Having done a lot of dancing and playing for dancing, allow me to
suggest that the decision might depend on whether or not there are a
bunch of sweaty people out there in front of you saying, "That didn't
sound like the end of the tune. Should I bow/curtsie? Or keep
dancing?" If there are dancers, end on a tonic whenever possible.
Alec MacLean
In a message dated 6/18/2011 1:43:28 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:
There are many tunes, especially slip jigs, and quite a few
Peacocks,
which as written, end on a note that implies we're about to go
back to
the beginning and start again, but isn't really in itself an
endi-
...
Many players stop there on the last time through, and don't play
the
note which seems to want to come and end it, pointing out that it
ain't
in the script so you don't play it.
It's a matter of taste whether you like a hanging in the air,
imperfect/interrupted/whatever cadence, type of ending, or
whether you
like to add the extra back-home note on the last time. Since I've
only
got dots and some recordings, mostly of modern players, to go on,
I
have no hard evidence as to how it was really done back in the
day.
Some tunes I like that way, with others my instinct is to add the
implied final note, especially if playing for dancers. (It
doesn't have
to be a Jimmy Shand type "Taraaa", of course!)
So I wonder if it's done that way because it really was
traditional, or
because people who, like me, only have what was written down, are
slavishly not playing un-written dots, despite the fact that we
happily
accept that dots are necessarily an imperfect shorthand, (Cf
hornpipe
rhythms, non-notated grace notes in many traditions, and so
forth); so
we stop because the person notating it didn't bother making an
extra
"last time bar". Or did the traditional musicians who'd learned
it from
their great-uncle who had it from - and so on, actually play it
that
way?
Please could those of you, like Anthony and others, who have
played
with the survival of the "living tradition" (whichever one!)
offer any
help?
Thanks and best wishes,
Richard.
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