abcusers-digest wrote: > > abcusers-digest Friday, April 12 2002 Volume 01 : Number 669 > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 10:41:07 EDT > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [abcusers] Re: What tune is this? > > Phil Katz wrote: > > >Imo the Danish tune does not begin to be Jenny Lind (except > >under that convention that any two tunes in the same key(s) with > >roughly the same phrasing and 1-2 similar runs are the same > >tune.) > > You need to learn to see the forest through the trees. Measures > 2, 3, and 4 (and therefore measure 6 as well) have nearly the > same outline in both tunes, and more importantly, they *sound* > similar. The A sections are as similar as any two versions of > "Soldier's Joy." It is questionable whether this is worth continuing in-group.
Forgive me if I bristle here, but after 24 years as a dance musician in the American and British Isles traditions (ca 22 of them in working bands that have worked their way through a _lot_ of tunes) I do not enjoy being lectured re forests and trees. In re the tune in question, I have played Jenny Lind since ca 1982, and more recently heard several traditions' versions. There are a lot of versions. I suspect that in a session or dancing I'd "lock onto" the fact that a tune was Jenny Lind in about 4 bars, and start trying to ID the ethnic origin of the version in real time. The tune that was originally presented evokes none of this recognition for me, despite having "nearly the same _outline_" It evokes "yup, that sounds like a Danish Polka, alright, or maybe Shetland or Faroes, but probably not Scottish mainland and almost certainly not English or Irish." By Barnert's stated criterion, any of (say) dozens of D English hornpipes of the mid-late 19th century (most of them having recognized names) could be called the "same tune". They have the same outline, I suspect, because they were all being played for dancers in the same era doing the same kind of stepping. But among abc users who take the ID'ing of tunes and their histories fairly seriously, collapsing whole families of tunes into "one tune", simply because they come from a similar era and usage and have some similar patterns in them, does a disservice. The Cincinnati Hornpipe _isn't_ Harvest Home. Imo those patterns have a much more valid use, and that is in imputing _type_ and possibly _origin_ and _era_ of tunes. Analogously, imo, for the Danish mystery tune and Jenny Lind. I _suspect_ that if/when someone ID's it, a polka will be found, of the same vintage and possibly origin as Jenny Lind. But to pre-empt such scholarship and say it _is_ a variant on Jenny Lind, on the evidence presented, would be as presumpuous as encountering the Cincinatti Hornpipe (naive as to its title) and saying "oh that's just an American variant on Harvest Home." It would be a different story if someone piped up and with (say) "in this tune mss from the Faroe islands that's Jenny Lind" or "my grandfather played the Jenny Lind and it sounded just like the mystery tune." I'll post no more on this; if DavBarnert wants the last word, he is welcome. Phil Katz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Seattle, WA USA To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
