Walk Arounds (old-time/minstrel) query

Subject: RE: Walk Arounds (old-time/minstrel) query
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 05:27 AM

Yes, the tune's great. It's not very typical of the others in the book though, it's a lot more bluesy (the first part reminds me very much of New Orleans-style funeral band music, whereas the other tunes are much less swinging, more hoedown-ish).

All of the Walk Arounds featured in the Ryan's book (there's only 7 of them) are viewable on that same website:

http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/ryan-cole/Tunes/WalkAroundBrudderBones/0000

"Brudder Bones" is apparently from a 19th Century collection compiled by a fiddler called Elias Howe. I notice that www.archive.org has a lot of Howe's books in PDF form, so I might see if I can track down the original book it comes from, where there might be more of its quirky kind.

Subject: RE: Walk Arounds (old-time/minstrel) query
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 05:02 AM

And it's a very nice little tune. I like the slow to fast format. I enjoyed the youtube clip. If I get time I would find it interesting to check out some more of the same.
Quack!
Geoff.

Subject: RE: Walk Arounds (old-time/minstrel) query
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 19 Oct 11 - 04:59 AM

I think the whole point of the music is that a chord accompaniment would continue at a constant steady two long beats in a bar through the whole piece, but for the second part, the melody line goes at twice the speed as in the first part. Time signature of 2/4 follows the underlying chord accompaniment, which stays steady and constant from the start of the piece through to the finish.
Remember the only real difference between a tune in 2/4 and one in 4/4 is where you draw the bar lines if writing it down.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: Walk Arounds (old-time/minstrel) query
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 05:46 PM

Began as the final number of a show segment, 2/4 and 4/4 usual. The minstrels often began by patting juba, and rose from their chairs in a predetermined order, but often interspersed by very acrobatic dancing by a few of the performers, sometimes very fast.

Subject: Walk Arounds (old-time/minstrel) query
From: GUEST,matt milton
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 05:31 PM

I was looking at the Walk Arounds in the Ryan's Mammoth tunebook today. There's one in particular that I like: "Brudder Bones". It has a very bluesy feel. It's kind of like the missing link between "Crabs in the Skillet" and "Minnie the Moocher".

Anyway, as with all the Walk Arounds given in this book, it's in 2/4 time, but has a second section - the "Dance" part - which seems impossibly quick. It doesn't specify a change in time signature, but it feels like this section ought to be in 4/4. It's the same with all the other Walkarounds listed in Ryan's.

Or maybe I'm just misreading it: I don't do much music-manuscript reading these days, and never was much good at it anyway.

You can have a look here:

http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/ryan-cole/Tunes/WalkAroundBrudderBones/0000

And I managed to find someone playing it on YouTube too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en3C6iIiKJY

He plays the second part at the speed I would expect, as if the time signature were now 4/4.

Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks