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Author Topic: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?  (Read 7319 times)

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Idelone

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Re: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?
« Reply #20 on: May 31, 2014, 02:37:04 PM »

Could I suggest that this forum settle on 'dim' as meaning three stacked minor intervals, and 'half-diminished' for the other chord, the final interval being 2-tone (major) in that one? Both meaning four note chords.

It's probably not necessary to reinvent the wheel, existing terminology should suffice, otherwise we really would be in danger of muddying the waters. I'm not up-to-date with any possible new ideas in harmony theory but if my memory serves me well diminished chords would generally be used as passing chords whereas half-diminished would function as the ii chord in a minor key. Perhaps a simplification, and I will no doubt be taken to task by the current music scholars, but that's how I remember it.  So their function should give a clue to their form.

Bearing in mind the limitations of the melodeon, no matter how sophisticated, one will never be able to reproduce exotic or out of key harmonies, even with a deft right-hand and the aid of an octopus, well certainly not for the masses. You could get closer with 18 basses or a stradella system but you would still be limited, and each piece would be bespoke to one's instrument. I've noticed this when sending music, that I had transcribed, to my bro-in-law; everything had to be rewritten to accommodate his 8 bass plus 2 acc button system from my 12-bass plus 10 acc button system.

If I were in your shoes, I would either simplify the harmony to reduce the ambiguity, or harmonise the piece to give the required tension and release and give the part to a guitar player, for example, to accompany you and then play chord tones or their extensions on the bass side as appropriate. It's good to stretch the boundaries, but isn't it a bit like trying to crack a sledge hammer with a walnut. The melodeon does have harmonic limitations imposed upon it because it is a diatonic instrument, and by overcomplicating things you could end up with an unplayable piece, or, far worse, something that nobody would wish to listen to.

That said, I would be interested to hear the final result, because you never know, it might shut me up.   ;D

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jojaba55

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Re: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?
« Reply #21 on: May 31, 2014, 03:56:17 PM »

Hoi All,

Just back from holiday and reading this topic, for a long time I am intrigued by this tune. Like to share this version of the tune, played by our Dutch (Keltic Folk Group) Rapalje, hope you like it.

http://youtu.be/uBD1HTawYx0
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waldoB

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Re: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?
« Reply #22 on: May 31, 2014, 05:56:14 PM »

I apologise, I'm not up to putting in links, but the sheet music from '  Broadcasting from Home ' is available from a website httpw;//w.edition-peters.com/resources/00/stock/pdf/Music for a Found Harmonium score sample.pdf. There is a matching youtube  video with Simon Jeffes playing banjo. The sheet music is in C, with the rests, which makes the phrasing easy. The bass line is  straightforward, withouth chords. 
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Pete Dunk

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Re: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?
« Reply #23 on: May 31, 2014, 10:01:25 PM »

I apologise, I'm not up to putting in links, but the sheet music from '  Broadcasting from Home ' is available from a website httpw;//w.edition-peters.com/resources/00/stock/pdf/Music for a Found Harmonium score sample.pdf. There is a matching youtube  video with Simon Jeffes playing banjo. The sheet music is in C, with the rests, which makes the phrasing easy. The bass line is  straightforward, withouth chords.

Hmm, the unlinked address is wrong too! try this:

http://www.edition-peters.com/resources/0001/stock/pdf/Music_for_a_Found_Harmonium_score_sample.pdf
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?
« Reply #24 on: June 01, 2014, 08:46:38 AM »

Well found Peter. The mother lode!

1. No actual chords :P
2. guess we could think of the harmonium line as a broken chord
     though the drone gets in the way? But they are incomplete.

     In several places the tonic is sort of implied, and in bars 23-4
     if we think of it as a dim of any kind, no 7 ::) But that's no
     passing chord! 2 whole bars on the same note.

Need to think on this more, but Wakefield beckons. Might play it there, wish me luck. What is becoming clear (just looked at jojaba55's video) is that as a modern day folk tune this "classic" has achieved a life of its own :|glug
« Last Edit: June 01, 2014, 08:50:01 AM by Chris Ryall »
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Chris Brimley

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Re: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?
« Reply #25 on: June 01, 2014, 10:38:24 AM »

Thanks waldoB and Pete Dunk for the links.  I agree with Chris that it looks like he hasn't scored the drone.

Chris, aren't bars 23 and 24 different, though?

23 looks built around Fmi7 to me, and 24 has Ab, D, F and B bass in it on the beat - Bdim7 I'd have thought?  Then bar 25 is G7.  For the dim7 chord, it's 'passing' maybe, just passing slowly!  (Translating to D, that makes Gmi7, C#dim7, A7, of course).

In fact it looks very much as if Simon Jeffes wrote his brilliant tune by thinking in chord progressions for the on-beat notes, and filling in with other notes from that scale.

I'm going to give up attempting to learn this tune on the box - the main problem for me isn't so much the bar of C#dim7, I have the C# bass on pull and other notes in various directions, so might be able to work that one out playably on my box.  No it's the F passage, where I'd really want to use the bass and chord throughout, and I only have that on pull, which constrains me to such a long stretch of pull that I'd run out of puff.
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Chris Ryall

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Re: Music for Found Harmonium - what chords?
« Reply #26 on: June 01, 2014, 09:38:29 PM »

Now stuck in Sheffield. Will reply when home. Did try it in Wakefield, but fell over on the F chord, thought I might get as far as Bb but the melodeon gods did not smile on me :-\ The D bit is solid though and I can vary it at will. Strange tune, you slave away, then suddenly, it clicks.
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