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Author Topic: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme  (Read 60900 times)

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gmatkin

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #20 on: April 04, 2010, 01:59:49 PM »

Here's mine... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsrYrU16BrA

Hope you like it!

Gav

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #21 on: April 04, 2010, 06:29:42 PM »


Now I know where I've heard the tune before - Albion Band's 'Lark Rise to Candleford,  track ten. Similar rythem


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=330n4m8i1Ck

Here's the Albion Band playing Battle of the Somme in the 1978 National Theatre production. Pinch yourself if you remember it  --  it was 32 years ago! It's also on the Albion Country Band's "Battle of the Field". This came out a couple of years earlier. I bought the vinyl at the time and suddenly feel very old.  :(


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Ollie

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #22 on: April 04, 2010, 06:41:50 PM »


Now I know where I've heard the tune before - Albion Band's 'Lark Rise to Candleford,  track ten. Similar rythem


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=330n4m8i1Ck

Here's the Albion Band playing Battle of the Somme in the 1978 National Theatre production. Pinch yourself if you remember it  --  it was 32 years ago! It's also on the Albion Country Band's "Battle of the Field". This came out a couple of years earlier. I bought the vinyl at the time and suddenly feel very old.  :(


The album version is sublime. The trumpet voluntry followed by the wailing electric guitar up an octave in the last time though always sends shivers down my spine.  Wish I'd been around to witness the shows in the late 70s. I'd pay good money to see Rise Up Like the Sun performed live again.
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Bryn Pinzgauer

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #23 on: April 05, 2010, 02:25:22 PM »

OK, I voted for it so here's my first "Tune of the Month" attempt. Played on my Hohner Pokerwork. For me, the tune sounds a bit too happy. I prefer a more sombre take but can't yet play it that way. It's at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12394349@N06/4492677513/
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Howard Jones

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #24 on: April 05, 2010, 05:26:31 PM »

the tune sounds a bit too happy. I prefer a more sombre take but can't yet play it that way.

BCC#er

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #25 on: April 05, 2010, 06:29:02 PM »


Yes, the title does seem to be a big impediment to playing it too jauntily.
But the melody itself, independently of its title or 'subject', is quite amenable to a lighter treatment imo.

I agree especially keeping in mind it's a most common tune for a Scottish Lilt.
I'd say it's a battle tune not a dirge so it could be played in aggressive way rather then mornfull.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2010, 06:44:57 PM by BCC#er »
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Bryn Pinzgauer

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #26 on: April 05, 2010, 07:50:57 PM »

Thanks for the suggestions all. Will try saddening it.

My grandfather was one of the British (Welsh) casualties of the Somme. Shot in the face and head but not killed. Had a metal plate put in his head back then.
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oggiesnr

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #27 on: April 05, 2010, 11:12:44 PM »


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=330n4m8i1Ck

Here's the Albion Band playing Battle of the Somme in the 1978 National Theatre production. Pinch yourself if you remember it  --  it was 32 years ago! It's also on the Albion Country Band's "Battle of the Field". This came out a couple of years earlier. I bought the vinyl at the time and suddenly feel very old.  :(


Scary, I was there, working as a stagehand, so I also feel old!

There's a brass band version on Mike Harding's "Bombers' Moon" album, it's the coda to "The Accrington Pals"
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Pete Dunk

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #28 on: April 05, 2010, 11:26:56 PM »

Thanks for the suggestions all. Will try saddening it.

My grandfather was one of the British (Welsh) casualties of the Somme. Shot in the face and head but not killed. Had a metal plate put in his head back then.

Play the tune as you feel it should be played Bryn, it's about you and the way the music makes you feel. Sometimes a tune speaks to you and demands to be played in a certain way. Mess with that and you're messing with your own creativity. You may not always be right in the view of others, in fact chances are that many will interpret the tune in a very different way but nothing in music is cast in stone. Pipe Major William Laurie wrote the Battle of the Somme as a retreat march to be played at a brisk pace on the highland great pipes, but that doesn't mean that I can't play it with the emotion the tune creates in me on a very different instrument in a very different world as a deeply respectful 'interpretation'.
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Clive Williams

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #29 on: April 06, 2010, 12:17:08 AM »

Here's my very quick stab at this tune, played as a lament/slow march:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnyLhVMUIkE

Going to be a busy month for me, so thought I'd get it in while I can!

Enjoy,

Clive

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #30 on: April 06, 2010, 08:20:37 AM »

Nice - I liked that.
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BCC#er

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #31 on: April 06, 2010, 09:36:55 AM »

Thanks Clive, I really like it! Great stuff.
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Lester

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #32 on: April 06, 2010, 03:53:29 PM »

A more droney version on my Connemara III

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAJ-xEvrX4E

GuyWyatt

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #33 on: April 06, 2010, 05:33:05 PM »

It maybe that I am just not finding the right way into this tune but so far (although the tune itself is growing on me) I just can't make it sound right with bases.  It sounds quite attractive right hand only, but on the other hand if you are only going to use the right hand there is in my view not much point in playing it on a melodeon and you might as well put it on a fiddle.
It looks like I am going to wait for all you folk out in melodeonspace to inspire and inform what I am playing.
Guy
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Anahata

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #34 on: April 06, 2010, 07:26:59 PM »

It maybe that I am just not finding the right way into this tune but so far (although the tune itself is growing on me) I just can't make it sound right with bases.  It sounds quite attractive right hand only

I'm going for a 1-row version with RH chords and bass notes but not LH chords, and then only where they fit.
Coming later tonight with a bit of luck but I've got some other video editing to attend to first.

The tune's growing on me too - I'm really getting into it and I know how I want to play it.
Clive's version is a lovely example of a particular approach, but my take on the tune is that it's driven more by anger at the criminal and needless waste of life. And, as has been said, it's a march, not a lament. Those pipes and drums make the right noises for me...
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Chris Brimley

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #35 on: April 06, 2010, 08:05:49 PM »

Here's my version, hope you like it:

http://www.onmvoice.com/play.php?a=18083

I agree with you about this tune, Anahata - I also wanted to try to say something about the way this tune must have been written as a stirring anthem about glory and honour, to cover up the reality, which was just a bloody mess.  I don't see it as a dirge.

'He's the Universal Soldier, and he really is to blame, his orders come from far away no more...', as the man said.

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Noggin

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #36 on: April 06, 2010, 08:17:12 PM »

This could do with a bit more practice but I think you can get the gist of what I was trying to do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYrcJPqKdCU
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BCC#er

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #37 on: April 06, 2010, 09:02:25 PM »

Chris Brimley: That's much more close to my vision of the tune. Suprerb! :|glug
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Anahata

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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #38 on: April 06, 2010, 09:12:16 PM »

I also wanted to try to say something about the way this tune must have been written as a stirring anthem about glory and honour, to cover up the reality, which was just a bloody mess.

I discovered it's not quite like that. I quote Jack Campin (who usually knows what he's talking about) on Mudcat a few years back:
Quote
"The Battle of the Somme" is a 9/8 slow march written by William Laurie during WW1. He was in the battle, wrote the tune in hospital after it, and died of his wounds a few months later; he lived long enough to see it adopted by every pipe band in the Army. (He was not the much better-known pipe tune composer Willie Lawrie, who outlived WW1 by a few decades)

Anyway I'll listen to yours with interest right after this  - meanwhile here's mine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu7QST0wCQA
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Re: Tune of the Month for April 2010 - Battle of the Somme
« Reply #39 on: April 06, 2010, 09:27:40 PM »

Here's my version, hope you like it:
http://www.onmvoice.com/play.php?a=18083
Oh yes! That's more like those Scottish country dance band recordings than anything else posted so far, especially some of the chord changes.
It sounds as if, like me, you've found a version with those Scottish 'snaps' in it, and made them very snappy!
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