The Munster Cloak

Here is the video and dots for The Munster Cloak, also known as The Spanish Cloak and An Fhallaingin Mhuimhneach. I haven’t been able to find out much about it; it only seems to appear in manuscripts from the 1960s onwards and there is some suggestion that it originated in Spain, with comparisons drawn to a melody by Spanish composer Enrique Granados (1867-1916). I’ve put a video of this tune at the bottom of the post so you can draw your own conclusions, but I would always resist the urge to fill in the gaps – it’s a tune that’s in the Irish tradition, and it’s gorgeous!

Here is a PDF to download:

mc-with-chordsDownload

Old Lancashire Hornpipe

The third in our trilogy of 3/2 hornpipes – this three-part hornpipe, first published in 1742, has some similar musical figures to the previous 3/2 tunes covered recently and follows on rather nicely from the Rusty Gulley.

Here is a video with a slow and a faster play through, with another faster play through courtesy of Spiers and Boden:

And here are the dots, with a PDF to download:

Old Lancs HornpipeDownload

Next week, we’ll apply some of our 3/2 variation ideas to this tune, and try all three tunes together in a set (Pawkie Adam Glen/Rusty Gulley/Old Lancashire Hornpipe).

Pawkie Adam Glen – developing the tune

In addition to the rhythmic variations we covered last week, there are some nice melodic variations available in this tune. Our first idea was to substitute existing melodic shapes for others in the tune, for example in bars 2, 4 and 8. The second involved substituting a figure that often comes up in 3/2 hornpipes. Have an experiment, try these and the rhythmic variations and find what works for you!

Here is a PDF of the above music:

pag-developmentDownload

Pawkie Adam Glen

Here’s another 3/2 hornpipe to go with Rusty Gulley, known as ‘Adam Glen’ or ‘Pawkie Adam Glen’ – the word pawkie means ‘artfully shrewd’ and is still in use in Scotland and northern parts of England, from the English ‘pawk’, meaning trick.

Here’s a video with slow and faster renditions:

Here are the dots, with a PDF below:

pawkie-adam-glen-1Download

You can use the same variations as with Rusty Gulley, subdividing or tying repeated notes for some subtle rhythmic variation.

Exploring Rusty Gulley

On Monday we tried a couple of ideas to vary last week’s tune, the Rusty Gulley. Firstly, rhythmic variation:

What: subdividing notes or tying them together to create longer notes

Where: on repeated notes, on the weaker beats

Here are two videos explaining in further detail:

Subdividing notes
Tying or combining notes

Secondly, melodic variation:

What: transferring existing melodic patterns to other places in the tune

Where: places where there are similar melodic shapes, e.g., scale patterns

Here is a video to explain this a little more:

Finally here are a few examples of the ideas discussed. The emphasis is on experimentation, so see how many combinations you can find!

Rusty Gulley

Here is a fabulous 3/2 hornpipe from Northumbria, the Rusty Gulley.

Here’s a second video, with the chord pattern and rhythm:

And here are the dots:

Here’s a couple of PDFs: firstly he tune, and secondly the different chords that we tried.

rusty-gulleyDownload
rusty-gully-chordsDownload

Try adding the turns and triplets that we’ve been using recently in places where the melody moves by step, and look out for places where there are repeated notes – we will try some things out with those next time!

Herbert Smith’s Four-Handed Reel

Here is the tune from January 18th’ class, Herbert Smith’s Four-Handed Reel. Despite the title it is a polka – the ‘four-handed reel’ refers to a dance figure and not to the nature of the tune! It goes rather nicely with Grandfather’s Tune and has a similar descending scale pattern that gives lots of opportunities for turns and triplets, as discussed last week. You can also vary the rhythm in the B part, sub-dividing or combining the notes in bars X , Y and Z.

This tune is a little unusual in that it has an extra two beats in the A music. It might be that this was added on purpose to help dancers get to where they need to be in the dance, or it might just be a quirk that caught on!

Herbert Smith (1892-1961) was known as the Fiddling Blacksmith of Blakeney – you can read about him here: https://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/h_smith.htm

Here’s a slower and a faster version of the tune:

And here are the dots, with the first set of chords:

Here’s the PDFs of the tune, and the alternative set of chords:

HS tune and chordsdownload
herbert-smiths-chordsDownload

Grandfather’s Tune/Sheep Shearing

Here’s Grandfather’s Tune, aka Sheep Shearing, a polka from England. It was recorded for the 1941 Voice of the People series by the Dorset Trio.

Here’s the video demo:

Here’s a short video on the triplets and turns that we added to the descending scale patterns in the tune:

Here’s a PDF :

gft-pdfDownload

Stingo

Our final tune of the term: Stingo can be found in the 1651 edition of Playford’s Dancing Master, with versions known as Cold and Raw, Oil of Barley and many other names. Here’s a video with demos on the viola this time, for the sake of variety and definitely not because that was the instrument I had out and I’m too lazy to switch.

Here are the dots:

We played with the idea of adding ‘fidgets’ in as melodic/rhythmic variations – where you have two notes the same, try adding a note in between, either going up or down a step. Here is a PDF with some examples in red, and underneath it the PDF of the original:

stingo-fidgetsDownload
stingo-originalDownload

Finally here’s the fantastic Eliza Carthy version, turned from 6/8 to 4/4 (this whole album is amazing, give it a listen!):

Merry Christmas everyone!