1. Battle Of The Somme (retreat march) 2. The Boy's Lament For His Dragon (The 72nd Highlanders Farewell to Aberdeen) This is a set of two Scottish pipe marches, played on octave mandolin first solo, then doubled on mandolin. From Nigel Gatherer's setting: https://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/...Somm/BSomm.pdf Photos taken on a short walk from my home today showing Wat's Dyke and the landscape around our village in the snow. I recorded these tunes a couple of weeks ago but decided not to use the video footage -- it was shortly after my recent eye operation and my swollen eye was still looking a bit garish. So, landscape photos it is. Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin Vintage Viaten tenor guitar https://youtu.be/CGJBKd5zu5w Martin
Excellent recording and video.
A fine set of pipe marches here, Martin, and a good mix of the 9/8 retreat march with the 2/4 72nd's Farewell. There is a link from last year on using octave or bouzouki for accompanying Irish music and some discussion of playing pipe tunes, including The 72nd's farewell in this thread. Here is the link: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...11#post1863511 The Battle of the Somme has featured in previous threads in the SAW group and is one of my favourite pipe marches from the First World War, composed by Pipe Major Willie Lawrie of Ballachulish. He was Pipe Major of the 8th Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in which my maternal grandfather also served as a piper. PM Lawrie died in 1916 after contracting pleurisy and pneumonia in the trenches. Here is a recording I made away back eleven years ago of The Bloody Fields of Flanders (by PM John McLellan of Dunoon) coupled with The Battle of the Somme. I reckon those two are perhaps the finest pipe tunes to come out of that awful conflict
Martin, that is lovely. Battle of the Somme in particular is really haunting and, as John said, you managed the combination of the two marches (not an obvious pairing) very well. The visuals are charming too and certainly match the solemnity of the first piece. John, I came across this video of yours some time last year and it inspired me to learn both pieces. I have not managed to record either to my satisfaction, though.
Thanks, Richard. Pipe tunes suit the octave especially, and so many require only two courses as the pipe scale is only nine notes!
Thanks, John and Richard! John: Yes, both tunes have featured separately as official SAW tunes before -- it's always a bit awkward to find a home for sets, and in this case I thought opening a new thread was preferable. However, on reflection it would probably have been preferable to use the two existing threads. "Battle Of The Somme" was Week #434 and "The 72nd' Farewell To Aberdeen (Boy's Lament For His Dragon)" was Week #112. These two tunes were among the very first ones I learned when I started on mandolin, which is also the reason why I played them after my eye op: learning new tunes is trickier if you can't see proiperly... Coincidentally these were also both recorded by Dave Swarbrick: "Battle Of The Somme" was on Fairport's "House Full" 1970 live album and Aberdeen was on "Swarbrick 2" in 1977 and again on his 50th birthday live album. Martin
Both these tunes are among my favourites, so I had to have a go. On the Battle of the Somme, I started on solo mandolin, then doubled it, then added tenor banjo, and finally guitar. Boy's Lament/72nd Highlanders is mandolin and guitar throughout. I hope your eye is recovering, Martin.
Great delivery of both tunes, Richard. I liked your pull-off and hammer-on embellishments but I have to admit that I am not a fan of the banjo in the retreat march - it is too "banjoey" and percussive I feel. I have a 1920s Vega tenor here at home that I rarely ever play, even at sessions. It is great for jigs and reels.
Thank you, John. I suspect my left-hand technique is very guitar-like, but it seemed to work here. I used the banjo where I would probably have used an octave mandolin or mandola if I had one. I wanted a way to build up, adding instruments. I have just been going through the final cut of my migration video and it is striking that I only use the banjo on Irish or American tunes, with just one exception (79th's Farewell to Gibraltar). So, I entirely take your point. On the other hand, there is some banjo music that isn't "banjoey" in the sense that you mean - I'm thinking of, for example, Rhiannon Giddens and her fretless banjo. But I suppose this is a tenor banjo and I'm not Rhiannon Giddens...
