This weeks winner is Wind on the Heath, which was submitted as a slow Scottish air. I’m posting this from my phone, so if there is anyone that can link to notation or videos before I get back to this on my laptop, I’d appreciate it!
Well John just did it three months ago...maybe he can post it here.
Here is the version I posted back in December. Mandolin and octave are both my own builds, and guitar is a Lowden O32. Recorded through a Rode nt1-a mic into REAPER then rendered after mixing to mp3 format. I have posted the score of Alec Sim's arrangement over on the Song and Tune Projects - Thread for Social Group MP3 Posting in the Forum. Here, I hope, is the link: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/a...1&d=1584139451
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I know a lot of people like the tech side of recordings. I on the other hand go like this. I sit in a room with my Tascam. Tell the dogs to be quiet, push record..keep playing til I get a good one. Plug it into the computer and send it off to John. If I do it with my teacher I have to go to his house and use his stuff. And we all live happily ever after. This is a great tune done by John, I hope lots pick it up.
back again with this amazingly beautiful tune. With mandotab. Mid, pdf or sheetmusic downloadable from that site for anyone https://musescore.com/user/10431581/scores/6018858 I used the notation supplied above,a 10 min job typing, assuming it is public domain because trad. On The Session they say Alec Sim only arranged it. Whatever.. More of voicing would only take from it, so I stopped there. Some broken chords arpegging with a harp would be nice, or with the mando https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/a...1&d=1584139451
Ginny Aitchison Hello, I agree, thank you, is there more of this kind ?
Thanks for the pdf, Werner, you wouldn’t have that in .abc format?
Thanks, John, for the wonderful recording and the score, and to Werner for putting it into Musescore. Just my sort of tune -- I will have to try it out this weekend! Simon: Musescore doesnt export to .abc, but you can export Werner's Musescore score to MusicXML, and convert that to .abc. See this link. Martin
many people here use tabledit, so from mid to abc with tef also possible Hello Martin , interested to see what you come up with Had to make some amendments and corrections, now...
Thanks guys but unfortunately Musescore doesn’t work for me anymore.
Beautifully done, as usual, John. I listened several times during my drive today.
Excellent as usual Mr. Kelly, you really have a flair for this type of tune and I wish I could play more like you especially on these Scottish tunes. My Scottish granny would have been proud to hear me play this one. Recorded on a MOTU 828X with my Sobell octave mandolin, Forster cittern, Wheatstone English concertina and a double bass from Deutschland. Here's a link to a pdf of the music I used:https://app.box.com/s/uehhmxdc9gpzbpk3aqbzr6h6s30blxsp
Thanks for the motivation David! Really nice wholesome version, and setting our standards high.
Thanks John and David for a bit of comfort in these times of musical venue lockdown. This group has provided ways of heartfelt remote cooperation long before the advent of the Wuhan Handshake. This is the rear deck of the Titanic, where we play.
A pity one cannot upload pdf here. But ok. Hello David, Nice. A dance tune, very scottish with snap. Your granny would be delighted. With your many instrumental options "at hand" and your musical understanding I wonder what you would make of a more medieval classical sort of version. There are dependent and independent melodies. The ones who need harmonising, and the ones happily to standing on their own. This one is the latter, I think. And strongly so. I went through all versions on the internet of Hey to Cupar, Warkworth Castle and this one. They don't give or take much. With score writing possibilities are endless including selection of instruments. With this one I wonder what would meet it's character best. Wrong forum, I know...
David, thanks for your very kind comments. I do make an effort to put some "Scottishness" into my versions of suitable tunes, and I think this influence might also spill over into the other tunes I have picked up through my involvement with the SAW group! I am sure your Scottish granny would indeed be delighted to listen to your playing and arrangement. Your selection of Scottish scenery is beautiful too. As I said when I posted this first time a few months back, the Alec Sim arrangement was given to me by my good friend and excellent Scottish fiddler Jean-Ann Callender, who has a wealth of knowledge about Scottish tunes and how to play them well, and also makes available the more obscure or less frequently played ones. She has absorbed the traditions of the North-east fiddlers and also the distinctive playing of what we call the "West Coast Style", which looks to piping for a lot of its repertoire. We might be a small nation geographically, but there are several styles of playing, all with their own character, and the mandolin is not, as yet, nearly as widely found as are the fiddle and accordion.
Thanks again John! Here’s a vid, no mandolin, but it does appear to be quite Scottish. https://youtu.be/SwyFQj0w7pE
Some day I would like to meet that proverbial Scottish Granny...
Very nicely done, David with all your fine instruments.
Great as usual, David! Since you mentioned flair, this version preserves the Scottishness of the tune but adds that special Hansen flair to it. You have managed to cultivate a unique and recognisable style that always sounds fresh and interesting.
Simon, thanks for posting the Port Askaig video. The fiddle player is the very Jean-Ann Callender I was mentioning in this thread. Small world indeed!
I recorded my version over the weekend, but with what has been happenng in the world it took me a little while to put the video up. Working from home for the foreseeable future -- will need my mandolins and home recordings to keep me sane! According to Nigel Gatherer, this slow air or pastorale in 6/8 time was adapted by Alec Sim in 1930 from the much older tune "Hey To Couper", a country dance from the Scottish/Northumbrian borders first published in 1734. I'm playing the tune on mandolin and Sim's harmony (as posted by John) on mandocello, over a tenor guitar arpeggio accompaniment. 1898 Giuseppe Vinaccia mandolin Suzuki MC-815 mandocello Vintage Viaten tenor guitar Martin
We all were full of praise for Johns peaceful rendition back in December. Now we got a true David Hansen production and a true Martin Jonas trio – both to my taste. Thanks gentleman. I enjoyed the slides too.
Another super piece of playing and arranging, Martin. This is such a great tune to play. Your pictures add to the pleasure of the music.
After all these fine multitrack productions above, you get a true example of kitchen music. Just me with my simple GEWA bouzouki in front of a Sony Z5 smartphone:
When the tune has a strong melody line it only needs one instrument, Frithjof. Lovely sound from your bouzouki, and well played too. The bouzouki suits the slower tunes with its longer sustain. You have cheered me up on a wet, windy and dull Scottish morning when I am probably glad to be kept indoors!
That is lovely Frithjof. Great sound from your bouzouki. As we are all stuck at home (sigh) I am enjoying the tunes coming out of our homes. And as John said, on a chilly wet day, you've made my day. Thanks F.
Kitchen music is the best, I love the sound of your bouzouki, well played.
So I was looking at the musescore page and it lists Hey TO Cupar and Warkworth Castle under the title. There are several abc files for both on the abcnotation site. X:2 % T:Hey to Cupar M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:Gow - 2nd Repository (1802) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D A,|D>ED F2G|A2c AFD|G2e F2d|EFD C>B,A,| D>ED F2G|A2B AFD|FdF Edc|d3D2:| |:A|d>ed f2g|{fg}a2g fed|BcB c2d|efd cBA|ded f2g| {fg}a2g fed|1 B/c/dB c/d/ec|{c}d3 D2:|2 Bgf edc|{c}d3D2|| this one feels close? YMMV, there are a few others under both. Hope this helps Simon DS and others?
Thanks Martin and Frithjof, nice to see the beautiful images and the kitchentoo. Thanks Dan, I want to do this one later, I need to do fast reels at the moment. Have you tried it?
I didn't miss any additional tracks or instruments, either. That's a nice bouzouki, well played! It suits the tune very well.
I managed to get out of the house for 45 minutes today, for the permitted physical exercise. The setting seemed to suit "The Wind on the Heath". This is just a low-tech mobile phone recording, and just once through. I actually played much more, but the first time through was the best. I seem to have a talent for introducing errors on repeat!
Dennis, a lovely performance and that is a really good quality recording using your phone. Lovely tone. Think I will throw away my recording gear and revert to the basics. No,I have it so I will use it! Thanks for posting, and glad you are getting out for a bit of exercise. Good to see the SAW group so active.
Besides the comment I left on YT - I would like to say...shorts!! shorts!! -we still have patchy snow on our heath but we still went out raking leaves just to get out of the darned house.
Gelsenbury - Really lovely tone and nicely played. Thank you.
Great video, Dennis. Regarding the tone you produced and how well the phone recorded it I agree with the comments above. Great scenery, too.
Well done Dennis but i'm afraid I'm with Ginny on the shorts, I live in California and I can't wear shorts yet!!!!
In California, you're probably used to higher temperatures. Those 25-odd degrees felt like a heatwave after the winter! We're back to cooler weather today. There'd actually be wind on that heath now.
Nice one Dennis! One time through is fine for an ‘out in the elements’ type of tune. I like the little runner in the background. I was wondering about the sound quality, really good, was there something substantial behind the camera, brick or concrete wall or something?
I only noticed the runner when reviewing the video. By contrast, on one of the later repeats, a drone was hovering above me and I only realised after a couple of minutes where that noise was coming from! I'm sitting on what's left of a little bridge. There's a lot of open space in all directions, but as you can see some contortions were needed to get both the "heath" and me in the picture. The phone was leaning against my mandolin case, in "selfie mode" (i.e., using the front camera). Perhaps that was a lucky microphone angle. I didn't choose it with any thought to sound quality, I just wanted to make sure I can actually be seen in the picture because the angle was a little unnatural.
Great winds so far, I thought I had published my version too, but can't see it now. So here it is:
Very timely posting,Christian. We have just had our first named storm of the winter, Storm Arwen, forecast for Friday and Saturday! Winds to 70 mph in exposed areas and all the usual warnings. At least I will get to my weekly session tonight (and back home) before Arwen arrives! Lovely version as always from you.
Great, Christian. You added a fine rendition to our collection.
Thank you posting this tune CC. I have it right beside me at my 'playing area'. I keep looking at it but have not recorded it yet. I love the melody and it sound very nice on your mandolin.
I enjoyed that Christian…it’s prompted me to consider learning (& recording) a version…
John, I posted the original Alec Sim notation and harmony at the start of this thread, so looking forward to hearing your version in due course.
Thanks John, I shall have a listen and look…but not in a rush…(snail emoji…)…
Fine sounds emanating from your mandolin, Christian. Nice rubato too.
Inspired by all versions thus far, but mainly based Alec Sim’s music….with sections of the 2nd mandolin left out and doubling up on sections of the first mandolin…I’ve now managed to get this version together. I barely read music and have little knowledge of music theory…so being a member of this group has already challenged me to develop. Ivor Packard Octave Mandola Phil Davidson Mandolin Faith Parlour Guitar
