Category: Major key tunes

Mairi’s Wedding

Here is the tune from Monday 31st, Mairi’s Wedding, aka The Lewis Bridal Song, or Jack Sweeney’s. This Scottish tune was first published in 1909, as is normally described as a Scottish/Scots Measure, this being a tune related to a reel but with more quavers if written in 2/4, or crotchets if written in 4/4. It is a popular tune for Scottish Country Dancing, with the well known words being added in around 1935. We will use this as the opening tune in a set with Peat Fire Flame.

Here are the dots and PDF:

mairiwedDownload

Ladies Pleasure (Fieldtown)

Here is the video and dots for Ladies Pleasure, a tune from the Fieldtown Morris tradition and one that changes meter from 6/8 to 2/4. The ‘2’ over the patterns in bar three (and elsewhere) indicate a duplet, so instead of each main beat dividing into three quavers as it would normally in 6/8, it divides into two quavers.

Here is the video:

Here are the dots – the structure would normally be ABCBCB.

Uncle Bernard’s Development

Here is the development of Uncle Bernard’s, transposing the tune down a minor third to the relative minor of E minor. Since the tune starts and finishes on the tonic (G in G major or E in E minor) and moves mostly in small intervals, we were able to move it down without making very many changes – we only tweaked bar 30 (middle of the B section), bringing the melody down to an E rather than sticking on the G. In the video below I have included the version notated and then a version without the adjustment.

This new version can be played as a complete tune in its own right, or added to the end of the major version as C and/or D sections.

Here is a PDF:

ub-both-versionsDownload

Hymn for St Magnus

Something a little different this week – an extremely old hymn from Orkney in the Lydian mode. This mode is similar to a major scale but has a raised 4th, it’s quite an unusual mode but very beautiful! We tried harmonising with minim F-G patterns in the first half and minim C-D in the second half, as demonstrated in the second video (you could actually play C-D all the way through). We added single cuts in between repeated notes and turns in places where the melody descended by one or two steps.

Here are the dots, with a PDF beneath:

hymn-st-magnusDownload

Here is a video for a plain version and one with ornamentation, and a video of the tune and harmony together:

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

Here is the tune from the last week of term (with one week owed and to be made up by me this coming term), The Wind that Shakes the Barley. This is a fantastic Irish reel and follows on well from The Witch in the Glen. Here is a video with a slow and faster version:

Here are the dots, with some suggested bowing/phrasing patterns.

Here is a PDF:

twtstbDownload