Minor key tunes – Page 2 – New Ealing Sessions

Hardiman’s Fancy

Here’s Irish tune Hardiman’s Fancy from guest tutor Tom Newell. Now with added chords!

Here is our new tune from 20th May, Peace and Plenty. It’s a tune from the 1718 edition of the Playford collection, I learned this from fantastic fiddle player Ben Potton, it is a little different than in that early manuscript, but only in the connecting/passing notes. It’s related to the Old Molly Oxford/Old Tom of Oxford Morris tune and we will potentially pair it with Old Meddon.

Here is the PDF:

peace-and-plenty Download

The Mallard revisited

The Mallard is a tune from a long time ago! I wanted to revisit it and to potentially pair it with Enfield Wash, though I found it a bit notey and so wanted to simplify it a little.

Stage one: we took out as many notes as we could until we had the bare skeleton of the tune – but it still had to be recognisable as the tune.

Stage two: we add notes back in, either from the original tune or using similar figures.

Stage three: as we tried things out, I wrote down some of the ideas that came out. The two versions below represent some of the ideas that came out during that experimentation. They are not supposed to be definitive versions but rather examples of what can happen if you play around with a tune in this way.

the-mallard3 Download

Sawney Dear

Here is Sawney Dear, a country dance tune from Lancashire (tune, riff and rhythm).

Here are the dots, with a PDF download underneath:

sawney-dear-for-es Download

Kitty Magennis / Bridget Cruise

Two Irish tunes here, both by the blind harper Turlough O’Carolan (1670-1738), they will go in a set together in this order. Videos and dots below.

kitty-magennis Download

bridget-cruise Download

Upon a Summer’s Day

A Playford tune for the upcoming ECDC gig – the tune is played AABBB. Here’s the video:

upon-a-summers-day Download

Cariad-Gan Y Sguthan

A lovely Welsh jig which dates back to the late 1800s, Cariad-Gan Y Sguthan translates as The Love Song of the Wood Pigeon. I learned it from the fantastic Calan tune book. Here are the dots with chords and the accompanying pattern in the A section, the download and the video.

cariad Download

Mominette

Mominette by Maxou Heintzen might sound a little familiar if you know the tune The Plane Tree, which is a jigged version of this same tune that is attributed to whistle player and piper Undine Hornby. It is a potential mate for Will’s Way, with other contenders including Harlequin Air – as and when we decide (depending on whether it’s a simple arrangement for dancing to or a complex arrangement for concerts), we will add some alternative chords. Here is a fabulous recording of the tune by Blowzabella.

mominette Download

The RSB

Here is The RSB jig by melodeon player extraordinaire Andy Cutting. Here are videos of a slow/faster version by me and then a gorgeous recording by Blowzabella (note how the chord sequence doesn’t resolve at the end of the B section!).

Category: Minor key tunes