Lord Marlborough: tune question

Subject: RE: Lord Marlborough: tune question
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 14 May 08 - 05:21 AM

It was late last night and I was tired when I posted and I see that my notation wasn't particularly clear, so I'll try and clarify what I meant.

The first tune moves between C major and C mixolydian, the 7th switching between B and Bb. It's not uncommon to find this type of tune, a major with inflected 7th, the 7th being one of the notes that people vary a lot.

The second tune is a Bb hexatonic tune, the 4th being missing. This is the intersection of Bb major and Bb lydian, the two scales being identical except for the 4th degree (here, Eb in Bb and E in Bb lydian). (It's possible to derive a sequence of hexatonic scales from the modes by arranging the modes in order, where each differs by only one note from the previous. This would start: lydian, ionian (as here - 4th note differs); ionian, mixolydian (7th note differs) etc). So the hexatonic scale in tune 2 is Lydian/Ionian.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lord Marlborough: tune question
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 13 May 08 - 05:30 PM

Sorry - that last should have read Bb/Bb lydian - a hexatonic scale with missing 4th (the Eb of Bb or E of Bb lydian).

Mick

Subject: RE: Lord Marlborough: tune question
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 13 May 08 - 05:25 PM

The first is as you say C/Cmix mixture. The second is a Bb lydian (ie Bb with an augmented 4th - E natural).

Mick

Subject: Lord Marlborough: tune question
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 13 May 08 - 05:07 PM

I read somewhere (can't find where) that there are a number of variants on the melody for "Lord Marlborough", and that only one of them is in a major key - but that this is the one recorded by both Fairport and Nic Jones.

This piqued my curiosity, and I was interested to find that the version at Folkinfo is in... um. Question 1: what mode is this?

X:1
T:The Duke of Marlborough
B: Purslow, F, (1972), The Constant Lovers, EDFS, London
S:William Chubb, Beaminster, Dorset, June 1906
Z:Hammond Dt. 515
F:http://www.folkinfo.org/songs
M:5/4
L:1/8
K:F
c2 |d=B A2 (G2F2) E2 |F2 GA B4 G2 |(A=B) c2 G2 F2 D2 | C4 z2 z2
G2 |c2 d2 ee d2 e2 |c2 (d=B) G4 G2 |c2 d2 (e2d2) (ed) | c4 z2 z2
G2 |c2 d2 (e2d2) e2 |c2 (d=B) G4 G2 |c2 d2 e2 d2 (de) | c4 z2 z2
G2 |(c=B) A2 G2 F2 E2 |F2 (GA) B4 G2 |(A=B) c2 G2 F2 D2 | C4 |]


It looks like C mixolydian, except that the flattened Bs keep going natural.


For comparison, here's Nic Jones's version (pummelled into Noteworthy & then converted to ABC).

X:2
T:The Duke of Marlborough
C:
I:abc2nwc
M:5/4
L:1/8
K:F
GA|B2AG F2D2|B,D F2G4A2|B2AG F2D2C2|
B,4z4GA|B2AG F2D2|B,D F2G4A2|B2AG F2D2C2|
B,4z4F2|B2Bc d2c2B2|GA B2F4F2|B2Bc d2c2B2|
GA B4GA|B2AG F2D2|B,D F2G4A2|B2AG F2D2C2|B,4z4|]


I'm not sure if this is C mixolydian or just plain F major; either way, it ends up sounding a lot more cheerful. I was hoping that it would be possible to tweak this tune - to keep the general shape of it & get some of the sombre quality of the Purslow tune - but I'm not at all sure how.