Belle of the Stage

[Eric Lerner]

 

I found this unusual "Lancashire Clog" in the hornpipes chapter of Ryan’s Mammoth Collection of fiddle tunes from 1883. It’s credited to Edwin Christie (not to be confused with Edwin Christy with a Y, the founder of the Christy Minstrels.) Played (with just a few stumbles) on my 40-button Wheatstone Edeophone 1934 D/A Anglo concertina.  The notes & ABC are online here -- 

https://tunearch.org/wiki/Belle_of_the_Stage

I've tweaked the notes a bit here and there in my recording.  In particular there's a typo in the online transcription which omits the final high A. 

[Roger Hare]

1 hour ago, Eric Lerner said:

I found this unusual "Lancashire Clog" in the hornpipes chapter of Ryan’s Mammoth Collection of fiddle tunes from 1883 etc.

Good tune!

 

As it happens, I finished an edit of the whole of Ryan's Mammoth Collection last back-end (October). Here's my take on this tune - attached ABC, PDF and MIDI files. I edited the whole collection, adding rudimentary accompaniment chords and doing some general 'tidying-up'.

 

There are some marks in the ABC code for this particular tune which may be for the benefit of fiddlers (which I am not), so I left those alone (they appear as quoted text strings - text annotations in ABC terms).

There are a scarily large number of good tunes in that book, and there are over 1000 tunes in the whole collection. I used a complete transcription which is referenced in the attached ABC code. Original transcribers are credited individually in each tune.

 

If anyone wants a copy of the whole thing, just ask...

 

Oops! There was an error in that ABC code - now corrected, I hope...

 

 

BelleOfTheStage.abc BelleOfTheStage.pdf

BelleOfTheStage.mid

Edited April 7 by Roger Hare

[Tiposx]

25 minutes ago, Roger Hare said:

Good tune

Hi Roger

I can't open the abc file after downloading. I can open the other two files though.

Cheers

Tiposx

[Roger Hare]

2 minutes ago, Tiposx said:

I can't open the abc file after downloading. I can open the other two files though...

I just edited the files after making a small correction to the ABC code. There shouldn't be a problem though - I just successfully downloaded the updated version of the ABC code. Try it again and let me know if it continues to barf...

[Tiposx]

I still can't open it. I don't think I have used an abc file type before. I usually copy the text then paste into Tunebook.

I don't really get on with computers!

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

That was very entertaining and cheerful.🌝

[Roger Hare]

1 hour ago, Tiposx said:

I still can't open it. I don't think I have used an abc file type before. I usually copy the text then paste into Tunebook.

I don't really get on with computers!

I use a program called EasyABC, I'm not familiar with Tunebook. I can see two different programs called Tunebook - both of them claim to be able to import files in ABC format...

 

You say "...copy the text then paste into Tunebook...". It's not clear what you mean by 'text'. ABC files are just text files with a .abc extension, rather than .txt, so you can open an ABC file with an ordinary text editor, and then (if your Tunebook program really is ABC-friendly) you should be able to cut-and-paste the text into your Tunebook program. If the Tunebook program is not geared to using ABC, you are probably stuffed, I'm afraid...

 

Here is the ABC code contained in the file I attached earlier:

 

%%measurenb 0
X:56
T:Belle of the Stage Clog
%A lightly edited tune from Ryan's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes: http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/
%Rudimentary accompaniment chords generated by ABCMus, setting 0.
T:(Lancashire)
C:Edwin Christie.
S:Ryan/Cole Collection. Ryan/Cole.0056
B:Ryan's Mammoth Collection of Fiddle Tunes
Z:Ray Davies; RJH October 2024
N:159 950
M:2/2
L:1/8
Q:1/4=140
R:Reel
K:Dmaj
|: "D" A2 (3FG^G A>df>d | "Em" B2 (3GA^A B>eg>e | "A" c2 (3AB^B (3cba (3gfe | "D" (3dcd (3fdB A>FG>^G |
"D" A2 (3FG^G Adfd | "Em" B2 (3GA^A B>eg>e | "A" c2 (3AB^B (3cba (3fed |1 "D" (3dDF (3A!4!ed D>EF>G :|2 "D" (3dDF (3Aed D2 z2 |]
|: "E" !2! Te2 {^de}!4!^g>e !2!b>e "^04"{e}e'2 | "A" !2! Te2 {^de}!1!a>e !0!c'>e"^04"{e}e'2 | \
"E" (3!4!d'!2!b!2!^g (3edB (3^GED (3B,^G,B, | "A" (3A,CE (3Ace (3!1!a!3!c'"02"[ee'] "01"[d2a'2] |
"E" !2! Te2 {^de}^g>e b>e {e}e'2 | "A" e2 {^de}a>e c'>e{e}e'2 | \
"C#m" (3d'b^g (3edB (3^GE"32"[ec'] (3"31"[^dc'][=dc']"21"[db] | \
"A" (3"32"[ca]ce (3!1!a!3!c'"02"[ee'] "01"[d2a'2] z2 :|

If you can't cut-and-paste that into your Tunebook program, I can't help, I'm afraid...

Edited April 7 by Roger Hare

[DaveRo]

1 hour ago, Tiposx said:

I still can't open it. I don't think I have used an abc file type before. I usually copy the text then paste into Tunebook.

What device and operating system? 

[Tiposx]

This is an iPad running Apple OS

[DaveRo]

18 minutes ago, Tiposx said:

This is an iPad running Apple OS

I don't have an iPad but ISTR Michael Eskin's web-based tool will open .abc files on iPadOS and iOS.

https://michaeleskin.com/abctools/abctools.html

 

For want of an app that specifically opens .abc files, you may be able to rename the file extension to .txt using the Files app, and to open it in a text editor. 

[Roger Hare]

On 4/7/2025 at 9:33 PM, Tiposx said:

This is an iPad running Apple OS

Ah! I do not speak Apple, so I really can't help - but maybe I can...

 

One of the two 'Tunebook' programs I mentioned earlier is available for iOS. I don't know if this is the program you are using, but it is described on this web page. The page is undated, but it talks about Windows XP and Windows Vista, so it must be pretty old? If that is the program you are using, you may have a problem? The second 'section' of that web page starts with the exceedingly ominous text:

 

"Tunebook and iOS 13

iOS 13 introduced a bug where it was no longer possible to transfer ABC files to Tunebook. This is related to the fact that the ".abc" extension for ABC files is also used by the Alembic 3D file format. A workround is to rename the ABC file to have the extension ".txt" instead of ".abc".

 

I have a fix for this problem, but unfortunately, Apple have rejected the update because Tunebook and Tunebook for iPad have the same functionality which contravenes a new App Store rule..."

 

That short extract reinforces what DaveRo has already said about renaming .abc files as .txt files.

 

The web page linked above includes documentation on how to use the program, and an email address for support...

 

Thread drift has set in! Apologies to Eric Lerner - it's a good tune!

_________________________

Anyone here who is a fan of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' will remember what happened to the staff of the Marketing Division of The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation when the revolution came...😎

Edited April 9 by Roger Hare

[Eric Lerner]

>Thread drift has set in! Apologies to Eric Lerner - it's a good tune!

 

All is forgiven, Roger.  I suspect the off-topic discussion has drawn a few more listeners for the recording. 

 

>If anyone wants a copy of the whole thing, just ask...

 

Yes, please.  I'd love to have a copy of the whole thing. 

[Roger Hare]

Eric, good morning.

 

> Yes, please.  I'd love to have a copy of the whole thing. 

 

Please let me have an email address to which I can send the ABC file. 

 

I'm a little wary of posting it here, as it's my edited version of a large collection which is basically the work of other folks. It's 'experimental' in that it's part of my effort to create a single 'database' of legacy ABC files. I've added basic accompaniment chords, 'improved' the layout a little, and made one or two other changes, but I'm still a little reluctant to post publicly (it seems a little 'unprofessional'?). If push comes to shove, I will do so however.

 

You can send me your email address via a PM.

 

Roger

Edited April 9 by Roger Hare

[Tiposx]

Well I finally got there. I opened the file in Michael Eskin’s tool, where the abc text was displayed. I copied and pasted that across into Tunebook, and everything is working ok.

So thank you to everyone for all the technical help, and to Eric Lerner for airing this tune. It bears significance for this 70 year old exile from Lancashire. I have actually seen (and mostly heard) people going to work in the local mills wearing clogs!

I am very keen on hornpipes, (especially my James Hill favourites). This one is a belter.

[Roger Hare]

1 hour ago, Tiposx said:

...It bears significance for this 70 year old exile from Lancashire. I have actually seen (and mostly heard) people going to work in the local mills wearing clogs!...

If clogs float your boat, here is a small selection from Ryan's Mammoth Collection. ABC and PDF...

ClogsFromRyansMammothCollectionOfFiddleTunes.abc ClogsFromRyansMammothCollectionOfFiddleTunes.pdf