Australian waltz "The Mudgee Waltz"

[Matthew Heumann]

A sweet little Australian waltz collected in Mudgee, New South Wales and sent to me by my Australian friend, fellow concertina player & Concertina.net member Chris Rowe. This is my arrangement for English concertina: 1st on a 1921 Amboyna Edeophone, then a 1904 Edeophone baritone and finally on a 1951 Wheatstone Aeola. Will post dots when I figure them out, was just improvising the accompaniment.

 

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Really great performances and beautiful instruments.. I like the deep bass sounds of that big concertina, so rich and melodious🌝

[David Barnert]

11 hours ago, Matthew Heumann said:

Will post dots when I figure them out...

 

Nice tune. It’s posted (in C and D, but not G) on the session.org: https://thesession.org/tunes/12988

[Matthew Heumann]

G is what I received, so G its played 🤙

[David Barnert]

2 hours ago, David Barnert said:

It’s posted (in C and D, but not G) on the session.org

2 hours ago, Matthew Heumann said:

G is what I received, so G its played

 

I wasn’t criticizing, only pointing out where one might find the dots (some transposition required if you want it in G).

[Matthew Heumann]

Sorry, took no offense at all, I was just glad there were lots of different keys to play it in. Thanks for the other versions. Fortunately, my music notation program will let me transpose to any key so if anyone wants it in 6 flats, I can accomodate (but why would they?)

[Paul_Hardy]

13 hours ago, Matthew Heumann said:

if anyone wants it in 6 flats, I can accommodate (but why would they?)

 

Well, I wouldn't, but if playing on a concertina tuned in a meantone temperament (as many earlier concertinas were), then the feel of a tune in C or D (or 6 flats) could be appreciably different, because the intervals between pairs of notes would not be mathematically equal (as in equal temperament). This is why Bach or Dvorak composed tunes specifically in Dm or Em to get a particular 'feel' - a distinction lost in today's equal tempered world. See other thread at present re Pythagorean Comma.

[alex_holden]

1 hour ago, Paul_Hardy said:

 

Well, I wouldn't, but if playing on a concertina tuned in a meantone temperament (as many earlier concertinas were), then the feel of a tune in C or D (or 6 flats) could be appreciably different, because the intervals between pairs of notes would not be mathematically equal (as in equal temperament). This is why Bach or Dvorak composed tunes specifically in Dm or Em to get a particular 'feel' - a distinction lost in today's equal tempered world. See other thread at present re Pythagorean Comma.

 

I'm not sure that's right - meantone tunings are constructed as a regular sequence of fifths with an equal distance between them. That means the keys that are playable all have the same feel. The problem is that the end of the sequence doesn't exactly circle back to the beginning and so you get a discontinuity (the so-called 'wolf interval'), which makes some keys sound very bad. The exception is equal temperament, which is effectively 1/11 comma meantone.

 

There is much academic debate about the details of the temperament Bach used. It is generally referred to as a "Well Temperament", after his composition "The Well-Tempered Clavier". Supposedly the piece was composed to demonstrate how his new temperament could be used to play in any key without sounding unacceptably out of tune, unlike the older meantone temperament, which was at the time commonly used in pipe organs. It is thought to be an irregular temperament and as such the keys have different 'flavours'.

Edited September 29 by alex_holden
Slight correction; Well Temperament is a category of irregular temperaments rather than one specific temperament

[Matthew Heumann]

Yikes, I never really meant I'd put it in 6 flats, just that if someone wants the tune in another key, I can transpose to it. All this music theory is WAY over this untrained musicians's head.................................

Edited September 30 by Matthew Heumann
text change

[chris rowe]

For the dots look at bushtraditions.wiki ,it's in G

[Leonard]

1 hour ago, chris rowe said:

For the dots look at bushtraditions.wiki ,it's in G

https://bushtraditions.wiki/tunes/index.php/Mudgee_Waltz

[Roger Hare]

17 minutes ago, Leonard said:

https://bushtraditions.wiki/tunes/index.php/Mudgee_Waltz

Oh! You just beat me to it. I'll post it anyway. Here's my lightly edited version of the Bush Traditions ABC:

X:14680
T:Mudgee Waltz
%A lightly edited tune from the Australian Traditional Music Tunes Archive - https://bushtraditions
% NFF Book 2018
O:Australia, New South Wales, Mudgee
S:John Meredith Collection, NLA
B:J Meredith, H Anderson, Folk Songs of Australia Vol 1, UNSW Press, p229, 1967
H:John Meredith collected this tune from several informants in and around Mudgee in the 1950's & 60's.
H:This version of the tune appears in John Meredith's Book, FSA , Vol 1, p229 but it is
H:not attributed to any particular informant. This version of the tune is widely played in
H:Australia but it seems to be a composit of the various versions collected by Meredith.
F:https://bushtraditions/tunes/index.php/Mudgee_Waltz
M:3/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=130
R:Waltz
K:Gmaj
"G" B3 c d2 | G3 A B2 | "C" c4 e2 | "Am" A4 d2 | "D" f3 e d2 | "D7" d2 e2 c2 | "G" B4 c2 | "D" d4 c2 |
"G" B3 c d2 | G3 A B2 | "C" c4 e2 | "Am" A4 d2 | "D" f3 e d2 | "D" c2 B2 A2 | "G" G6 | G4- G d ||
"G" b3 a g2 | B3 d g2 | "D" f3 e f2 | "Am" A4 d2 | "D" f3 e d2 | "Am" c2 B2 A2 | "G" B4 e2 | "D" d6 |
"G" b3 a g2 | B3 d g2 | "D" f3 e f2 | "Am" A4 d2 | "D" f3 e d2 | "D7" c2 B2 A2 | "G" G6 | G6 ||

ABC, PDF and MIDI sound file attached.

MudgeeWaltz.abc MudgeeWaltz.pdf MudgeeWaltz.mid

Edited September 30 by Roger Hare

[Matthew Heumann]

Bushtraditions wiki is exactly where my version from Chris came from!