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Tune Of The Month, Jan 2014: Josefins Dopvals


Jim Besser

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I've played this for years in various contra dance settings and always thought it was traditional (you can tell I'm an ear learner, not paper trained!) But after posting it in the TOTM poll and actually seeing notation, I learned that it was composed by Roger Tallroth.

 

To that, all I can say is, this guy is totally brilliant; Josefins Dopvals is one of those waltzes that dancers just love and musicians (at least around here) love to play.

 

I understand that it was written in F, and that Tallroth prefers it in that key, but hear it played more in G - a lot of contra dance musicians are allergic to F, as are many squeezebox players of the diatonic persuasion. Your choice; I intend to learn it in F on my C/G Anglo because my skills in that key are deficient, but may also record it in the more familiar G.

 

Here's the video I posted originally; little did I know that Tallroth, the composer, is playing guitar (thank's, Irene S).

 

There's a gorgeous version on a CD by the American contra dance band Contrazz. Scroll down the page and you'll find a snippet, and if you have access to Spotify, you can listen to the entire cut.

 

And a version on accordion complete with bonfire and very talkative audience.

 

Here's notation for the tune in the original key of F, provided by Chris Drinkwater, also attached as a PDF

 

X: 1
T:Josefin's Dopvals
C:Roger Tallroth (1993)
M:3/4
L:1/4
K:F
|:"F"C F G|A c B|A G F|C2 C|"Bb"B,3/2 B,/2 B,
|D F E|"Gm"D3|"C"C3|"F"C F G|A c B|A G F|C2 D
|"Bb"B,3/2 B,/2 B,|C E F|1 "C"G3-|G3 :|2 "C"G3-|G A B
|:"F"c A c|f2 e|"Bb"d3|"F/A"c3|"Gm"B d c
|B A G|"F"A3/2 B/2 A|"C"G A B|"F"c A c|f2 e
|"Bb"d3|"F/A"c3|"Gm"B d c|B A G|"F"A3/2 B/2 A|"C"G A B
|"Dm"A G F|E2 F|"Bb"F3|B, C B,|"F"A, C F
|"C7"E D E|1 "F"F3-|F A B:|2 "F"F3-|F3||

 

And Chris's version in G:

 

X: 1
T:Josefin's Dopvals
C:Roger Tallroth
M:3/4
R:waltz
L:1/4
K:G
|:"G"DGA | Bdc | BAG | D2D | "C"C>CC | EGF | "Am"E3 | "D7"D3 |
"G"DGA | Bdc | BAG | D2E | "C"C>CC | EFG | [1"D"(A3 | A3):| [2"D"(A3 | A)Bc |
|:"G"dBd | g2f | "C"e3| "G/B"d3 | "Am"ced | "D"cBA | "G"B>cB | "D"ABc |
"G"dBd | g2f | "C"e3 | "G/B"d3 | "Am"ced | "D7"cBA | "G"B>cB |"D"ABc |
"Em"BAG | "Em/D"F2G | "C"E3 | "Am"C>DC | "G"B,DG | "D7"FEF | [1"G"(G3 | G)Bc :|[2"G"(G3 | G3) |]

 

This is a beautiful tune and totally worth the effort to learn! Let's start the new year off right with a lot of recordings.

 

And remember: you don't have to be an advanced player to participate. We all benefit from the discipline of learning new tunes and posting them for public consumption, and from the feedback we get from our peers. That's what the TOTM is all about.

Josefins Dopvals in F.pdf

josefins dopvals in g.pdf

Edited by Jim Besser
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Such a great tune, I loved it from the very beginning (Tenterden 2013) when Iris Bishop played it as a supplement to a Scottish tune sung by Martyn Wyndham-Read.

So, here is my first (!) contribution, it'll be a work on progress this time again as to me. I recorded it already yesterday (in cheerful anticipation) after having played it little over the last while - swapped one note in the A-part consistently which I probably won't maintain in the future.

 

Thanks again Jim for your work - and a happy new year to you and all partakers!

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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Iris plays it in G major, and has played it with John Dipper in Martyn's band in the past. Part of me wonders (but I have never had the chance to ask her yet) if she gleaned it from John who played it with Ralphie Jordan (I believe) while they were playing together as two thirds of the band Patterson Jordan Dipper.

For further examples - herewith harp and cello (Steph West and Danny Chapman - with nary a concertina in sight in his hands on this occasion)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhl_gx_Mf8A - first half of the video only

A version on solo nyckelharpa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fw2eTvYUcE


And as many notations in ABC as you might care to shake a stick at ...
http://thesession.org/tunes/1016

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Iris plays it in G major, and has played it with John Dipper in Martyn's band in the past. Part of me wonders (but I have never had the chance to ask her yet) if she gleaned it from John who played it with Ralphie Jordan (I believe) while they were playing together as two thirds of the band Patterson Jordan Dipper.

 

For further examples - herewith harp and cello (Steph West and Danny Chapman - with nary a concertina in sight in his hands on this occasion)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhl_gx_Mf8A - first half of the video only

 

A version on solo nyckelharpa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fw2eTvYUcE

 

 

And as many notations in ABC as you might care to shake a stick at ...

http://thesession.org/tunes/1016

 

 

PS Huzzah! At last a tune of the month that I feel some affinity with (and have liked for quite a long time). New Year's resolution to get the tina out and lay hands on it again after a long long absence thanks to many problems in the last year or so maybe :-)

 

 

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Iris plays it in G major, and has played it with John Dipper in Martyn's band in the past. Part of me wonders (but I have never had the chance to ask her yet) if she gleaned it from John who played it with Ralphie Jordan (I believe) while they were playing together as two thirds of the band Patterson Jordan Dipper.

 

Martyn and Iris called it just "Josefin's Waltz", might give you a hint...?

 

(of course they know the background, "baptism", and most likely the origin as well)

 

Besides, on a treble EC (like mine) F major wouldn't really be a choice unless doing without the fundamental.

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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Martyn and Iris called it just "Josefin's Waltz", might give you a hint...?

Well, Josefins Dopvals means "Josefin's Baptism Waltz", so it's definitely Josefin's waltz. I would guess that the shorter version of the name was adopted for non-Swede's who might not understand (or might misunderstand) "dopvals".

 

Swede's, it seems, are fond of composing tunes to commemorate happy events, especially weddings. There's many a "bride's march", more "bride's" waltzes, and even an occasional "bride's polska". These are more descriptions than formal "names".

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(of course they know the background, "baptism", and most likely the origin as well

 

A bit of duplication with my above post, as you were editing your post while I was writing mine. ;)

 

Besides, on a treble EC (like mine) F major wouldn't really be a choice unless doing without the fundamental.

 

Unless it's one of the trebles that has the low G# (or Ab) replaced with a low F. But I guess that's not like yours. B)

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Such a great tune, I loved it from the very beginning (Tenterden 2013) when Iris Bishop played it as a supplement to a Scottish tune sung by Martyn Wyndham-Read.

 

So, here is my first (!) contribution, it'll be a work on progress this time again as to me. I recorded it already yesterday (in cheerful anticipation) after having played it little over the last while - swapped one note in the A-part consistently which I probably won't maintain in the future.

 

Thanks again Jim for your work - and a happy new year to you and all partakers!

 

Nice, and congratulations on being first this month! Hope this is a harbinger of a lot of interesting recordings.

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Besides, on a treble EC (like mine) F major wouldn't really be a choice unless doing without the fundamental.

Unless it's one of the trebles that has the low G# (or Ab) replaced with a low F. But I guess that's not like yours. B)

Nope, you're right - I'd often been thinking about having such a replacement - and I back off from altering one of the given reeds which are great alltogeher. Thus I would be glad having just another reed shoe (or in fact two of them) with an "F" reed in order to swap them for the time being but not irreversibly.

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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So... here is my contribution for this month.

This tune is a favorite of mine... thanks to TOTM for giving me the opportunity to record it !

 

I play it on my Edgley G/D, in the key of G. I can also play it in F... if someone lends me a F/C :)

 

As always the recording is not perfect (missed a few buttons, messed some chords, also tends to accelerate in second part )

but overall i think this take is not that bad... hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

Happy new year to y'all !

Edited by david fabre
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So... here is my contribution for this month.

This tune is a favorite of mine... thanks to TOTM for giving me the opportunity to record it !

 

I play it on my Edgley G/D, in the key of G. I can also play it in F... if someone lends me a F/C :)

 

As always the recording is not perfect (missed a few buttons, messed some chords, also tends to accelerate in second part )

but overall i think this take is not that bad... hope you enjoy.

 

 

 

Happy new year to y'all !

 

That's a truly wonderful version. Love your chords and harmonies.

 

I've always played this in groups; doing it solo is much harder. A lot to glean from your version!

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So... here is my contribution for this month.

This tune is a favorite of mine... thanks to TOTM for giving me the opportunity to record it !

 

I play it on my Edgley G/D, in the key of G. I can also play it in F... if someone lends me a F/C :)

 

As always the recording is not perfect (missed a few buttons, messed some chords, also tends to accelerate in second part )

but overall i think this take is not that bad... hope you enjoy.

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/erbafdavid/josefin-dropvals-edgley-g-d

 

Happy new year to y'all !

Quite lovely! Any chance that you have notated your accompaniment?

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I made a little practice recording of this a few years ago, principally to test out the cello arrangement - ultimately playing this in a cello/fiddle duo, but here double tracked with concertina and cello:

 

http://rowlhouse.co.uk/concertina/music/Josefin.mp3

 

Edit: I realise dredging up ancient recordings isn't really what TotM is about!

Edited by RatFace
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I made a little practice recording of this a few years ago, principally to test out the cello arrangement - ultimately playing this in a cello/fiddle duo, but here double tracked with concertina and cello:

 

http://rowlhouse.co.uk/concertina/music/Josefin.mp3

 

Edit: I realise dredging up ancient recordings isn't really what TotM is about!

Wow. That is just lovely.

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Edit: I realise dredging up ancient recordings isn't really what TotM is about!

I guess that's more due to the chosen tune itself - everyone seems to have played it before. Playing out of former practise or posting "old" recordings doesn't make that difference.

 

Anyway, I like your recording - and not just because we share the same ornamentation when entering the B-part... :-)

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Here's my first effort on Josefins Dopvals. I intend that there will be others. I remember the tune as being popular among the New England contra dance crowd, but I've never gotten around to playing myself it until now. Also, my memory has a few different notes in the tune (the folk process?), but here I've deliberately copied the melody from the Väsen video, including doing it in the key of F.

A couple of my recent submissions have been "not in the usual octave", and this follows suit, except that this time it's a higher octave, not a lower one. It's an experiment. Probably quite annoying to those of you who describe the upper range of concertinas as "dog whistles and bat squeaks". Oh, well.

"Warts and all"? There are a few "warts" in the playing, but I'm afraid the recording quality is the whole toad. Sorry about that, but it's the best I can do until at least next week. B)

Josefins Dopvals

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