The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #115531 Message #2474127
Posted By: Phil Edwards
23-Oct-08 - 05:22 PM
Thread Name: Lord Allenwater - how to arrange for unaccompanied
Subject: Lord Allenwater
Short version: I'm wondering how to arrange this song for unaccompanied voice - whether the tune needs tweaking, and if so how.
Long version: you know how you can be listening to an album fairly inattentively, just letting it wash over you, when a song suddenly jumps out and grabs your attention? A friend told me he was doing the washing up when he heard Blonde on blonde for the first time. By the second verse of Visions of Johanna he wasn't washing up any more. I've had similar experiences with the Bonny Bunch of Roses on Nic Jones, and Ten Thousand Miles on The Noah's Ark Trap.
On Shirley & Dolly Collins's For as many as will, Lord Allenwater did it for me; when I'd heard it once I had to hear it again, & after I'd heard it a few times I had to learn it & work it up. But the tune seems to lose a lot when it loses the organ and the brass; the top-line melody on its own just goes up and comes down again, to finish on the same low D it starts on. After several verses it gets a bit boring, frankly - it's just too plain & neat. I've tried adding a repeat on alternate verses, which varies the melody of the fourth line to finish back up on the tonic G, but that doesn't help much - if anything, it makes it even neater.
Has anyone heard this song done unaccompanied? If so, what did the tune sound like? Here's what I've got (complete with my added fifth line):