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Theme Of The Month For April, 2014: Beyond 4/4, 6/8 And 3/4


Jim Besser

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A standard around New England contradance halls in the 1970s, this Zweifacher called (in German) Unser Alte Kath, or (in English) Our Old Kate has alternating pairs of measures in 3/4 and 2/4, giving it a grand scale of 10/4. To dance to it, you alternately waltz and pivot depending on the length of the measure.

 

https://soundcloud.com/dr-sleep-1/kate

 

 

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A standard around New England contradance halls in the 1970s, this Zweifacher called (in German) Unser Alte Kath, or (in English) Our Old Kate has alternating pairs of measures in 3/4 and 2/4, giving it a grand scale of 10/4. To dance to it, you alternately waltz and pivot depending on the length of the measure.

 

https://soundcloud.com/dr-sleep-1/kate

 

Nice. That's the only zweifacher I've played - learned it for a waltz session here when they wanted to teach the zwiefacher. It never caught on, but I had fun playing it.

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Here's one written by Alistair Anderson. It's part of his "Hidden Hexham", written for the Hexham Village Band. Alistair wrote it in 3/2 but invites you to think of it as alternating bars of 7/8 and 5/8. For part of Hidden Hexham, it's actually played against a more conventional 3/2 piece - which is interesting!

 

https://soundcloud.com/jignatius-aeola/priestpopple

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Here's a nice 7/8 (3-2-2) tune.

 

X:353
T:Macedonsko Devoce
C:Traditional Macedonian
M:7/8
L:1/8
K:Am
"Amin"AAa "Emin"g2 g2 | gag "Amin"e2 ce | "Dmin"f2 e d2 df | "Amin"e2 c A4 |
AAa "Emin"g2 g2 | gag "Amin"e2 cd | e2 d c2 "Emin"B2 | "Amin"A7 :|
|: "Emin"gag e2 g2 | "Dmin"f2 e d4 | f2 e d2 df | "Amin"e2 c A4 |
"Emin"gag e2 g2 | "Dmin"f2 e d2 cd | "Amin"e2 d c2 "Emin"B2 | "Amin"A7 :|
|: "Emin"BcB "Amin"A2 ce | e3 "Dmin"d4 | "Emin"G2 a b2 cd | "Dmin"d3 "Amin"c4 |
"Emin"BcB "Amin"A2 ce | e3 "Dmin"d2 cd | "Amin"e2 d c2 "Emin"B2 | "Amin"A7 :|
We've paired what I know as "Die Alte Kath" with another zweifacher that is not a regular "Bayrischer Bauer." ABC available if anyone is interested.
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This isn't much, but I was talking with some people the other day about songs in 9/8, and I thought I'd learn one of them: https://soundcloud.com/johannam17/farther-along

Didn't think of that one as yet - definitely a nice one, and I like the hymnic mood of your playing it!

 

Best wishes - Wolf

 

P.S.: 9/8 isn't that irregular, but I love it, will go for a slip jig myself which won't be in time because of Easter vacancies and the workload in advance to make them happen... :(

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9/8 isn't that irregular,

 

It's not, but the long measures (combined with slow tempo and big chords) made the bellows changes a lot trickier than I thought they'd be.

 

As I could easily imagine these (or maybe rather slightly different) difficulties of playing this tune as well as you did I had mentioned them in my commenting your track at soundcloud this morning... B)

 

I should add that bellows changes are an issue I have to face regularly when playing my Treble EC with 5-fold bellows and maybe some minor leakage using "big chords" as well. For my playing Jigs I nearly always play just the notes 612345 in one go and then change from push to pull resp. vice versa, thus retaining starting with upbeat for all measures. I like the bounce effect a lot.

 

As to a Slip Jig, I'm not sure if all nine note values can still be played this way... :unsure:

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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We've paired what I know as "Die Alte Kath" with another zweifacher that is not a regular "Bayrischer Bauer." ABC available if anyone is interested.

 

Yes please!

 

Two for the price of 1....

 

X:612
T:Zweifachers, Two
T:Die Alte Kath
T:Bayrischer Bauer
C:Traditional German
M:3/4
L:1/8
K:D
P:Die Alte Kath
"D"A3 G FG | A4 d2 | [M:2/4]"A"c2 e2 | "D"d2 f2 | [M:3/4]A3 G FG | A4 d2 | [M:2/4]"A"c2 e2 | "D"d4 :|
|: [M:3/4]"G"B2 gf g2 | "D"A2 fe f2 | [M:2/4]"A"c2 e2 | "D"d2 f2 | [M:3/4]"G"B2 gf g2 | "D"A2 fe f2 | [M:2/4]"A"c2 e2 | "D"d4 :|
K:C
M:3/4
P:Bayrischer Bauer
z G ce | "C"g3 f e2 | e2 f2 g2 | [M:2/4]"F"a4 | "G"d4 |[M:3/4]"G"f3 e d2 | d2 e2 f2 | [M:2/4]"C"g4 | e4 |
[M:3/4]ce e2 dc | "G"B4 G2 | df f2 ed | "C"c4 e2 |[M:2/4]e2 g2 | "F"f2 a2 |
[M:3/4]"G"d2 fe d2 | [M:2/4]"C"e2 g2 | "Amin"c2 e2 | [M:3/4]"F"de f2 "G"B2 | "C"c2 |]
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As Paul Sartiin of Bellowhead once said, "[This next tune] was written in 1651...which is a h-ll of a time signature."

 

This isn't that, but it's also one that they play.

 

https://soundcloud.com/johannam17/fakenham-fair

 

I heard a similar quote credited to Flos Headford:

 

The tune was written in 1713, but we play it in 4/4.

I enjoyed your playing.

 

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Well, wherever it originated, I think it's too good a joke to be used only once. :)

Agreed! Forgive me but isn't the tune you played remarkably like Rosin the Beau?

 

There is quite a long and sometimes acrimonious discussion on Mudcat about this tune. Several people suggested Rosin the Beau. There was general agreement that the tune was good and probably genuine, but that the lyrics were "fakesong".

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There is quite a long and sometimes acrimonious discussion on Mudcat about this tune. Several people suggested Rosin the Beau. There was general agreement that the tune was good and probably genuine, but that the lyrics were "fakesong".

 

Perhaps best left to moulder for generations and gradually slip into decline then. Many thanks for the insight Don!

Edited by tallship
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