Lamentation For James Moray, Esq. Of Abercarney

  1. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    I thought about this for a while and then thought well why not? It is a bit different from our usual fiddle tune fare. It is a video I recorded last winter. This is one of the a number of frequently played "Lamentations" composed by the great Scottish fiddler, Neil Gow. I love his music this is one of his better compostions, IMO. (a few clams but that is always the case with me). I am playing along with a midi in order to get a bass line and rhythm to keep me straight.


  2. Susanne
    Susanne
    Very nice, Bernie!
  3. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Bernie, that was great!
  4. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    Neil Gow's one of my favorite characters. You've no doubt played his Lament for His 2nd Wife? It's a beautifull piece as well.

    Have you read MacPherson's Rant by Stuart McHardy? Entertaining and interesting read.

    Strathspey's are a tune form I'd like to spend more time with. The great Irish fiddler, Tommy Peoples is a fan of strathspeys and has recorded several of them, which I find interesting.

    That's a nice sounding Gibson girl you have there, Bernie! I've always been drawn to the oval hole ferns and I'm not sure why.
  5. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Thanks for the kind remarks.

    Joe, I used to play the lament for his second wife which is probably the most widely know of them -- but I'd have to refresh my memory on it.

    With Neil Gow and J Scott Skinner ("Hector the Hero", etc.) the Scottish certainly have this side of Celtic music well covered -- also in that group is Tom Anderson --if you like Gow you'll like his tunes like "Da Slockit Light" -- that one is really popular in Cape Breton and it seems like many of the fiddlers to work it into a set somewhere in the evening -- and that's another one I like to play -- but Anderson is a Shetlander. I'll have to track that book down sounds good.
  6. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    Thanks for the tip about Tom Anderson, Bernie.
  7. Jill McAuley
    Jill McAuley
    Lovely stuff there, Bernie!
  8. Jim Kirkland
    Jim Kirkland
    Very nice. I love the sound of that F4. What year is the mando?
  9. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Jill & Jim, thank you for the kind remarks!

    Given that I have a wife who has as many relatives in Ireland as here -- I maintain allegiances to the music of those who march to the green, white & orange flag -- but there is something about Scottish music that really calls to me (and I'm of Greman nationality so go figure).

    But I think that is why I find Cape Breton fiddling so compelling.

    The mandolin thanks you too -- its a 1919 F-2 that I bought in 1972 for abour $275.
  10. Eddie Sheehy
    That's a great tune Bernie, and played masterfully.
  11. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Much obliged Eddie -- its hard to go wrong with Neil Gow.
  12. Jim Kirkland
    Jim Kirkland
    its a 1919 F-2 that I bought in 1972 for abour $275. WOW, great shape, great sound.
  13. KeithMcIsaac
    KeithMcIsaac
    Nice job! My Dad plays fiddle in the Cape Breton style and this is one of the first tunes I learned from him when I started playing mandolin. I have since forgotten it but I think I have to revisit it now.
  14. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Keith thanks for the comment! Well you are a long way from Cape Breton I see. As you no doubt know there are a lot of music making McIsaac's in Cape Breton!

    We drove across Alberta going to Alaska a few years ago -- beautiful country -- the wheat fields reminded me of North Dakota -- but the Canadian fields are much larger.

    BTW I'd love to hear your version of "Lamentations"when you decide to work it up.
  15. Eddie Sheehy
    Bernie, do you have the notation for the Lament?
  16. Eddie Sheehy
    Or the ABC?
  17. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    I think that I might have something -- its been a while since I learned it and I often confuse it with another tune. Let me look.
  18. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Eddie -- It looks like I learned this tune from a midi on this site:

    http://www.whitestick.co.uk/midi.html

    But as luck would have it these are really well done midi files -- the Lamentations file has five separate tracks and I was able to create a nice clean mandolin notation and tablature from the melody track.

    Now how to get it to you we can't post it on the social groups I guess.

    I could open a new string and post it over on the Celtic group on the message board -- but last time I tried that I got chewed out for it.

    I have listed Gow as the composer on this one so is there any problem in posting the tab?
  19. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    Bernie - you can create your own blog and post things on there, then link to them here.
  20. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Bernie, are you saying that you have mandolin notation and TAB, but need to figure out how to post it here?
  21. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Hi Barbara that is correct -- thoughts?

    OS I did create a Google blogspot some time ago but I'm not sure I can post links on it -- but to tell the truth I never got around to doing anything with it. Never made it a high priority I guess!
  22. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Bernie, what form are these in? I have posted TAB and notation here in the social group in the past without a problem.
  23. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    I made a .pdf of the notation and tab and also a TablEdit (.tef) file. Is there a button for attachments in the Social Group's messaging environment? I'm obiously not be looking in the right place but I did not see it. I have only two additional options: parse links, and disable smilie faces.
    Maybe you have a deluxe membership?
  24. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Bernie, no, I don't have anything deluxe!

    In fact, I'm one of the least website savvy folks out here!

    What did you mean when you said you'd posted something before, and got chewed out for it?

    I've never blogged (see I told you I wasn't savvy), but I do see that we have the option here on the cafe to have our own blog. I see that Old Sausage has done that, and attached at TEF file. He is the one who suggested you do that, so he could probably walk you through it, if you were so inclined. It's probably pretty easy... you probably start out going to your user CP, at the bottom left hand column is 'blog', click on it, and it opens up your blog control panel, and I'd assume you'd choose 'blog title and description', which opens up a panel that you'd put something like the title of the tune, and in the message, say, here's the TAB and notation for the tune, and then use the attach buttons to attach the files you have on your computer.

    But... I don't see an 'attachments' option in the blog area, either! That's weird, as I went to OS's blog, and HE has a TEF file attached... OS... HELP!

    The way I've inserted the TAB or notation has been to have it be an image (jpeg) and I have a (free) photobucket account, and I upload the image I want to put in here, and then use the 'image' icon available, and put the url of the image from photobucket it there, and it shows up here. I wish I knew how to make a pdf file (dummy me)... but for the image thing, I just use my scanner and scan whatever it is into a jpeg, save it on my computer that way! However, if people were wanting it as a TEF where they could use that playback option, my way doesn't work.

    I would think that in the files you made, if you credit Gow at the composer, and put you as the transcriber, that would be fine... it seems to be the way others do it!

    Someone smarter than me... please help!!
  25. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    Making a pdf is pretty easy but you do have to have the software, such as Word, Photoshop, Acrobat Professional, or some other software that will allow you to save as or export to a pdf format.
  26. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Joe, I have Word and Photoshop... just have never explored those options! But... it's Bernie that needs help getting his transcriptions available to us here!
  27. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    Yeah, I know. I don't see how he can do that here outside of posting a jpeg of the transcription. Don't know his capabilities. It'd be nice to be able to upload pdf files to a post but I'm sure that could develop into a server overload problem at some point. You can delete my comment above (and this one) if you feel they're inadequate or space wasters. I won't be offended, Barb.
  28. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Nah, Joe, I don't think conversations are space wasters! I appreciate your help! It's good to know (now it's just remembering, haha!) that I can save something as a pdf in either of those programs! Hopefully OS can help Bernie with how he managed to get the TEF file attachment to his blog here on mandolin cafe... and then how to post to it from here... that would solve the problem! Are you planning to go to the IFOTM Fiddler's Picnic in Iowa City in September?
  29. OldSausage
    OldSausage
    So, what I do is go to "Blogs" from the "Quick Links" menu. Then on the left hand navigation under "Options" there's a link to "Post to Your Blog". Click that and you'll see a form to write your blog entry, and waaaay down at the bottom there's a section called "Additional Options", and at the bottom of that is a button marked "Manage Attachments". That's your button right there.

    You can post all these kind of files: bmp doc gif jpe jpeg jpg mp3 pdf png tef txt

    Once you have it uploaded you'll see it in your blog entry, and you can copy the link to it and paste it anywhere on the interwebs, including in the social group pages.
  30. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    I knew about the Mandolin Cafe blogs but did not see where to create it last night.

    The blog I created a while ago is on a Blogspot on Google and I never looked into using it. I'm heading out of town to a wedding in an hour if someone sends an email to:

    mandolin1944@yahoo.com

    I will email you the .pdf and the .tef and then someone besides me will have it!
  31. Joe Nobiling
    Joe Nobiling
    Yes, Barb, I'm planning on going provided the crick don't rise.
  32. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Thanks OS, Barb and others -- the two files are now posted on my blog site.
  33. OldSausage
    OldSausage
  34. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    Great! Thanks!!
  35. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Abercairney is a great tune, which I play quite a bit on mandolin. However, when I recorded my clips on the weekend, I had my reso tenor in my hands when it popped into my mind. I'd never played it on tenor before, but it works pretty well, minor stumble at the end apart. I think I still prefer it on mandolin, though.

    There's also a lovely version (slower than mine, with lots of tremolo) on Skip Gorman's "Mandolin In The Cow Camp".



    I learned this from Nigel Gatherer's site:

    X:332
    T:Lamentation for James Moray of Abercairney
    T:Lament for Abercairney
    T:Abercairney
    C:Niel Gow
    O:Scotland
    Z:Nigel Gatherer
    L:1/8
    M:4/4
    K:G
    B,|G,>B,DG EGDG|A>B c/B/A/G/ E2- EG|G,>B,DG EG Dg/e/|
    dG d/c/B/A/ G2- G>B,|G,>B,DG EGDG|A>B c/B/A/G/ E2- EG|
    G,>B,DG EG Dg/e/|dG d/c/B/A/ G2- G||e|de/f/ gd edgB|
    ca/c/ Bg/B/ A2- A>B|G,>B,DG EG Dg/e/|dG d/c/B/A/ G2- G>e|de/f/ gd edgB|
    c/B/c/a/ B/A/B/g/ A2- AB/c/|e/d/c/B/ d/c/B/A/ c/B/A/G/ B/A/G/F/|\
    A/G/F/E/ D/E/D/B,/G,2-G,|]

    Martin
  36. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Hello,

    I got the notion this week to play the Lamentation on the mandocello. It turned out to be a bit more difficult on that instrument if you want to keep the key the same. Any here is my try on my 1940 Vega mandocello (this is a conversion from an arch top guitar). The lower bout is 17" I've still not come to grips with the best way to hold it yet!

  37. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    I've just dug out an old MP3 recording of this tune I made back in 2007 on an Otwin 120 mandolin (made in Germany in the 1930s), in response to a discussion of Luurtie's Otwin mandolin in the Stool Of Repentance thread. Seeing that my previous recording of the tune here in this thread was on reso tenor rather than on mandolin, I thought it would be useful to post here as well as it's quite different on mandolin. This is a bit slower and with tremolo, which I think suits the tune better. My reso tenor version is really too fast.

    [MP3=1]http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=99594&d=1363193381[/MP3]

    Martin
  38. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    This is one of my favourite tunes, and after the two old solo recordings I've uploaded long ago, here is a new recording I've just made with harmonies by Eric Allan (Link).

    I'm playing the melody on the Mid-Mo octave mandolin first, with harmonies on the A-jr, and switch the voices around on the repeat. Backing on tenor guitar and mandocello.

    [MP3=2]http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=120548&d=1402792745[/MP3]



    Martin
  39. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Bernie and Martin, I have just been listening to your renderings of this lovely slow air and was interested that you both chose lower-pitched instruments to play the melody. I chose my bouzouki to increase the sustain for my own recording of the tune back in September 2012 and had forgotten I had done it till Martin posted his updated version here from the Eric Allan arrangement he links to.

    Here is my offering:

  40. maudlin mandolin
    maudlin mandolin


    Well done Martin and John - both are lovely version of this piece which I had overlooked until you revived it.
    This attempt is from Christine Martin's Highland Tunes for Fiddle Vol 3.
  41. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Interesting version here, M. A bit faster than usual but very cleanly picked -as is your norm!
    Christine Martin has produced a great many collections of Scottish tunes under the Taigh Na Teud publishing label based on the Isle of Skye. Worth looking at for great selections of tunes, and I hasten to add that I have no commercial connection with either Christine or Taigh Na Teud other than as a satisfied purchaser of several of the books!
  42. Bernie Daniel
    Bernie Daniel
    Thanks for these posts. Great to see these wonderful new versions of this tune. It remains one of my favorite tunes. I is such a great introduction into a set of fiddle tunes!
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