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Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy


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A fairly simple tune made difficult that I could only use two fingers (and a thumb) on my right hand due to "Mallet Finger"  A broken ligament and a cracked bone in my finger. It will take about three months to heal. 

A lovely tune from a song made famous by The Copper Family of Sussex.

Al

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6 hours ago, Alan Day said:

A lovely tune from a song made famous by The Copper Family of Sussex.

Thanks! Co-incidentally, I decided only yesterday that it was time I had a go at this, so I dug out

the book ('A Song for Every Season', Bob Copper, Paladin, 1975, 586-0822 8  ) to start transcribing

it into ABC. I now have a sound track to go with it!

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8 hours ago, Alan Day said:

A fairly simple tune made difficult that I could only use two fingers (and a thumb) on my right hand due to "Mallet Finger"  A broken ligament and a cracked bone in my finger. It will take about three months to heal. 

A lovely tune from a song made famous by The Copper Family of Sussex.

Al

Ouch, a mallet finger. I had that once.

How did it happen? At least 2 members of C.net got it by taking their sock off...

On 11/24/2014 at 3:29 PM, adrian brown said:

 

Now it's my turn :-( Only consolation is to know I'm not the first with a problem taking socks off... It happened already 10 days ago and I just ignored it and even managed to play 2 concerts last week. But a visit to the doctor this morning was very bad news, seems 6-8 weeks with my middle finger permanently in a splint and then some re-education. Luckily it's a quiet period for us and I've only had to cancel one concert.

 

Just remember all of you, how dangerous socks can be...

Looks like it's going to be bass runs for me for 6 weeks...

 

Adrian

 

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Great tune, as are so many of the Copper family's repertoire. May I suggest "Come Write Me Down" as another tune with great harmony potential for anglo....

 

Not being at all critical, Alan, but the three low note run on the left hand at the very beginning is magic imho. But sadly missing at the start of the second and fourth line where they would also fit rather nicely, and totally unused on the second time through. I keep playing the video, humming those notes, somehow believing they will magically appear on the recording..... 

 

Hope you soon recover from your finger injury, however caused. I am not playing at present as I have an infected wart on my right hand middle finger tip that won't heal properly. Feels like an electric shock when I touch a concertina key with it. I try to avoid using that finger, but "old dogs, new tricks" syndrome soon kicks in.

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The injury was caused by me just rubbing excess earth off a turf of grass. So easily done I just cannot imagine how I have not caused this injury before. The nurse told me that it is a common complaint caused to nurses tucking sheets under the mattress. The tendon break normally causes the bone to break, or a hairline break which has happened to my finger. I made a little splint with a couple of matchsticks when I did it and I understand from the doctor it was the best thing I could have done. I am not a professional musician, but a two to three months recovery would be a real blow for a professional .

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6 hours ago, malcolm clapp said:

Great tune, as are so many of the Copper family's repertoire. May I suggest "Come Write Me Down" as another tune with great harmony potential for anglo....

There is a 3-voice ABC version of this tune in the Rude Mechanicals web site:

 

http://www.rudemex.co.uk/library/ABC/01tunelib_abc.php

 

There's a PDF in there somewhere as well...

Edited by lachenal74693
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On 4/4/2022 at 6:39 AM, lachenal74693 said:

...I decided only yesterday that it was time I had a go at this, so I dug out

the book ('A Song for Every Season', Bob Copper, Paladin, 1975, 586-0822 8  ) to start transcribing

it into ABC...

At the risk of violating copyright, here is my first stab at the ABC for this tune:

X:1
T:Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy
%%video https://youtu.be/cR_6wixC2yg?t=28
C:Traditional - transcribed from: 'A Song for Every Season', Bob Copper, Paladin, 1975, 586-0822 8
O:England
B:'A Song for Every Season', Bob Copper, Paladin, 1975, 586-0822 8
D:'A Song for Every Season, The Copper Family, Leader LEA 4046-9
D:'The Fox Jumps Over the Parson's Gate, Peter Bellamy, Topic 12T200
D:'Won't You Go My Way?', Peter Bellamy, Argo ZFB 37 
Z:RJH, April 2022
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:120
%%%score 1|2
K:Dmaj
V:1
DE | "D" F2 F2 F2 (EF) | "G" G4 A2 "D" (AG) | "Bb" (FE) D2 "A" E2 E2 | "D" D6 DE |
"D" F2 F2 F2 (EF) | "G" G2 G2 "D" A2 (AG) | "Bb" (FE) D2 "A" E2 E2 | "D" D6 A2 |
"G" B2 A2 "D" A2 d2 | A2 F2 "G" G2 A2 | "Bb" B2 A2 "G" (FE) D2 | "A" E6 DE | 
"D" F2 FF F2 (EF) | "G" G2 G2 "D" A2 (AG) | "Bb" (FE) D2 E2 "A" E2 | "D" D6 |
V:2
DB, | D2 D2 D2 CD | D4 D2 D2 | G,2 G,2 A,2 A,2  | D6 DD | 
D2 D2 D2 CD | D2 D2 D2 D2 | G,2 G,2 A,2 A,2 | D6 F2 |
G2 F2 D2 D2 | C2 D2 E2 F2 | G2 F2 D2 D2 | A,6 DD | 
D2 DD D2 A,D | D2 D2 D2 D2 |G,2 G,2 A,2 A,2 | D6 |

In the book, the score utilises 'voice overlay' (in ABC terminology). I have separated the two

voices in this ABC rendering. PDF attached. I think I got it right!

 

If this is deemed to be in violation of copyright rules, I will delete...

 

Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy.pdf

Edited by lachenal74693
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On 4/4/2022 at 9:05 AM, Leonard said:

Ouch, a mallet finger. I had that once.

How did it happen? At least 2 members of C.net got it by taking their sock off...

 

Yes, That was 8 years ago now and I still think of it taking my socks off! Good luck Alan and keep it in the splint for the full three months. I heard horror stories of people taking it off too soon and then having to go back to the beginning again. I tried a number of different types of splint over the mending period and with one of them I could use my finger (it was the RH middle one) on some of the outer row buttons.

 

Adrian

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Jim I have two identical Jeffries A CG and a GD the dot is to stop me picking up the wrong concertina when I am on stage. Something I did at Warwick Folk Festival in front of a packed audience playing a duet with Jody Kruskal.

Al

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10 hours ago, Alan Day said:

Jim I have two identical Jeffries A CG and a GD the dot is to stop me picking up the wrong concertina when I am on stage. Something I did at Warwick Folk Festival in front of a packed audience playing a duet with Jody Kruskal.

Al

Don't believe you. I think it's so you know which way round to hold it.😁

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Thank you Alan for this song which was completely unknown to me. I have to admit I've never heard of the Cooper Family. I think the pdf of the music posted by Lachenal has an error in what I assume are chord markings. At the beginning of bar 3 and several other places the chord is given as B flat which to my ears at any rate, seems incorrect. The G in the bass and the F sharp in the melody create a jarring dissonance which I think is not appropriate to this style of music. In any event a B flat major chord does not contain a G or an F sharp. I think it should be a D in the bass. It could be a B in the bass which would make it B minor, the relative minor of D. Perhaps I've misread the whole thing as my printer is not working and I don't have a copy in front of me as I write.

Unfortunately I cannot trust my ears when listening to recorded music as I wear very strong hearing aids which often make music sound like it's changing keys in mid-stream. Pretty frustrating but at least with the hearing aids I can hear, if not always properly.  Luckily I don't have this problem when playing the concertina.

Juris

PS Sorry about the long-winded diatribe. I just looked at it again before sending this off and I guess the B flat is a typographical error for B minor and the G in the bass should be a B. 

J.

 

 

 

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47 minutes ago, juris said:

Thank you Alan for this song which was completely unknown to me. I have to admit I've never heard of the Cooper Family.

 

Just so we’re all on the same page, it’s the Copper family, not the Cooper family, and here they are singing it:

 

 

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3 hours ago, juris said:

Thank you Alan for this song which was completely unknown to me. (1) I have to admit I've never heard

of the Cooper Family. I think the pdf of the music posted by Lachenal has an error in what I assume are

chord markings. (2) At the beginning of bar 3 and several other places the chord is given as B flat which

to my ears at any rate, seems incorrect... (3) Unfortunately, I cannot trust my ears...

(1) The Copper Family singing Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy This is, I think, the track from the recording cited

in my post.

 

(1a) A bonus. The late, great, Peter Bellamy singing Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy. Again, I think this is a track

from one of the recordings I cited.

 

(2) I agree those B-flats sound a little peculiar, but the ABC is (quite deliberately) a rendering of the score

as presented as in the book (except that the 'voice overlay' is presented as a separate 2nd voice). The PDF

is the output produced by that ABC code. The B-flat chords are 'abbreviated' to 'Bb' in the ABC I posted.

In the book they are explicitly 'Bbmaj'. Whether Bmin or something else is intended, I don't know. 

 

(3) Neither can I - which is why I posted the music 'as encountered'.

 

I omitted to post the complete lyrics. Here they are:

 

W:Here's adieu, sweet lovely Nancy, ten thousand times adieu,
W:I'm a-going around the ocean, love, to seek for something new.
W:Come change your ring with me, dear girl,
W:Come change your ring with me,
W:For it might be a token of true love while I am on the sea.
W:
W:When I am far upon the sea you knows not where I am.
W:Kind letters I will write to you from every foreign land.
W:The secrets of your heart, dear girl,
W:Are the best of my good will,
W:So let my body be where it might, my heart is with you still.
W:
W:There's a heavy storm a-rising, see how it gather round,
W:While we poor sailors are on the sea, are fighting for the crown.
W:There is nothing to protect us love,
W:Or to keep us from the cold,
W:On the ocean wide, where we must bide like jolly seamen bold.
W:
W:There are tinkers, tailors and shoemakers, lie snoring in their sleep,
W:While we poor souls on the ocean wide are ploughing through the deep.
W:Our officer commanding us
W:And them we must obey.
W:Expecting every moment for to get cast away
W:
W:But when the wars are all over there'll be peace on every shore,
W:We will drink to our wives and our children and the girls that we adore.
W:We'll call for liquor merrily,
W:And spend our money free,
W:And when our money it is all gone we'll boldly go to sea.

 

Edited by lachenal74693
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Lovely stuff, thanks for posting. This is such a poignant song, defiantly trying to be cheerful about a life which was mostly hard, brutish and short. Such worlds in so few words, that's the beauty of these old songs...

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