Here is another video of a simple tune, Song of the Chanter. It's in D Dorian. Again, if anyone wants notation, let me know!
Here is the ABC for this tune. I was wrong when I said it was D Dorian... I believe it's D mixolydian X: 1 T: Chanter's Song M: 4/4 L: 1/4 R: polka K: Dmix DD AG/E/|DD cB/c/|dA AG/E/|cB/c/ AG/E/| DD AG/E/|DD cB/c/|dA AG/E/|D2 D2:| |:A>B cB/c/|A/G/A/B/ cB/c/|dA AG/E/|cB/c/ AG/E/| DD AG/E/|DD cB/c/|dA AG/E/|D2 D2:|
What a nice, soothing melody!! Very nice!
.TEF file for TABs and Standard Notation http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/at...0&d=1304339904
Well done, Barbara. This is the kind of tune that makes me wish I could play the pipes. Here's my take on the Forster; it looks like I should have used wide-screen, playing in first position on this longnecker. Eric
Nice playing Eric and that Forster sounds great. Let me know if you ever want to sell it.
That's really beautiful, Eric. Your hammer ons give the tune just the right spirit.
Thanks! David and Loretta. David, If I ever decide to sell, you'll be the first to know.
I have an Allan Alexander book with several interesting variations on Song of the Chanter. The one that requires a shift up out of 1st postion still eludes me when the red light goes on so I just skipped about 12 bars near the end of the variations and played the rest into the microphone. I'll try to add a version with the additional two variations once I get it under my fingers. Attachment 72211 Don't know if you hear any difference but I've put flatwound strings on my mandolin and it certainly sounds different to me. Feels very, very nice no matter what the tonal implications.
Yet another tune I need to learn. Eric. Make me the second you let know. [Send David a letter. Then e-mail me.] Gary
Beautiful!!!!!!!
Here's the first bit of Allan Alexander's arrangement of Song of the Chanter, the theme and first variation, played on my new (to me) Gibson A-5G mandolin. It was built in 1992 during the Bozeman, MT years. The sound is perhaps not as different from my Mike Black A-5 #5 as I would have guessed although it does have a much stronger G-string sound and a bit thinner upper register to my ears. Feels very different with a narrow neck, smaller frets and overall rather petite body shape. I also posted a comparison clip of the same bit of Song of the Chanter on the other instrument. P.S. The strummy bit at the end was not part of the tune!
I finally got around to this one. Played on my Sobell's with assorted backup.
That was great David......where do I buy your CD's?? Jim
Very tasty version you did there David, the concertina sounds great. Voila, my attempt ! https://youtu.be/mpuLf_5_SM0 -just changed the sound track to give it more volume. I ran the sound file through BandLab and used their CD quality edit mastering program. It sounds crisper than the first recording.
A tune I like a lot, Simon, and you play it very well here. I like the droning effect you are getting on this recording.
You played the tune very well, Simon. Your mandolin sounds great together with the octave. I like the playing by Eric BlueMt. a lot. The sound of the Forster he recorded is amazing. David’s version is simple gorgeous. My felling while listening to such recordings is between “I like to play like this” and the fatalism: “I should never again try playing music by myself.” But I tend to be stubborn.
Well played Simon and thanks for resurrecting this tune. I liked the version by BlueMT so much that I offered to buy his cittern if he ever wanted to sell it. A few years later he did and now I have the Forster. Another benefit of the SAW.
Great recording, Simon. That bass line works very well, and the melody is fluent as usual. David's video from 9 years ago is a feast for the ears and eyes.
Thanks Fellas, the bass is my twelve string 70’s Sigma very dreadnought. She’s tuned a fifth down with only six, heavy strings. And the strings themselves are nice -worn out and old! Amazing version David, I can almost hear the sea and the clouds on it. I’m surprised though that with such great results on the cittern, you don’t just play that... and sell your mandolin! -I’m actually looking for a mandolin, and one of the benefits would be that Bertram would no longer have the anguish of seeing my octave mandolin all capoed up! I’d buy a mandolin out of empathy.
I had forgotten that we had so many past versions of this lovely tune! Here is mine, played on mandocello with tenor guitar and mandolin accompaniment. I'm playing the tune five times through on the mandocello. After the first repeat, I add tenor guitar arpeggios over the chord progression from Allan Alexander's book "Celtic Music for Mandolin". For repeats 3 and 4 I add Allan's first variation of the tune as a discant counter melody on mandolin. The tune is normally considered to be in D Mixolydian, but my accompaniment is in D Dorian instead (i.e. F naturals rather than F sharps). Makes no difference to the tune itself as it does not contain any F (whether sharp or natural). It has a distinctly renaissance feel played this way. Suzuki MC-815 mandocello Vintage Viaten tenor guitar 1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin Martin
Very nice Martin! Is it Fall bringing out all these mournful songs? It's me, I love sad songs.
Nice tones from this tune, Martin. Nicely handled for a large instrument. It does indeed have that Renaissance feel to it.
Thanks, Frank and Ginny. I like this tune -- it's one of these tunes one can repeat over and over again. I think the mournful feel Frank has picked up on is because of the D minor chord that Allan Alexander put in the chord progression rather than the more common D major, i.e. going from D Mixolydian to D Dorian. I was originally planning to play all of Allan's variations and not just the first on the discant, but I couldn't make the other ones work with the melody so my accompaniment choices turned out to be different from what I had intended when I laid down the lead track. Interesting to listen to this recording on different speakers -- on a (good!) small speaker, the mandolin is very prominent but on full-size HiFi speakers (remember them?), the mandocello dominates throughout the take. Getting a mix that works on every setup is really tricky. Martin
Your comment about the listening quality in the various audio systems we use is a very valid one and one I am very conscious of, Martin. We record and mix our offerings but have no control over the systems that folk later listen on. I have just recorded this version of The Chanter Song today and mixed it on headphones and my studio monitors, and when playing it back on my PC speakers I am getting more of the treble frequencies! I did not try your sophisticated arrangement (which you have performed with your usual panache) but kept it simple - mandolin, octave and guitar, the melody alternating between the mandolin and octave. Thanks for reminding me about this tune - I used to play it a lot then just seemed to stop playing it until I heard yours.
The tone on your mandocello is so nice Martin it really gives your performance an authentic, medieval feeling. And I have to disagree I thought John your version is lovely, and full of hope. And how do you manage to make the tune sound Scottish?!!
24 October was my birthday. And I got those lovely recordings from Martin and John as a present! Incidentally, may I suggest a collaboration between the pair of you? Something on the classical/folk intersection would certainly turn into a great performance in your hands.