The Flower Of Sweet Strabane/The Stone Outside Dan Murphy's Door

  1. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    This is a set of two song airs from popular Irish ballads in waltz time, played as instrumentals on my 1920s German 10-string waldzither, tuned CGDAE -- a combined mandola and mandolin -- making its debut in my video recordings, I think. I have two more tunes on this instrument recorded this weekend, both of them Elizabethan madrigals for a very different sound from this video.

    The Flower Of Sweet Strabane is from the repertoire of Margaret Barry and was first recorded in 1952. The tune is also sometimes used for the Scottish ballad The Echo Mocks The Corncrake, for example by Andy M. Stewart/Silly Wizard.

    The Stone Outside Dan Murphy's Door is a sentimental 19th century music hall ballad, written by Johnny Patterson (1840 - 1889) from County Clare.

    1920s Thuringian 10-string waldzither (CGDAE tuning)
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar


    https://youtu.be/28svRkvDCKM

    Martin
  2. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Good to hear a couple of fine Irish tunes here, Martin. I used to play "The Stone Outside Dan Murphy's Door" with my late and much missed accordionist pal Derek MacDonald and have never heard anyone else performing it, so a big thanks for posting this one, and great to hear you playing "modern" tunes.
    That waldzither has a fine sound.
  3. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    How practical to have a mandolin and a mandola in the same instrument!
  4. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    The two tunes go together welll, nicely played on the Waldzither. But isnt such an instrument usually tuned otherwise than in fifths only?
  5. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, John, Dennis and Christian!

    Christian: you are quite right that the Thuringian waldzither is normally tuned in open C tuning. I can't play in that tuning, and there is in any case a long tradition of waldzithers being used in Irish music as a mandola substitute tuned in fifths, going back at least to Andy Irvine in the early 1970s with Planxty.

    This one is unusual in that it has a shorter scale length than most waldzithers, and also originally had a 2+2+2+2+1+1 string configuration -- two single bass strings, one of them fretted and the other as a fixed-pitch drone bass. I changed the nut to a straightforward 5-course instrument with double strings on all courses and set it up in fifths. it's in that sweet spot where the tone works well across all five strings, which is rare in mandolin/mandola hybrids.

    No idea how this one was tuned originally. I suspect open G, a fifth higher than most waldzithers, but don't really know.

    Martin
  6. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Extra nice playing here Martin, and the Waldy sounds like it could out-compete an octave! Love that deep woody tone. And it’s tuned in fifths -very sensible.
  7. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    That’s a good sounding instrument! Obviously in great condition.
  8. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Simon and Frithjof!

    Another of my neglected instruments -- I hadn't played it in a long time and recall it being a bit harsh-voiced, but when I picked it up on the weekend I really liked how it sounded. The reason why I used it is that I didn't want to change key but both tunes were notated in mandola range rather than mandolin. But I enjoyed the fuller sound from the larger instrument and the tone is much sweeter than I recall. I then also used the waldzither for the two Thomas Morley madrigals I uploaded the same day, which are more in mandolin range (and use the E string of the waldzither, a very thin .008) -- I enjoyed it in that range, too.

    It's nice and resonant, too. No added reverb or other post-processing except volume and panning. This is the natural sound.

    Martin
  9. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    These are nice, Martin. I enjoyed them, and nicely played.
  10. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Ginny!

    Martin
Results 1 to 10 of 10