I received Jack's cc:'d e-mail today regarding the posting of abc's of John
Clarkson Jr. (I do not belong to the abc list), however, since the original
was posted to the abc list, I'll reply here. I have some explaining to do,
and some acceptance of responsibility, although several facts need clarifying.
<<I have a transcription of Clarkson's American tunes of 1805 on my website.
It contains this note, at the start where no reader could miss it:>>
Jack posted the abc's in question to Scots-L, which is where I retrieved
them. I have not visited his site yet. However, he did post the header to
Scots-L that evidently appears on his website asking that redistributions
include the complete file.
A few months after Jack's Scots-L posting the subject arose on Fiddle-L of
early American fiddle tunes-those that appeared to be indigenous and not
imports from overseas. Remembering Jack's Edinburgh-published American tunes,
I posted the following message to the list:
<<Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 22:57:52 EST Reply-To: Fiddle Players' Discussion
List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sender: Fiddle Players' Discussion List
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Old American
Tunes Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
About half a year ago Jack Campin posted the tunes below to the Scots-L list
and asked if anyone recognized them or knew anything about them. They were
published in 1805 in Edinburgh, Scotland, by one John Clarkson Jr., on a
single-sheet entitled "American Tunes No. 1, Arranged for the Piano Forte,"
with no other information available. At the time I was intrigued by them, but
had filed them away for later investigation when I had more time. Jack's
original abc's also included the bass part given in the sheet music, but I
have stripped that away on the abc's below (with apologies to Jack), as 1) my
abc program won't read them in two-stave format and 2) they obscure the
melody. If anyone is interested in Jack's original abc's let me know, and
I'll send them along.
Anyway, my "investigating" was fairly short-lived. I haven't heard the tunes
before, and don't know of any modern variations in old-time repertoire, but I
thought others in the group might. A couple are very interesting, and with a
little swing seem to me to play as good as many old-time tunes I know. The
titles seem to be quintessential American titles...they were printed in
Scotland at a time when in that country composers like Marshall and Gow were
naming tunes "Miss So and So's Strathspey" or "Lord D'....s Reel"; for
patrons, and quite different than the names below. Titles like "Mammy's Gone
Away and Daddy's Dead Forever" and "Oh Dear, I Wish I Had Not Come Here" seem
as good as any old-time titles I know! The Rickets tune probably, like
"Rickett's Hornpipe", refers to promoter John Bill Ricketts, originally a
Scot, who had a famous circus in America in the 1790's until around 1800,
when it was destroyed by fire. The tune is the least interesting of the
bunch, though. A tune called "The Whim" is the title of an English country
dance, although the English tune is in 6/8 time and entirely different than
"The Whim" below.
So, how 'bout it? Any hits?
Regards, Andrew Kuntz
X:1 T:Oh dear, I wish I had not come here S:John Clarkson Jr., American Tunes
no 1, arr. for the Piano Forte c. 1805 N:Edinburgh Printed and Sold by J.
Clarkson N:to be had at his House No. 63 South Bridge B:NLS MH.e.41 Z:Jack
Campin , Sep 2000 L:1/8 M:2/4 K:G B3c A2A2|GABG A2B2 |d3g e2c2 |BGAF G4 :|
|:defd g2g2|fgaf ged^c|defd g2=c2|BGAF G4:|
X:2 T:The Whim S:John Clarkson Jr., American Tunes no 1, arr. for the Piano
Forte c. 1805 N:Edinburgh Printed and Sold by J. Clarkson N:to be had at his
House No. 63 South Bridge B:NLS MH.e.41 Z:Jack Campin , Sep 2000 L:1/8 M:2/4
K:D f2| a2fd a2fd|g2ec g2ec | defg abag|fdec d4 :| |:c2| dBAF E3G |FDFD FDFD
| dBAF E3g |fdec d4 :| |:g2| fddf gfed|cAAA A3g | fddf gfga|bgec d4 :| |:c2|
dBAF E3G |FDFD FDFD | dBAF E3g |fdec d4 :|
X:3 T:Mammy's gone away, and Daddy's dead for ever S:John Clarkson Jr.,
American Tunes no 1, arr. for the Piano Forte c. 1805 N:Edinburgh Printed and
Sold by J. Clarkson N:to be had at his House No. 63 South Bridge B:NLS
MH.e.41 Z:Jack Campin , Sept. 2000 L:1/8 M:2/4 K:D abaf d2d2 |dcde fBB2 |abaf
d2d2|dBAG FDD2 :| A2FA A2FA |A2FA BEE2 |A2FA defe|dBAG FDD2 | A2FA A2FA |A2FA
BEEB |A2FA defe|dBAG FDD2 |]
X:4 T:Row the boat ashore S:John Clarkson Jr., American Tunes no 1, arr. for
the Piano Forte c. 1805 N:Edinburgh Printed and Sold by J. Clarkson N:to be
had at his House No. 63 South Bridge B:NLS MH.e.41 Z:Jack Campin , Sept. 2000
L:1/8 M:2/4 K:A d2|cBcA F2EG |B2BB B2ed |cBcA F2EG|A2AA A2 :| d2|cBce fgaf
|ecBA AGFE|Acea fdBG |A2AA A3d | cBce fgaf |ecBA AGFE|Acea fdBG |A2AA A2 |]
X:5 T:Rickets Dance S:John Clarkson Junr., American Tunes no 1, arranged for
the Piano Forte N:Edinburgh Printed and Sold by J. Clarkson N:to be had at
his House No. 63 South Bridge B:NLS MH.e.41 Z:Jack Campin , Sept. 2000 L:1/8
M:2/4 K:G G2GA B2G2|A2AB c2A2|G2GA B2G2 |AGFE D4 | G2GA B2G2|A2AB c2A2|BdBG
AcAF |G4 G4 :| |:B2Bc d2B2|dBdB d2B2|A2AB c2A2 |cAcA c2A2 | B2Bc d2B2|dBdB
d2B2|cBAG FGAF |G2G2 G4 :| |:{DEF}[E2G2][E2G2] [F2D2][F2D2]|[E2C2][E2C2]
[D4B,4] |\ E2c2 A2F2 | GFGA G2(3DEF| [E2G2][E2G2] [F2D2][F2D2]|[E2C2][E2C2]
[D4B,4] |\ E2c2 A2F2 | G4 G4 :|>>
This post appears in the Fiddle-L archives at
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?S1=fiddle-l
(Incidently, I did not get any reply to the post whatsoever)
I would like to clarify, for Jack and the record:
1) His abc's do not appear in my on-line index The Fiddler's Companion
(http:www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc)
2) I did not create *any* file with his abc's in it. The file he refers to
was presumably either created by John Chambers for his tunefinder, or by
another party from whom John obtained the file. (I don't have the fife tunes
or the large Reavy abc file referred to either, and I also remember Nigel's
exchange on-list regarding the propriety of using that abc file and whether
permission was obtained).
3) I altered Jack's abc's for the post to Fiddle-L for the purpose of
highlighting the melody line on a list for fiddlers to see if anyone on
Fiddle-L might recognize any "old-time" American derivations of the Clarkson
tunes, and therefore extend the discussion of documented indigenous tunes.
The rationale, with an apology to Jack for the alteration, were posted, as
above.
4) I mentioned Jack's full name in the post five times, and his first name
twice. Although I shortened the Z: line, Jack's URL is easily found with a
search engine, and his name appears with every abc. There was no attempt to
obfuscate the source, albeit his URL was not included.
This being clarified, I do accept responsibility for altering Jack's abc's
and posting them to Fiddle-L, and I did not seek his permission beforehand.
I apologize to you, Jack, for this and will not to let it happen again with
abc's you have generated. In an attempt to make amends, I will contact John
Chambers to see if he can alter the file as you wish, or to help me locate
where the file is stored so that I can pursue amending your abc's to the
original.
I do not know if the Fiddle-L archive can be amended. I suspect not, but will
check into it.
Regards,
Andrew Kuntz
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