Anglo/English 4-part notation?

[gcoover]

Ok, I'm trying to come up with a scheme to show 4-part music for both Anglo and English concertinas, and this is what I've got so far (see attached), using three staffs. 

 

The top staff is for C/G Anglo, at real pitch, melody only but with lines of numbers top and bottom corresponding to each of the 4 parts, so theoretically 4 Anglos could play in parts, or one could try playing it all at once. The melody is high because that's the most likely range for the Anglo melody when also playing left hand accompaniment. The only peculiarity on the upper row is showing the occasional left-hand button number in parentheses.

 

The middle staff is two parts, in real pitch, for treble and tenor instruments (EC or Duet), with stems up for one part and stems down for the other.

 

The bottom staff is two parts, in treble clef an octave high, for baritone and bass instruments (who likely play in treble clef but the sound that comes out will be an octave or two lower), with stems up for one part and stems down for the other.

 

Sorry, no bass clef at the moment, and I'm not sure if there is room to squeeze one in as everything  is already fairly cluttered.

 

Of course, assuming they are "paper-trained", players could choose to play any line in whatever octave their instrument is in, which could lead to some really rich sounds.

 

The project at hand is a collection of sacred songs and hymns for all concertinas, and yes, it will include some Sacred Harp too.

 

Questions, comments, tomatoes? 

 

 

Gary

 

 

 

A-Mighty-Fortress-Is-Our-God-C-ANGLO-SACRED-3staff.pdf

Edited May 26, 2020 by gcoover
updated the tab

[Steve Schulteis]

I'm looking forward to this one, Gary! Thanks for sharing a taste.

 

As an anglo player, this looks great to me. The parenthesized notes are a bit of a jolt, but nothing I can't get used to, I'm sure. I think it's a good solution to allow keeping each voice on its own line, which I like. I also like that the anglo staff shows the notes that I'll actually be playing, but that I can still find the melody in a more "ordinary" register in the other parts of the score. I agree that there isn't really room for the bass clef, but since it's not of much use to me personally, maybe I'm dismissing it too easily.

 

It looks like "A Mighty Fortress" remains in a pretty typical range for singing. I'm curious if you're finding that you have to compromise that a bit with some arrangements in order to fit them on the anglo. Or are you considering that at all?

 

If you don't mind a bit of proof-reading, the tab for the melody note on the second beat of measure 17 should be a draw 7 instead of a draw 3. There are also a some minor disagreements between the staff notation and the anglo tabs about which voice plays certain 8th notes (measures 2, 6, 9, 13). In measure 9 in particular, the treble/tenor staff also disagrees with the tabs.

 

I haven't worked through playing all four voices at once yet, but I'm excited to try!

[gcoover]

Thanks for proofing, good catch on measure 17. The other staff/tab differences come from trying to show the melody on one line. On measure 9 I've now changed that to a push so all four notes are now available (works better, too!). These church harmonies are hard to make fit, but working on the re-do of the Alan Lochhead book has really helped.

 

I'm trying to keep the keys the same as in the old hymn and gospel songbooks whenever possible - wouldn't it be fun to play along in church with the organ and choir! But if it's in something like Eb or Ab, then I'm adjusting the key to better fit the Anglo.

 

Gary

Edited May 24, 2020 by gcoover

[adrian brown]

Slightly off topic, but perhaps relevant to the issue of how best to notate for the Anglo. In "our" book, there was one tune: Belle qui tiens ma vie that we notated in treble and bass clefs, with the button numbers above each of the two staves. I asked Gary to do this specifically because it was a four-part tune and I thought it was important to see the individual lines in a horizontal sense, rather than simply a succession of button numbers. To use this on an Anglo, you really need to write the whole thing an octave below how it would sound on a CG, with the happy coincidence that most of what you play on the right hand will be in the treble clef and the left hand on the bass clef. (Right hand button 1 push becomes middle C.) Now to my question - how did you find that Anglo players? Did it make sense? The nice thing about learning this is that it opens up a whole world of keyboard scores that you can theoretically play on the Anglo, although in practice of course, you often need to simplify or edit them somewhat for reasons of range or missing notes.

 

Adrian