A new tune each Wednesday (more or less), chosen arbitrarily by your Webmaster, a mixture of traditional and new but traditional in style tunes. Site visitors are encouraged to nominate tunes for this page.
This week’s tune:
A Week in January by Seamus Egan. Despite it being July as I post this, here is a lovely slow air in G, including a YouTube video of Seamus playing it which must surely be the authentic version.
Last week’s tune:
Brilliancy This old-time and sometime Bluegrass reel is melodically wonderful. Don’t miss the video of the incomparable Sam Bush playing it on the mandolin (riding in a gondola!).
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- Lydia Levins Slängpolska in F. This is a beautiful slangpolska about which I have not been able to find much background information. Update: Andrew Alexis has very kindly sent me sheet music and ABC for this tune.
- Calgary Reel. Despite its Prairie Provinces title, this Canadian tune is Québecios in origin, composed by David Boulanger.
- Lake Champlain A beautiful waltz composed by Vermont fiddler Viveka Fox. For an only intermediate guitarist like myself, the chords are a bit challenging — the tune is in B minor, aeolian mode, definitely not your standard 1-4-5 major chords. But it’s incredibly sweet, conveying the beauty of that lovely lake.
- Schottishe á Virmoux, a charming and quite simple French schottische in D taught to us and played here by Doug LaPoint on both mandolin and fiddle.
- Corie, a lovely slow air composed by David Kaynor for Corie Pressley, played by Corie, her sister Katie, David and many of their friends in the accompanying video.
- Maddie’s Pride, I haven’t been able to find much about this tune’s story, but it’s a lovely waltz.
- Bellman’s Jig, first published in the 1790s as a song and march, This is one of the best known tunes in Swedish traditional music.
- Luke the Bear. While we’re on the subject of bears, here’s a jaunty reel by David Kaynor. Don’t miss the YouTube of David himself playing it with some friends.
- Dancing Bear. Bob McQuillen is said to have written this reel for a rather clumsy dancer. Played on solo fiddle, it seems a bit repetitive, but add the chords, especially the C chord at the beginning of the fourth line, and it becomes wonderful. Also, we like to play it three or four times, starting slowly and increasing the tempo with each repetition.
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