Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song

Subject: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 04:30 PM

I've been looking for tunes to play on my flute, and I found this fine site:

http://www.folkinfo.org/forum/default.php

Click on 'song db' [db = data base] and it will bring up song titles. So I was clicking and playing, and I came across an Appalachian tune called 'Arise, Arise.'

I play music a lot, and in my experience truly modal tunes are rare. This one qualifies. It's in the key of D, yet its first note, its last note, and some prominent notes along the way are all E's. Since E is the second note of the D scale, that makes this a Dorian tune.

It's an unusual modal tune in another way - nobody dies of love.

I'm going to send a MIDI of it to Joe for posting. It will play the melody once, then again with a simple guitar accompaniment.

You don't have to wait for the MIDI. You can go straight to the site and see it, but I'm warning you that there is an A halfnote in it which I'm sure was supposed to be a B.

---

Click to play

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: Jack Campin
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 06:40 PM

It's actually E dorian/minor hexatonic with a"pien" sixth (the C sharp that makes it dorian can be omitted without changing the tune in an essential way).

Tunes that aren't major or minor are pretty common. I presume you got that from Sharp & Karpeles, 80 English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians. Looking through that book:

1 minor/dorian/mixolydian pentatonic
2 mixture of mixolydian and major
3 dorian
4 dorian
5 major
6 lydian/major/mixolydian pentatonic
7 mixolydian
8 dorian/minor/phrygian pentatonic
9 lydian/major/mixolydian pentatonic
10 major/mixolydian/dorian pentatonic (this is very unusual)
11 mixolydian
12 lydian/major/mixolydian pentatonic
13 mixolydian with a major final cadence
14 ditto
15 dorian
16 dorian/minor hexatonic
17 dorian/minor/phrygian pentatonic
18 dorian/minor/phrygian pentatonic with pien 2nd and narrow range
19 dorian/minor/phrygian pentatonic, plagal
20 mixolydian with a 6th gap, narrow range

And so on. I think modal variety was one of their selection criteria.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Aug 11 - 10:49 AM

No doubt there are different ways of interpreting the structure of a song.

I hope my post will pique someone's curiosity so they try a new kind of tune.

Speaking of which, I should dust off my dulcimer...

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 03:07 AM

Here's the tune. To me, it's reminiscent of "Mist-Covered Mountains," the tune Jim McLean used for "Smile In Your Sleep" (Hush, Hush). Thanks, Leeneia.

---

Click to play

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 06:53 AM

To me the tune closest to it is "Git Along Little Dogies". "Mist Covered Mountains" evolved from "Johnny's Too Long at the Fair", and when you go back that far, any resemblance to "Arise, Arise!" disappears.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Aug 11 - 10:42 PM

I hope the beginners who were wondering what a modal tune is like will try this one. It's just one kind, but it's different from what we usually hear on the radio, etc., today.

Thanks for posting it, Joe. I'm glad the Mudcat is running again.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: foggers
Date: 17 Aug 11 - 11:51 PM

Hi leeneia

I love that song and it works beautifully on dulcimer; here I am in action.
YouTube Clip

Due to my vocal range I capo'd at 4 on a DAD tuned dulcimer so I am playing in A dorian. And yes, Jack, I found it in the book you mention, and I can remember learning an English version ("Awake awake" during my school days.)

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 04:13 AM

What a lovely melody! Perfect on the harp too. I hadn't heard it before. Thanks so much, Leeneia -

The Git Along Little Dogies that I learned in school in California is a very different animal from this tune (it's in an unquestionably major key for one thing) so I consulted the great oracle that is YouTube to check for other versions. The first ones - including good old Roy Rogers - were the song I remember, but Peet Seeger* sings a different one (which I really like). I can see the resemblance, but it's a completely different mood. Thanks again for this, Leeneia!

*Pete Seeger, "Whoopie Ti-Yi-Yo, Get Along Little Dogies"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIBf8XbvtGA

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 04:15 AM

"Peet" Seeger???!!!! Need to get some glasses...

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 10:03 AM

I love it when I send in a MIDI and people tell me they played the new piece.

Foggers, I enjoyed your video. You have a fine voice, and your dulcimer playing is really good.

(The dulcimer isn't just from mountains or from Appalachia, so when I talk to people about it, I like the term 'fretted dulcimer.')

Bonnie - I hadn't thought of harp for this, but I'll bet it sounds great when you play. It's a natural.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: Artful Codger
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 03:47 PM

The lyrics have clear overlaps with "The Cocks are Crowing" (another dawn-visiting song in the "Silver Dagger" family where the lover's fate is one of non-lethal disappointment).
YouTube: The Voice Squad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiD0h9eEsXg
(better sound:) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP5suEbuRUg

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: Artful Codger
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 03:53 PM

Meant to add a link to the "Cocks are Crowing" thread: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=18991

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: foggers
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 05:58 PM

Thanks for the compliments leeneia!

When I play in public I usually explain that there are lots of european antecedents that influenced the appalachian dulcimer, but the instrument was well preserved there due to the remoteness of the communities.

Our hometown of Sheffield is quite hilly.... So it's ALMOST a mountain dulcimer!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 11:45 PM

Makes sense.

Isn't that instrument a joy? It seems so simple, yet it has so many beautiful melodies and accompaniments waiting to be plucked.

Sometimes it seems to me like a piece of soapstone, which can have any number of animals hiding in it, waiting to be released by the native carver.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: foggers
Date: 19 Aug 11 - 06:19 PM

You are right leeneia - its the simplicity of the MD that is so appealing, but also the fact that with a combination of exploratory "noodling", plus a little bit of modal theory, there is so much versatility to unleash.

I was at an open air gathering of dulcimers (mountain and hammer) a few weeks ago, with the purpose of raising awareness. One bloke who was just walking in the park picked up one of our spare MDs, and in an hour he was picking out tunes; in 2 hours he was joining in the jam and was delighted with what he had accomplished. He had dabbled with guitar before but not for some years. I think there are few instruments that have that immediacy.
Do you belong to any online dulcimer forums? I know we are going off-thread here but its nice to chat with other MD players. I'd recommend Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer (its hosted by Ning). And if you are already on there then look me up (same user name)!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 19 Aug 11 - 07:26 PM

I'll check out the F's of the MD.

That's a great story about the visitor to the festival.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: arise, arise - a modal song
From: foggers
Date: 20 Aug 11 - 05:39 PM

I shall look out for you on FOTMD!