New unaccompanied songs?

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 04:23 AM

Okay...random questions:
Does anyone write any contemporary 'traditional' style unaccompanied songs these days? Is the stock of songs being topped up? Or is it out of fashion? Were the songs of the past ever specifically written not to be accompanied or were they meant to have a tune?

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 04:28 AM

And to qualify the question: I have been listening to folk song a day....and feel inspired to attempt to write a song. So this is my research. To see if I really should and how to approach it. I'm afraid I might end up with a poem rather than a song.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: theleveller
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 04:31 AM

Yes, I do from time to time and I know a few other people who also write great songs. Most of my songs are based on events, legends and history of the East Riding of Yorkshire.

This one was based on the story of an old Wolds farmer I knew many years ago:

Jack and Jill

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,Heeleylass
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 04:37 AM

Yes, lots. Have you heard Pilgrimage by Jess Arrowsmith? It's been done by Crucible, The Fagans and will be appearing on Paul & Liz Davenport's new album. Just one of many examples I can think of.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 04:39 AM

"I'm afraid I might end up with a poem rather than a song."

You could pinch a traditional melody you know and work the song round that? I think that's pretty much what many of the old broadsheet ballad writers used to do.

But it's a good question, what features make a traditional song sound traditional? And how do people currently writing in the traditional idiom go about composing new unaccompanied songs?

I think there's quite a lot of potential scope for contemporary unaccompanied songs, particularly as song cycles for small theatre productions.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: nutty
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:00 AM

I've just produced a CD featuring 20 unaccompanied songs that I have written.
M

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: nutty
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:01 AM

slippy fingers again

To continue.......
Many of which are mistaken for 'traditional songs'

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,Steamin
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:10 AM

I thought about your original question for a while as I reckon I do write them.

On reflection, I think I use the easy ballad tune and style mainly when I write humorous or parody material. I doubt I have written serious material with it. Years ago, I used to sing Ron Angel's "Chemical Worker's Song" unaccompanied, but my material would be comedy or singing traditional verse unaccompanied.

Serious songs of my own I leave to the guitar, as I don't feel just my voice could put over the thought patterns I wish a serious song to portray. (Would help if I could sing better, but there you go....)

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: theleveller
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:10 AM

Nutty's songs are great!

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:11 AM

Old fishing or mining disasters seem to provide excellent subject matter for trad. sounding songs. Have you heard the one about the great North Sea fishing/mining disaster of 1893? Apparently a County Durham coal mine was extended too far out under the sea (due the the recklessness of the cruel owners, of course). The roof of the mine caved in, 1100 miners were drowned, and a quarter of the North Sea fishing fleet blew out of the ground, on the top of a water-spout, somewhere Consett. I sing it to the tune of 'Searching for Lambs'.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:26 AM

"But it's a good question, what features make a traditional song sound traditional? And how do people currently writing in the traditional idiom go about composing new unaccompanied songs?"

Exactly.
Does having a chorus or a certain number of verses have a bearing?

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:44 AM

I'd be interested in this too.
Key features such as rhythm, structure, themes and so-on.

For those interested in working in 'the traditional idiom' I think Leveller made a good point about where he draws his own inspiration from. I'm sure anyone can write about anything they fancy, but a good start point would no doubt be to look at the local history and stories heralding from your local area.
I think Demdyke featuring Sailor Ron, Ross Campbell, Rapunzel and Suibhne of this forum do just that: Demdyke

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:51 AM

To fit the trad style is it always about an event or can it be about a person?

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: theleveller
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 06:12 AM

"can it be about a person?"

It can be about anything you like. I've just finished a song about my disreputable greatx5 grandfather, a seafaring man who drowned after being being blown by a gale into the Old Harbour in Hull whilst returning to his boat from the Old Black Boy Inn the worse for drink. The story emerged whan my cousin was researching the family history and came across a cutting, dated 1833, from a local newspaper. The secret is just to look around for something that really interests or amuses you - whilst you should try to get the fact right, it's perfectly acceptable to embellish them for dramatic impact (think newspaper articles). Try to get as much detail and local colour in as possible . Here's an example of a couple of verses from the above song:


I've sailed on every kind of ship from Billy Boy to Bark.
I've worked with lascars, packet-rats and many a chis'lling shark
And if I hadn't dodged the press gangs that were waiting in the dark
Those Frenchies would have been the death of me.

Chorus
Let the wind blow up and down
From the River Hull to the whaling ground
In the Black Boy I'll be found
For I do love strong beer.

As first mate on a whaler I was there at Baffin Fair
When we got drunk and Tommy Hunt got eaten by a bear
And I tell you, I'll be buggered if I ever go back there,
For the whaling lark will be the death of me.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: theleveller
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 06:20 AM

I've just recalled some advice that may be helpful, which was given to me by that ace songwriter, Dave Goulder. He said that you should never used hackneyed or obvious phrases - always try to find a different way of saying things and, if it's a story song, make sure that it has a bit of a twist or a poignancy that sticks in the listener's mind.

Good advice, I reckon.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Liberty Boy
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 06:40 AM

In Ireland there are dozens of people writing songs in the traditional idiom, some of which are on their way into the repertoire of singers of traditional songs.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 06:47 AM

Another question...is the difference between traditional stylee and a modern stylee songs that modern seems to be first person (focused on the writer) whereas trad is more focused on other people? Or am I getting confused?

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,Banjiman
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 06:52 AM

Try this one, written by Mrs Banjiman and has been picked up and sung by a few others.


Sleep Weel til' Morning

It is in the first person and definitely not a ballad but I think undeniably trad sounding.

Leveller, Jack & Jill is sounding as good as ever!

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 06:54 AM

There are plenty of trad. songs composed in the first person, all those lasses who've got pregnant and then feel abused by a false love or what-not for starters. But what you seem to get is more 'this is my story' and a detailing of events to the listener first person, rather than the kind of introspective reflection of the 'me thinking about me and my states of mind' kind of first person.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 07:00 AM

"But what you seem to get is more 'this is my story' and a detailing of events to the listener first person, rather than the kind of introspective reflection of the 'me thinking about me and my states of mind' kind of first person."

That's exactly it. That's what I meant. You put it much more succinctly than me.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 07:12 AM

Sorry, I get your point now. I think we were saying the same thing just in different ways!

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 07:28 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxYiz-6PijM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peA18SO9afU both of these work unaccompanied as do many of my songs, such as wages of death, jack the lad, battle of bosworth field, nearly all available in my songbook from my websitehttp://www.dickmiles.com

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Vic Smith
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 07:41 AM

Michael Marra's outstanding Muggie Sha'

Lyrics here.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: pavane
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 08:17 AM

A lot of songs will work unaccompanied, whether in the "folk" genre or not. For example, Mrs Pavane used to sing "Don't cry for me, Argentina" in folk clubs.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Sailor Ron
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 09:42 AM

Not being 'bright' enough to 'do' tunes I regard myself as a 'wordsmith'. I always work with a 'trad' tune in my head, thw words are then put out to musicians. Some accompanied, some unaccompanied, what to use, guitar, fiddle, concertina, or just voice surley depends on the song and the performer[s], I don't think you can be dogmatic on this subject. All I will say, as I said to WAV some time ago, is the traditional instrument for traditional English folk song is the voice!

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,schlimmerkerl
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 10:08 AM

Dave Webber is writing and performing some good ones. First time i heard "Bonnet and Shawl" i was sure it was old. I was in Ireland recently, and suffice to say the "tradition" is alive and well-- in both English and Gaeilge.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 11:57 AM

I'm not sure I could actually set out to write a trad-sounding unaccompanied song. I wrote one song, attempting to give it a bluesy feel and with no particular intention of it being sung accompanied - and it turned out to be very firmly folky (my peers tell me!), and definitely only works unaccompanied.

So now I'm not sure I'm capable of writing things to a brief...

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: The Sandman
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 12:02 PM

well most uk trad sounding songs, use dorian or mixolydian or the major scale.so there is a starting point
however other traditions do use other modes, the flamenco tradition is quite interesting as one of its modes is also shared by heavy metal bands

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 12:04 PM

Heavy metal flamenco...there's a thought. ;)

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 12:18 PM

Unfortunately I find much music theory, scales, etc difficult to understand, let alone use intuitively to write from...

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 02:50 PM

Suegorgeous, find yourself a piano somewhere, find middle C, now the next note up is D. Play the white notes only from D to d and you have just played a Dorian scale! If you can get that sound into your memory banks, then work your tune around it, that should sound 'folky'! And if you want Mixolydian, find the G, play a scale on the white notes only and there you are. And if you do the same from A, you're playing/singing in the Aolian mode.
An 8 note scale from any white note on the piano has a modal name, tho' some sound very strange and very few people ever use them.
It's not the 'experts' way but I find it a very easy way of hearing what the modes should sound like, then I just move that sound to any singable starting note. Then you don't have to talk about C Dorian or D Mixolydian or any other fancy words, you just hear it in your head and start singing it from where you are comfortable.
Robyn

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:00 PM

With my Chants from Walkabouts I simply found a way to sing the verses unaccompanied, before I knew how to play, read or write music; then I began mimicking my voice with tenor-recorder and keys, before writing them down in a simple letter notation - e.g.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: henryclem
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 05:19 PM

All my songs are unaccompanied (I've recorded 40 of them) and there is no conscious process of making them sound like folk songs; just the way they come out - having been steeped (up to my eyebrows) in the tradition at a very early age ... have a listen :                                                http://www.myspace.com/henryclements

Henry

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: s&r
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 06:31 PM

Pleasant tunes well sung Henry

Stu

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Tootler
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 07:24 PM

Because I mostly play instruments that I put in my mouth, then accompanying myself singing is a little difficult, so I sing unaccompanied for the most part. I sometimes use a harmonica to provide instrumental "fills" between verses and I also have a shruti box which provides a drone accompaniment which works well on some songs.

I have tried accompanying myself with an anglo concertina, but I have found it a struggle (think pat your head and rub your tummy - or vice versa!) so I just use it for tunes now.

I find that most songs will work unaccompanied even those that the guitar freaks insist you must accompany.

I don't write songs (I have started to write a song on a few occasions but I have eventually got stuck on every occasion). I do put tunes to existing words and am finding Broadsides a good source of words. I mostly write my own tunes, but have on occasion used existing traditional tunes.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Artful Codger
Date: 19 Oct 10 - 07:30 PM

My songs are usually old poems for which I've written traditional-sounding tunes. Most are designed specifically to sound "period" and thus to be sung unaccompanied; and indeed, they would suffer (in my opinion) if they were accompanied. Some others I sing unaccompanied although they would be suitable for, possibly even improved by, competent instrumental accompaniment.

I often write "modal" tunes or mixed-mode tunes because I get so tired of major/minor fixity. For instance, I wrote a verse tune for "Bark Gay Head" which contrasts with the chorus tune ("Root, Hog or Die") both in having a different meter (duple vs. triple) and mode (Mixolydian vs. major). My tune for "Disheartened Ranger" is in Dorian, slipping ad libitum into Mixolydian. My latest song is "Old Buck's Ghost," with a tune in Dorian and its relative Lydian. When a text has a relentlessly regular metrical pattern, a modal tune can add some needed spice.

I prefer writing unaccompanied tunes because the singer has more freedom with the timing and expression, and I like how a single voice can suggest a full harmonic context through alternate melody notes and ornamentation. And there is less intrusion between the listener and the story--it's less likely to become overwhelmed by either the musical setting or the performer's ego. Adding typical instrumental accompaniment to either of these last two songs would kill them, or at least remove them from the singing tradition they were written within.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:11 AM

Do they have to rhyme?

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Tootler
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:20 AM

Normally songs rhyme, but occasionally you get ones that don't. A good example of one that doesn't rhyme is Dirty Old Town.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:36 AM

Why write an 'unaccompanied song'? Why not just write a song? Singers will decide whether to accompany or not.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:36 AM

Probably most of the trad. songs I sing do rhyme, though I've never really thought about that one. But when rhyming, remember the value of 'poetic license'. I think the only thing that matters is that any rhyming words have a similarish sound. So if you broadly hit either the consonants or vowel sounds, that should do it.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:39 AM

Isn't there a competition for newly composed unaccompanied songs in Newcastle? Maybe WAV can tell us more...

*

Working with Ron has changed my view of the nature of Traditional Song in general; my post-revival notion is that The Tradition is not so much the songs as the idiom in which they were composed and subsequently adapted into the multiplicity of versions that have come down to us, hitherto accounted for by so nebulous, patronising and misleading a notion as the folk process. The Tradition, far from being statically passive (as suggested by Sharp etc.) was highly creative, dynamic and mutable from one performance to another. As a writer Ron is immersed in 'The Taditition' as a craftsman; he is a latter day Tommy Armstrong, enriched by his vernacular parochialism, which is, I feel, the very essence of such material.

I like what Nutty does too; she sang a beauty at the Durham Folk Party Saturday night sing this year which involved Sunderland. Forgive me, Nutty - the details elude me, but the impressions remain vivid enough! Perhaps you might enlighten me as to what it was??

*

My favourite non-traditional unaccompanied song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gp6gxPqCUQ

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 06:43 AM

"Why write an 'unaccompanied song'? Why not just write a song? Singers will decide whether to accompany or not."

Songs written with accompaniament aren't always easy to reproduce unaccompanied. When people try to sing a song crafted with accompaniament by pulling the words out of the tune you can sometimes hear the 'holes' where the music should be.

Writing a song with the unaccompanied singer in mind from the start means none of that complication, and of course it doesn't necessarily preclude someone adding accompaniament later anyway.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 07:24 AM

CS - check that link in my last post; I think you could sing this to perfection.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: sciencegeek
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 09:28 AM

Speaking from our humble experience as a capella singers, there are plenty of fine tunes that sound great without accompaniment... and it's not that hard to write a tune with those same qualities. Mike (the hubby) has done some fine tunes for C Fox Smith poems - both with and without backup instruments.

So it is more the nature of the lyrics and their presentation that determines if you want to go a capella or not. Realizing, of course, that your voice is the prime instrument that makes it a song rather than a poem.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Crow Sister (off with the fairies)
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 09:54 AM

Heh, yes I like!
Like beat poetry crossed with some archaic invocation. A thread about unaccompanied songs from genres other than folk might be rather interesting, particularly modern compositions.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 10:39 AM

I gave it a go (writing a song) and its all written in my little 'ideas' book*...not sure if it should see the light of day yet. [Most of it came to me in a dream] It's about a bully and how his actions affect others. Got a chorus I like though.

"He bawled and he blustered, shouted and swore.
Always looking for someone to blame."




*ideas book, contains sketches, tunes, poems interesting words names etc.and names of tunes/songs I really aught to look up plus anything 'inspirational I hear or see.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: theleveller
Date: 20 Oct 10 - 11:02 AM

Yeah, an ideas book is great - I've got one where I jot down lines or ideas for songs and put them together bit by bit (often on the train). It's amazing how you can be scanning through it and something you wrote months before sparks off a complete song.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: GUEST,LDT
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 04:58 AM

I sometimes wonder if when I kick the bucket if someone will find my ideas book and find it useful.

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 05:18 AM

"I sometimes wonder if when I kick the bucket if someone will find my ideas book and find it useful. "

That sounds like a song line/idea in itself!

Subject: RE: New unaccompanied songs?
From: Mingulay
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 12:48 PM

Many years ago I sang a song I had written in the Middle Bar at Sidmouth. When I had wheezed my way through it someone said to me that he thought he had read all of Burns' poems but had not come across that one before. I had to tell him that it was not by Burns but mine own. Needless to say I was inwardly glowing at the thought of being compared with the great man. Never happened before or since of course.

I often have random thoughts that I think would make a good song, unfortunately 99.99% remain that way.