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Author Topic: Desert Island Tunes  (Read 1556 times)

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James Fitton

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Desert Island Tunes
« on: February 07, 2017, 02:15:04 PM »


Firstly, for those of us not UK-based, a brief explanation of the title. We have a fantastically long-running radio programme called Desert Island Discs. It involves a celebrity of some description choosing 8 songs/tunes/tracks which they would most want to have available to them on a fictional desert island. They are interviewed about their life and their choices, although the technology by which they will be playing their chosen songs is never explained.


So how about a variant. You have your favourite box with you, but (for equally unexplained reasons) you are limited to only playing 8 tunes during the endless days until you are rescued from the island. Which 8 tunes/songs would best keep you company?


For me this would be:

  • Miss McLeod's reel. First proper dance tune I learned and still play, Many memories of happy times.
  • Dark girl dressed in blue. Another standard, but one which always cheers me up!
  • Cuckold come out of the amrey. Endless opportunities to do different things with it
  • Seven stars. Got to have a jig. This would remind me of home
  • Cherries. A mazurka - very satisfying on the melodeon
  • HT Polka, from Whapweasel. Partly because of reminders of playing this in fun places, and partly because it makes me feel like I'm playing a brass section
  • Timberbottom slide - by my friend Philip Austin, and so that I could finally learn to play it properly!
  • The Silversmith - this is by me, and I know it's considered a bit off to choose your own things, but I hope I'd be allowed one, and I wrote it for my wife, so obvious reasons really
Anyone else?
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Ebor_fiddler

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #1 on: February 07, 2017, 04:57:34 PM »

Oh, dear! Here goes ... (I'm taking my Liliput, as I need the practice and the key doesn't matter as I'm on my own.

1) Horses Brawl, the original with those flats!
2) Plante Un Chou and Le Vicaire. (I count these as one piece and they flow together so well.)
3) Ashokan Farewell - a lovely tune which I prefer to play on the box rather than fiddle. Normally I play it without the left hand, but I expect that I will have enough time to work out a sympathetic bass line in the right places.
4) Da Slockit Light - a lovely sensitive tune. Again, I prefer this on box.
5) Speed the Plough - the first "proper" tune I learned on melodeon.
6) Delilah!
7) Either Ragtime Annie or Shuffling Samuel. The same era and style, and they perfectly fit our instrument.
8) A march! I'm going for "Coming in on a wing and a prayer!" It's a real "cheer you upper!"

All my other tunes, I shall play in my head, where they probably belong!

Chris B.
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pbsalt

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #2 on: February 07, 2017, 05:21:43 PM »

This selection will probably change to tomorrow -  and most are nostalgia-related . Also I've cheated and included some sets.
In no particular order
1 Speed the Plough
2 Froggy's First Jump / Beetle on the Wine
3 The Old Haile Hornpipe ( One of my finest moments after having owned John offord's John of the Greeny Way for over 10 years I finally learnt this , and got the hang of 3/2 hornpipes  thanks to listening to Brian Peters)
4 Valse vor Polle ( apologies for spelling)
5 (72nd ???) Highlanders Farewell to Aberdeen ( via Ossian)
6 Noble Squire Dacre
7 Sherborne Waltz
8 Mrs Parker's Waltz / Gentian Mazurka   ( Mrs Parker from the Winder manuscript, Gentian Mazurka from 1990's sessions in Lancashire  and formerly No 75 from Mel Steven's Pink Book of Massif Central Tunes until The Old Swan Band named it on a recent recording)
..Paul
 
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Roger Hare

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #3 on: February 07, 2017, 07:45:01 PM »

...
  • The Silversmith - this is by me, and I know it's considered a bit off to choose your own things, but I hope I'd be allowed one, and I wrote it for my wife, so obvious reasons really
...

Didn't Herbert von Karajan choose eight of his own recordings with the Berlin Phil?

R

« Last Edit: February 07, 2017, 07:47:49 PM by lachenal74693 »
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Anahata

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #4 on: February 07, 2017, 08:16:14 PM »

Didn't Herbert von Karajan choose eight of his own recordings with the Berlin Phil?

I don't know about Karajan but I've heard that Elisabeth Schwarzkopf chose eight of her own recordings.
« Last Edit: February 07, 2017, 10:05:16 PM by Anahata »
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Lester

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #5 on: February 07, 2017, 08:32:23 PM »

Didn't Herbert von Karajan choose eight of his own recordings with the Berlin Phil?

I don't know about Karajan but I've heard that Elizabeth Schwartzkopf chose eight of her own recordings.

Englebert Humperdinck picked his own autobiography as his chosen book

playandteach

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #6 on: February 07, 2017, 08:43:35 PM »

I think Norman Wisdom did too.
However, the retired CEO of the General Electric Company, or Greater London Council or some such business / government bigwig picked 8 records of my old orchestra! Unfortunately I can't remember anything about him.
I think that the most common choice is the last act of Rosenkavalier, which is a great choice.

My 8 would be
1 Deux Freres by Naragonia but I'd have to learn it first.
2 La Femme de Marbre - Delicq
3 Amelie - Tiersen (and apparently I can't play this yet either, and I shouldn't play it on a public forum until I can!).
4 Libertango by Piazzolla - again I can't play it.
5 Amities by Delicq
6 Sous les Toits by Denecheau
7 In a continental mood - Cutting
8 Valse pour Michel - Also Delicq

Except I should probably choose all 8 from tunes that I haven't learnt yet.
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Psuggmog Volbenz

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2017, 07:27:58 AM »

1) ship titanic
2) theme from the old US stituation comedy about a shipwrecked charter boat: "theme from Gilligan's Island"
3) row row row your boat
4) I'm looking over a four leaf clover
5) off to california hornpipe
6)Stanton Island Ferry hornpipe
7) yellow submarine
8) my bonney lies over the ocean
9)the fiddle tune: "Ebb abd Flow" written by Carl Jones
10) the shanty: "Bound For Old Maui"
Since this exercise is theoretical, I would take one of the little chinese toy one row boxes.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2017, 07:53:27 AM by Psuggmog Volbenz »
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Huw Adamson

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Re: Desert Island Tunes
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2017, 09:34:21 PM »

1) Kärlekens Alla Färjor - Detektivbyrån (my own poor adaptation of it, it doesn't much like being played on only the one instrument.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-dwKPRxBsk
2) Om Du Möter Varg - Detektivbyrån (although I usually play the therumin C part out of preference.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBU3waTWrv8
3) Rochdale Coconut Dance. Such fun.
4) The Böhmerwald Polka, a tune I can't find on YouTube, which I learned from my dad. I play it in G, but it should be in F.
5) Not Today - Twenty One Pilots (A very odd thing to play on melodeon, and I had to take out the reference to playing te piano, it didn't feel right.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqem6k_3pZ8
6) Parson's Farewell, the first ting I learned after taping the thirds up on my Pokerwork
7) The second tune of the second track from the folder of Gasmark V tunes my dad gave me called 'In the Kitchen.' A classic.
8) Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men (I deliberated whether to include this as I play it with a friend as a duet, but considering how hypothetical this affair is anyway...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghb6eDopW8I
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