> Why not transcribe the whole of the Calvert Collection? [...]
> there are bass parts for almost all the tunes. Many are fairly
> pedestrian but some have been well written, by Calvert himself
> I would guess. Also several tunes have a second violin part.
> There are double stoppings, trills and ties in many of the tunes.
These latter features are what would make the collection interesting
to transcribe. ABC is now mature enough to represent such things, so
it is now possible to do the job right. There's no point in doing a
transcription that somebody will have to redo in a few years' time.
There is a minor problem with multiple voices. These are not quite
standardized. However, the divergences are small enough that minor
editing by the user can resolve them. If you make your source
accurate and readable, variations in syntax are a side-issue. I use
Barfly and do things that way, but I'd rather deal with an accurately
transcribed tune using the abc2ps conventions than a rush job in the
form I'm used to.
One caveat: doing bass lines absolutely demands that you proofread
(and maybe proofhear) with a computer. You will *inevitably* get
octave-out errors with almost every tune.
The McKay tunes on my site are an example of simple bass lines of
the sort you're talking about. (BTW, I have never had any feedback
on these; I thought they had good potential as present-day session
tunes, but if anybody's introducing them for that they haven't told
me).
> It is also interesteing to see; The Fall of Paris and the Sea Captains -
> tunes that appear in O'Neills in very similar versions.
Fall of Paris is "Ca Ira", the anthem of the French Revolution. It was
a great hit in the late 18th century. It was what the eternally stroppy
Lord George Gordon asked to have played to him as he was dying in jail.
> So, the question is; is anyone interested in this collection enough to
> help me out with the abc work? Otherwise I do not think it will ever get
> done. If you are prepared to do say ten tunes, I'll send you a photocopy
> of the book. You can then email me the section of the abc file. I'll then
> splice the offerings together and offer it to the usual sites.
What I would be prepared to do is final proofreading. There's a copy
of this collection in the NLS so I wouldn't need photocopies.
> I have stuck to Calvert's spelling of the titles including the "f"
> for "s".
That's not an f, it's a long s.
My take on this transcription:
X: 8
T:Trip to Kelfo
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:jig
B:Thomas Calvert Collection - Page 4
K:A
E| ABA c2 A| e2 A c2 A| BcB d2B| f2 Bd cB | ABA c2 A| e2 A c2 A| fga e2
d| cd B A2 | |
e| aga g2 e| fdf ecA | ABA aga | Acd efg | aga g2 e| fdf ecA
fga e2 d| cd B A2 e|
aga g2 e| fdf ecA | ABA aga | Acd efg | aga geg | fdf ecA | fga e2 d|
cd B A2 ||
1. A layout that reflects the structure makes it easier to see where
things are repeated and where there are deliberate variations.
2. The two separated barlines at the end of the first part are both
incorrect ABC and are wrong semantically - this must be a repeat
(or a very strange tune). Try to figure out what Calvert's repeat
conventions are.
3. Bar 4 will be beamed as if it's 3/4 by most ABC software. Same
goes for the last bar of the piece. Surely Calvert didn't print
it that way?
4. You have no barline between bars 6 and 7 in the second part.
5. You need to identify yourself as the transcriber so you can get
corrections, fan mail etc.
6. Unless the source says the tune is a jig, don't use the R: field
to say so. Put editorial guesses like that in N: fields. (In this
case it could hardly be anything else, but there are tougher cases
like tunes in 6/8 which the original editor called reels).
7. The references to O'Neill are out of place. It isn't any sort
of bible for Scottish music - maybe references to Kerr or to
Charlie's index would make sense, but otherwise I'd restrict the
bibliographic stuff to talk about earlier versions rather than
later ones.
8. Some of the above problems are due to the software you're using -
abc2win is pretty bad at error checking. Get something more
modern to test your transcriptions with. (I don't use Windows,
but I think Muse may be the best bet here - its typesetting may be
nothing to write home about, but its author is actively developing
it and tracking changes in the ABC spec very quickly).
This is the way I'd do it. I haven't changed any of your pitches or
time values, though. I could play off this without typesetting it;
your original layout would make that difficult.
X:9
T:Trip to Kelso
M:6/8
L:1/8
B:Thomas Calvert Collection - Page 4
Z:Philip Whittaker 2001
K:A
E|ABA c2A|e2A c2A|BcB d2B|f2B dcB|\
ABA c2A|e2A c2A|fga e2d|cdB A2:|
e|aga g2e|fdf ecA|ABA aga|Acd efg|\
aga g2e|fdf ecA|fga e2d|cdB A2e|
aga g2e|fdf ecA|ABA aga|Acd efg|\
aga geg|fdf ecA|fga e2d|cdB A2|]
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