A2 ce | f2 d2 A>d f<a | g>e cB A<a g>e | d6|]

 

This is a nice arrangement that differs slightly from the original here and there but it's enough to give you an idea.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpvJeYYcSnQ

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And now for something completely different. Obscure folk tune gets given the trad jazz treatment. I can't find a reference to this anywhere on the net either as a recording (other than my Youtube link) or sheet music. The jazz source is Max Collie's Rhythm Aces but no reference on their website and it's not on any of the CDs. If it wasn't for the fact that I remember this tune well I might have thought that Martin had written this himself!

 

Girl in Clover

 

X:1
T: Girl in Clover
Z: Anahata <anahata@treewind.co.uk> from Martin Ellison on YouTube
N: Martin got it from the playing of Max Collie's Rhythm Aces
M: 12/8
L: 1/8
Q:3/8=95
K:G
B2c |"G" d3-dcB "Em"A2B3d| "C"e3-e2{fe}d "D"A3-A2d |\
"G"d3-dcB "Em"ABG3e | "D"d3 "A"^c3 "D"d3-d2 B |
"G"B3-BAG "Bm"D3-D2D |"C"G3-GBd "Am7"c3-c2B |\
"G"B2G3G G2A B2G |"Am7"A3-"D"A3 "G"G3-G2 :|
| :D | "G"d3-dBG "Em"e2e3B | "Am7"A3-A2E "D"F2F3d |\
"G"d3-dBG "Em"e3-e2A | "A"^c2eg2e "D"f2d3B |
"G"B3-BAG "Bm"D3-D2D |"G"G3-GDG "Am7"A3-AGA |\
"G"B2G3G G2AB2G | "Am7"A3 "D"A3 "G"G3-G2 :|

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And now for something completely different. Obscure folk tune gets given the trad jazz treatment. I can't find a reference to this anywhere on the net either as a recording (other than my Youtube link) or sheet music. The jazz source is Max Collie's Rhythm Aces but no reference on their website and it's not on any of the CDs. If it wasn't for the fact that I remember this tune well I might have thought that Martin had written this himself!

 

Girl in Clover

 

X:1

T: Girl in Clover

Z: Anahata <anahata@treewind.co.uk> from Martin Ellison on YouTube

N: Martin got it from the playing of Max Collie's Rhythm Aces

M: 12/8

L: 1/8

Q:3/8=95

K:G

B2c |"G" d3-dcB "Em"A2B3d| "C"e3-e2{fe}d "D"A3-A2d |\

"G"d3-dcB "Em"ABG3e | "D"d3 "A"^c3 "D"d3-d2 B |

"G"B3-BAG "Bm"D3-D2D |"C"G3-GBd "Am7"c3-c2B |\

"G"B2G3G G2A B2G |"Am7"A3-"D"A3 "G"G3-G2 :|

| :D | "G"d3-dBG "Em"e2e3B | "Am7"A3-A2E "D"F2F3d |\

"G"d3-dBG "Em"e3-e2A | "A"^c2eg2e "D"f2d3B |

"G"B3-BAG "Bm"D3-D2D |"G"G3-GDG "Am7"A3-AGA |\

"G"B2G3G G2AB2G | "Am7"A3 "D"A3 "G"G3-G2 :|

Both very nice suggestions, thanks!

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  • 3 weeks later...
Abbots Bromley Horn Dance - this tune is dark, beautiful and very very mysterious.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL3a13AsDPI

 

& and an absolute exquisite rendition by Clive Williams;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juojlCUXwwg

 

 

various abc versions available - there is something wrong with this one as it jumps, but the notation looks ok

 

http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/England/misc/AbbotsBromleyHornDance1_Em/0000

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Abbots Bromley Horn Dance - this tune is dark, beautiful and very very mysterious.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL3a13AsDPI

 

& and an absolute exquisite rendition by Clive Williams;

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juojlCUXwwg

 

 

various abc versions available - there is something wrong with this one as it jumps, but the notation looks ok

 

http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/England/misc/AbbotsBromleyHornDance1_Em/0000

 

 

Not a bad idea. I play it every December for my Morris group (we only do the dance then), but I was also in a pickup band once when we played it fast as a lively contra dance. tune! A little strange, but it seemed to work.

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Talking of December - a bit early I know - but I was going to suggest the Halsway Carol schottische

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qcUzQUuy9E

 

or take your pick;;

 

http://halsway.musicwebdesign.nl/performances.php

 

we do need to see some more concertinas on this page :-)

 

I actually thought about that one last year but didn't get around to it. Thanks for the reminder!

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  • 1 month later...

...for a theme of the month, would there be any appettite for some Blues? I can't think of a specific tune at the moment, though whenever I here the old piano blues from some players like Jimmy Yancey, I think that I'l like to give it a go.

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