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Tune Of The Month, June 2015: Vedder Michel


Jim Besser

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Hi Bob and Jim,

 

nice ideas as yet, but to my ears getting this tune really going is a pretty subtle affair. My arrangement is pretty basic as well, but demands lesser mistakes than I'm still making to truly convey that plain conception of mine...

 

Best wishes - Wolf

My "conception," at this stage, is just to make it not sound like a Morris dance tune.

 

This is exactly what I thought when listening to your recording - and you're successful with it...

 

But I may give in and actually record it the way I'd play it for dancers. Some things are just too strong to fight.

I'm achieving to give the tune a different dance feel - with no such strong experience as on your side to hinder me from trying something else... :)

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Like others, I find this tune reminding me of others. In my case, I seem to have strayed briefly into Bonny Breast Knot.

Anyway, this was the take with the fewest bum notes! Played on Crane duet.

 

https://soundcloud.com/jignatius-aeola/vedder-michel

I like this a lot, chas! You're really taking this piece places, probably will blow a few fuses along the way, but it's seriously something different in the best sense of the word! Thumbs up!

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Like others, I find this tune reminding me of others. In my case, I seem to have strayed briefly into Bonny Breast Knot.

Anyway, this was the take with the fewest bum notes! Played on Crane duet.

 

https://soundcloud.com/jignatius-aeola/vedder-michel

 

Love the excursion into minor, and the switch to Bonny Breast Knot. Nice set!

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Coupling our tune together with another similar one a special challenge was and is to play it different from how I did it for years. The second tune is still a bit shaky too, however I felt like unveiling my approach for further discussion at this point:

 

Jamie Allen - Vedder Michel

Best wishes - Wolf

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Coupling our tune together with another similar one a special challenge was and is to play it different from how I did it for years. The second tune is still a bit shaky too, however I felt like unveiling my approach for further discussion at this point:

 

Jamie Allen - Vedder Michel

Best wishes - Wolf

 

 

A nice combination of tunes, and nice chording. Feels a little rushed to me, but I assume that will smooth out as you work on it.

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Thanks a lot for the feedback, Jim! Indeed, it's still too rushed, but has (more or less) the rhythmic feel I'm hearing in the video and want to give my playing it too to my ears, hence the posting in an early state.

 

As to the chording, I re-harmonized "Jamie Allen" in order to give it the same tonica-dominant7 feel as in the second tune, shifting the ii (Amin) chord to the following bar, and altered the rhythm too, which will be obvious.

 

I'm eagerly anticipating the next step of my contrib.

 

Best wishes - Wolf

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My attempt for TOTM June 2015 on concertina.net. Vedder Michel is well known especially in North Germany. It's a nice and easy dance. "Vedder Michel" is this type of man that is dangerous for all young ladies. The lyrics of this dance describe all the tricks Michel knows to be a real Casanova. In my version the girl hits him on the floor in the last verse. But there exist a lot of variations. In England you find this tune as Turks' March No.1 ("Hardcore English").

 

https://youtu.be/Dj7nVbVNhAY

 

And here my melodeon version:

 

Edited by JoRiemer
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My attempt for TOTM June 2015 on concertina.net. Vedder Michel is well known especially in North Germany. It's a nice and easy dance. "Vedder Michel" is this type of man that is dangerous for all young ladies. The lyrics of this dance describe all the tricks Michel knows to be a real Casanova. In my version the girl hits him on the floor in the last verse. But there exist a lot of variations. In England you find this tune as Turks' March No.1 ("Hardcore English").

 

https://youtu.be/Dj7nVbVNhAY

 

And here my melodeon version:

 

https://youtu.be/IU7Jt-ymVu4

My attempt for TOTM June 2015 on concertina.net. Vedder Michel is well known especially in North Germany. It's a nice and easy dance. "Vedder Michel" is this type of man that is dangerous for all young ladies. The lyrics of this dance describe all the tricks Michel knows to be a real Casanova. In my version the girl hits him on the floor in the last verse. But there exist a lot of variations. In England you find this tune as Turks' March No.1 ("Hardcore English").

 

https://youtu.be/Dj7nVbVNhAY

 

And here my melodeon version:

 

https://youtu.be/IU7Jt-ymVu4

Thanks for a great version and thanks for solving the mystery.

 

Since recording Vedder Michel I've had the feeling I've heard it before, in an English context.

 

Sure enough, Turks March. It's on Brian Peter's great Anglophilia CD.

 

Now I can stop fretting about it!

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Here's the only notation I could find. But really, this tune is easy to learn by ear.

 

I don't know where this version came from, but the 2nd note in the 3rd measure of the 2nd line must be a G# to make an E major chord and tonicize the dominant A. See my comments in a number of previous threads. That's certainly how the young lady in the Deitch video plays it, as well as in the other videos (but not as easy to hear).

 

I'll record my own take when I'm home with my concertina. Currently in Boston at the Boston Early Music Festival.

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My attempt for TOTM June 2015 on concertina.net. Vedder Michel is well known especially in North Germany. It's a nice and easy dance. "Vedder Michel" is this type of man that is dangerous for all young ladies. The lyrics of this dance describe all the tricks Michel knows to be a real Casanova. In my version the girl hits him on the floor in the last verse. But there exist a lot of variations. In England you find this tune as Turks' March No.1 ("Hardcore English").

 

https://youtu.be/Dj7nVbVNhAY

 

And here my melodeon version:

 

 

Hey Jo, I knew we'd get a spirited version from your side when reading your name here... However I hope you don't mind me preferring your melodeon version which to my ears is perfectly consistent and charming...!

 

Best wishes - Wolf

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