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 via the Suggestion Form.
This week’s tune:
The King’s Wedding March. Legend has it that this D minor march was composed, possibly in the 19th century, by a “committee” of fiddlers from many parts of Sweden to honor their king’s wedding.
Last week’s tune:
Top o’ the Hill, by Andy DeJarlis, a jaunty reel in the Métis tradition of Manitoba
Recent Tunes of the Week:
- Gärdebylåten, a traditional gånglåt (walking tune) from Sweden. The traditional tempo is that of a stately walk, not to be referred to or confused with a march.
- Peaches and Sweet Honey, a waltz in A composed and contributed by site visitor Peter Clayton. Check out the origin of this title in the Notes section.
- Air Charles St-Hilaire. A beautiful air from Québec by Aimé Gagnon (or possibly from Charles St. Hilaire via Aimé), aka Marche St-Hilaire. If you like “crooked” tunes, have a look at the various time signatures in the sheet music here.
- Josephin’s (Josephin’s Baptismal Waltz (Josefins dopvals)), composed by Roger Tallroth for his niece, this tune was probably composed in F but is commonly played in G. I think the F version is beautiful.
- Blind Mary, a lovely air by Turlough O’Carolan (or just Turlough Carolan as he may have been known). He was blind and made his living as a harper treaveling among the homes of nobility and landowners in the west of Ireland. Blind Mary is said to have been a fellow blind harper.
- Sackett’s Harbor. This reel was composed in honor of a successful American effort in the War of 1812, to evade a British blockade of its headquarters of naval operations on Lake Ontario, in the town of Sackett’s Harbor.
- The Rambling Pitchfork. A jaunty Irish jig. The title refers to an itinerant farm laborer.
- Lucy Farr’s Barn Dance, A lyrical Irish hornpipe, probably composed by Lucy, one of the well known and well loved characters of the last century in London’s Irish music community.
- Rocking the Babies to Sleep, a sweet waltz by Jimmy Rodgers, it was taught to us in central Vermont maybe ten years ago by ther late, great Alan Jabbour, and turns up in jams and sessions frequently.
- Tillsammans (Together), a Brudmarsch or bridal march from Sweden. Composed by Anders Eriksson for his daughter Maja. The video is apparently of the tune played at Maja’s wedding.
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Background: I started this site about seven years ago largely for my own convenience, but it quickly grew to be useful for a number of other musicians in my area. Since then it has grown far beyond my original vision, with over 1,000 tunes posted and around 5,500 user sessions per month from more than 30 countries. Until now I have built and maintained the site out of my own pocket but its increasing size and complexity is requiring more outside resources and costs; hence this appeal. So if this site is helpful to you, please consider a small contribution.