Bagpipe tune

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,loki
Date: 24 Jul 11 - 12:23 PM

the tune originates from a fiddle camp at Ashokan NY and was the farewell tune Jay Ungar wrote as a final communal piece

http://www.ashokancenter.org/

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Little Robyn
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 06:29 PM

I can play it on my Northumbrian pipes.
Robyn

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune - Ashokan Farewell
From: GUEST,Ebor_Fiddler
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 06:25 PM

I have trouble on the D/G melodeon around the bottom end of the D row, so I simply cheat by playing other notes in the chord - others I know use notes from the bass end. Jay Ungar, who wrote AF is a fiddler and I find it easiest on the fiddle too - but then I'm biased!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 06:04 PM

How do you play the bottom G note on an A whistle Jack ?

Cheat. (I think the version played in sessions round here may be a little different from the standard one). In practice if I absolutely have to play the thing I'll do it on an alto flute or G alto recorder, which finger much like an A whistle but have a low G as well. Don't recall having to use that low G on this tune, though.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 04:07 PM

OP or OAP, Howard?

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Howard Jones
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 03:06 PM

A request for a tune where the OP has only part of the name, with the words in the wrong order and only an initial letter for one of them, described as a bagpipe tune when it isn't - and it's nailed in 5 replies!

Isn't Mudcat amazing!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 02:44 PM

I have a feeling (everyone groan!) that when I heard it, it was on a military-type CD, a brass band and there were pipes playing along in the background. It was a new CD in aid of Heroes or something. It was definitely the pipes that got my attention, as they always choke me up! (Lived in Scotland for ten years, starting with Uni at Edinburgh, so went to the Tattoo several times) Have found my glasses, but forgot to get potatoes at Tesco's so it's rice tonight! Wish I could order a new memory online!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 02:38 PM

How do you play the bottom G note on an A whistle Jack ?

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 02:00 PM

It's easier on an A whistle.

Easier still to play My Cape Breton Home instead (much better tune, and if you throw it into a tune session you can sometimes derail a progression that's heading towards Ashokan Farewell).

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 01:41 PM

To play Ashokan Farewell in the written key (D Major) without octave jumps requires a G whistle and playing in One Sharp .The C# becomes Cnatua in the B music ! FUN !!

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Crowhugger
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 01:18 PM

One of the handbell choirs I ring in plays it. When I hear it elsewhere, i.e. when I'm not busy minding my bell notes, the tune always bugs me because it's so rangy that unless it's in just the right key I can't comfortably sing along without switching back and forth between unison and octavation. A hazard of being a singer when hearing stuff written form instruments of wide range. For me A.F. is one of those tunes that requires another tune to take its place as the only way to get it out of my head.

Not being a pipe tune, (someone told me it was a fiddle tune but I don't know their source and haven't checked myself) it's no small miracle anybody guessed it; well done outta left field, Leenia.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 01:08 PM

I'm tickled that that was it. I wish there were a way to use a computer and find glasses, but there isn't. As a person who constantly loses and finds and re-loses three pair, I know what you mean.

I play Ashokan Farewell on my piano, which is now 105 years old. It's good for when I need something peaceful.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 12:38 PM

Ashokan Farewell is not playable on the bagpipes. It has far too wide a range and that chromatic note in the B part.

For which most pipers will be eternally grateful.

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 12:07 PM

Yes! Yes! Thank you leeneia, that's the one! And thank you everyone who posted. It's awful when you can hear a tune in your head yet the name evades you. I spent most of last night trying to remember. Mudcat comes up with the goods yet again! (Now, where did I put my glasses....?)

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 11:50 AM

Modern? Farewell to A---?

Could it be Ashokan Farewell?

Click on this link, scroll down to the video, be patient during a mere 15 seconds of talking, and listen to the tune. Is that it?

ashokan?

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Big Mick
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 10:06 AM

Could it be "Farewell to Erin"? That has been recorded over the years by any number of bands and under a number of names. The Bothy Band did it on their wonderful Afterhours recording.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Leadfingers
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 09:30 AM

As Jack C said , hundreds of them - Just about every time a Scottish regiment was posted out , the pipe Major(Usually) wrote a 'Farewell tune .
One of MY faves is 'The 79th H L I Farewell to The Barren Rocks of Aden' , though i KNOW that would never be described as Haunting

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,loki
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:31 AM

is it The 51st Highland Division's Farewell to Sicily?

Subject: RE: Bagpipe tune
From: Jack Campin
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:09 AM

There are maybe hundreds of "farewell" tunes for pipe band.

My fave, which is relatively recent (1970s) is Duncan Johnstone's "Farewell to Nigg".

Subject: Bagpipe tune
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 08:02 AM

It's driving me mad! Being semi-senile, I can't remember the name of this tune! It's played by a pipe band (or maybe brass band with pipes) and it's called 'A Farewell to..." or even 'A .... Farewell' (possibly beginning with A) I think it might be a fairly recent composition. Very haunting and beautiful, does anyone know what I'm talking about please?